By Kelly Ward
Contributing Writer
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The Alabama softball team will travel to Baton Rouge, La., for a three-game series with LSU Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Crimson Tide is 29-35 in its history against the Tigers. Both teams are also tied for No. 1 in the SEC West, with a shared record of 12-6 going into this series.
“It’s been that way since the very beginning,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “This is the 17th year of SEC softball, and it’s come down to this series, whoever wins the SEC West and sometimes the whole league. And even though it’s the 17th year, it’s not going to change. And it’s usually this series. Whoever wins this series wins the West, and I think that’s going to happen again this year unless something crazy happens to them next week.”
The series is Alabama’s last away series in the regular season before the SEC tournament in Lexington, Ky., May 8-11.
“Every single time we play LSU, it’s a good series,” left fielder Kayla Braud said. “It’s been a good series for the three years that I’ve played against them, and even before that, it’s been a great series. We’re expecting nothing less this year, and we’re going to go into an hostile environment. They’re going to have loud fans, and they’re going to be ready to play. Our job is to play Alabama softball and do our best to stay consistent and not let it bother us, because it’s all about us 19 at the end of the day.”
The first game of the series will be broadcast Thursday on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. and is sure to draw out a large crowd. The Tide is accustomed to this after playing in front of a record 4,002 people at Rhoads Stadium Saturday against Mississippi State.
“Everywhere we’ve gone, it’s been sellout crowds and stuff like that,” Braud said. “We went to Texas A&M, and they had crazy, loud fans. It’s not that we haven’t seen it before. I just think not to this magnitude yet. I think we’ve had some good practice runs for this, and you’ve kind of just got to put your blinders on and … forget the crowd. … It’s just about Alabama softball, and that’s it.”
After taking the series against Mississippi State, the Tide looks to continue the momentum from the series in a season plagued with ups and downs.
“It’s more doing now than talking,” Murphy said. “That’s what I’d love out of an athlete: she does what she says. If she just keeps talking about it, doesn’t do anything on the field, that’s a lot of hot air. If they do what they’re talking about on the field, we’ll be successful.”
