The Alabama softball team clinched its third consecutive Southeastern Conference regular season title, defeating the Florida Gators, 5-3.
“It’s just a great moment,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “It’s just a great feeling. I’m so proud of these young ladies. Everyone has just done an incredible job, and to come out and do this is just awesome. And for those six seniors, they’ve worked extremely hard for four years and they really earned this SEC championship.”
Alabama improved to 47-6 on the year and 23-5 in the SEC, while Florida dropped to 44-10 overall, 21-7 in the SEC. The Tide won the title despite not receiving a single vote to do so in the SEC preseason coach’s poll.
Sophomore Jackie Traina threw every pitch in the three game series on the weekend and improved to 31-2 on the year. She gave up five hits and three runs with six strike outs. Hannah Rogers took the loss for the Gators, falling to 26-6 after failing to record an out in the first inning.
“I’m excited and relieved,” Traina said. “I’m more excited than anything. When I pitched that last pitch and I saw Kayla Braud catch it, I was excited. I just went out there and threw my pitches. Every inning I told the girls that the ball is going to come to you. Just be ready. I believe in my team and we really came together this weekend.”
Alabama jumped on Florida early on, scoring four runs in the first inning. The Tide loaded the bases before the Gators recorded an out and Hunt continued the streak with a RBI. Hunt lined a double down the line in left to score Braud and Fenton.
The Tide continued its scoring streak when Traina hit a single to right to score Locke. Reilly-Boccia then kept it going with a single to left to bring in Hunt, putting Alabama up 4-0.
After batting through the lineup in the first inning, Alabama was not done as it scored another run in the second to move its lead to 5-0. Braud led off with a double and then moved to third on a Fenton sacrifice bunt. Braud then scored when Locke hit a sacrifice fly to center.
Alabama brought in a new school attendance record with 10,547 fans packing Rhoads Stadium for the weekend series. The Tide has now had over 3,000 fans at 10 games this season.
The Tide heads to New York for its final regular season game of the year to face Fordham on Monday, May 7, with first pitch slated for 5 p.m.
