Danielle Richard didn’t think she would get a homecoming trip. The senior is from Priceville, Alabama, which isn’t more than a two-hour drive from Tuscaloosa.
Homecoming trips are usually reserved for the players who come from farther away to play softball at Alabama. On Wednesday, Richard gets her homecoming trip when No. 7 Alabama faces off with Middle Tennessee State in Decatur, Alabama, at the Wilson Morgan Softball Complex. She said Alabama coach Patrick Murphy putting one on the schedule for her was really cool.
“He is such an awesome coach and he just really cares about us,” she said.
Richard said she played at the Wilson Morgan Complex five or six times in high school either for the area tournament or travel ball tournaments.
“I haven’t been there a whole lot, but I’ve been there,” she said.
Tickets for the game sold out in 90 minutes, Murphy said. He said he got a text from the woman in charge that said if they had 5,000 tickets, she thought they could have sold all of them.
“For a community to come together like that, really it’s an honor to Dani in 90 minutes to sell 2,000 tickets, and they’re $10 apiece,” Murphy said. “We’re not giving them away so it’s just, it’s really cool to see for her and that community the way they’re going to support the event.”
Richard said she was speechless when she found out the game sold out as quickly as it did.
“I guess I kind of thought like, ‘Oh, you know, it’s not really like that big of a deal that we’re coming to Decatur’ – in my mind it isn’t – but when all these people bought these tickets I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like this is a huge deal,’” she said. “I guess ‘cause I’m with Alabama softball all the time, I never really realized the impact we have on places.”
In Richard’s four years at Alabama, she’s been part of two SEC championship teams and the 2012 national championship team.
She has a career .281 batting average with 15 doubles and 13 home runs.
First pitch for Wednesday’s game is set for 6:30 p.m. Alabama is 6-0 all-time against Middle Tennessee State. The teams last met Feb. 8, 2014, and the Crimson Tide won 9-1 in six innings.
Following the trip to Decatur, Alabama hosts two midweek games next week after a weekend off.
