The diamond has been very good to the Alabama faithful lately, with baseball winning 10 of its last 11 and softball winning 10 of 12, including a series victory of No. 1 Texas last weekend.
All of this winning has sprung both teams into prime position going into the latter half of the season, with both programs now sitting in the top 10 of their respective sport.
Baseball
Arguably the hottest team in college baseball, Alabama backed up sweeps of ranked Florida and Auburn teams with a series victory over then-No. 11 Oklahoma in Norman.
The Crimson Tide moved up from No. 16 to No. 8 in D1 Baseball’s most recent rankings, sitting behind SEC foes Texas and Georgia. Oregon State, a team Alabama defeated 8-7 in late February, sits one spot ahead at seven.
Alabama sits at No. 8 in Baseball America’s updated top 25, sliding up from the No. 10 spot. Like D1 Baseball, Baseball America also has the Beavers a spot ahead of the Crimson Tide.
Head coach Robert Vaughn’s Alabama team will still face No. 22 Arkansas at home, No. 2 Texas in Austin, and No. 25 Ole Miss also at home. UCLA sits at No. 1 in both polls.
The Crimson Tide sit at No. 2 for the second consecutive week in the RPI — a computer ranking compiled through wins, strength of schedule and opponent strength of schedule. They currently have the most Quad One wins in the country with 10.
Alabama is in prime position to host a regional with just six conference series remaining.
Softball
After losing game one 9-1, Alabama quickly regrouped and won the next two games to take the series over No. 1 Texas.
“We got our butts kicked Thursday night, no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ about it. It was just a bad night,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “Then to come back to win two, it says a lot about them.”
This boosted Murphy’s team all the way up to No. 1 themselves in Softball America’s weekly Top 25; however, the other three major polls were not as kind to the Crimson Tide.
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA), D1 Softball and USA Softball all slotted the team in at No. 3 behind Oklahoma and Texas Tech.
With a weekend series against Auburn on the horizon, the team will hope another series victory will propel it to a unanimous No. 1 ranking.
