Evelyn Turner did not know how to react. She was crying, in shock as she screamed, “Matthew” loud enough for her phone to voice dial her son.
Matthew Powledge could not make out what his mom said and became worried she had been attacked.
“Demi [Turner] had just gotten done with her at-bat in the game and I was hungry, so I got in the car to meet up with some friends and watch the rest of the game,” Powledge said. “I figured if I miss some of Missouri batting, it’ll be OK. I was driving to the place and I got a phone call from my mom. She was crying hysterically on the phone.”
He called his younger sister, Alexis Turner, who was working nearby. She called 9-1-1 and the police went over to the Turner household to figure out what was going out.
It turns out that Evelyn Turner was watching the Alabama softball game and her daughter, Demi Turner, had been hit in the face with a softball and the injury looked serious.
Evelyn Turner did what any other mother would do in her situation; she made the drive from Huntsville, Texas to Tuscaloosa. The problem was she had to drive through tornadic weather, but she only cared about reaching her daughter and making sure she was all right.
“It’s usually an 8-and-a-half hour drive,” Evelyn Turner said. “It took me 13 hours because of the weather. An 18-wheel driver saw we were the only drivers on the road and he let me drive behind him all the way to Tuscaloosa. He was my beacon in the night.”
Demi Turner suffered a concussion and a facial injury from friendly-fire on a routine ground ball.
“I just remember a ground ball being hit up the middle,” Demi Turner said. “Knowing me and [Sydney] Booker, we don’t want that ball to get to the outfield. I just remember she gets there literally right when I get there and there’s a runner at first and I try to take a step back to go to second for her and the next second I am on the ground and obviously the ball had hit me in the face.”
Demi Turner’s initial reaction to her injury wasn’t even concern about what had happened to her, rather her mind was preoccupied by concern for her teammate.
“From playing shortstop, I know you don’t see what’s in front of you when you’re trying to get the out at first,” Demi Turner said. “I just remember telling Kate [Harris] to tell Book [Booker] that ‘I’m fine. We’re going to be alright. Don’t be down, it’s not her fault.’”
Demi Turner spent the first week and a half sleeping in her room because of the concussion, with her mom by her side. Once she passed that stage she struggled with her eye and had visual issues such as seeing double.
She never doubted she would play softball again, but she knew there wasn’t much therapy that could be done for the eye. She just waited for it to recover on its own.
“I would just get frustrated sometimes about ‘why is this taking so long,”” Demi Turner said. “I knew in the end the good Lord had a plan for it, there’s a reason for everything. I am still not sure of it now, but I know there’s a reason for all of it.”
Though Powledge never admitted this to his sister, he was scared for a time that she would never have normal vision again.
Demi Turner’s eyesight did eventually return. She was able to resume living her life normally and then she worked as hard as she could to get back on to the softball field.
“Her faith, hard work and stubbornness was why I never doubted she would return to the field after her injury,” Evelyn Turner said.
The Alabama softball team had another scare in Auburn, on March 18 when ace Alexis Osorio was hit in the head with a line drive.
Demi Turner, having been through a similar injury, was very concerned for her teammate.
“I just felt like it wasn’t moving fast enough, it was all in slow motion,” she said. “Even though the trainer was sprinting out there. You just watch it again and it scares the living crap out of you. I just wouldn’t want anyone to go through that. I just hate to see my teammates go through injuries. I just want everyone to enjoy it here.”
Osorio missed the last Alabama home series with a concussion, but is expected to return soon.
Demi Turner’s injury last year happened on April 1, she made her first pinch running appearance a little over a month later against Auburn on May 7.
She made her first start against Minnesota in the Tuscaloosa Regional on May 20 and the Alabama crowd welcomed her back in grand fashion at Rhoades Stadium.
“That standing ovation was one of the most special things I have seen since I’ve been watching those games in Tuscaloosa,” Powledge said.
Demi Turner collected two hits in that game and stole a base. She helped provide the spark to get Alabama past Minnesota and into the Super Regionals against SEC rival Florida.
She was also overwhelmed with the support the fans showed her in resilient comeback.
“I sat there and said ‘We truly have the best fans in the nation,’” Demi Turner said. “Where else in the country are you going to find that, where everyone stands up and applauds you, because you are back? That’s why I get so emotional about this place. I’m not ready to leave. Not only do we have the best staff, team and facility in the country, but the best fans, literally.”
Losing to the Gators in the Super Regionals still stings her, as she hopes the team can get back there in her final season.
“Honestly I was just so upset that I didn’t help out enough that I hardly watched the world series until the very end,” Demi Turner said. “Because I knew how hard we worked that year and I knew we should have been there too. And just coming back this year, it’s just in us. We want to do it again. But we need to take it one game at time and we can’t look too far ahead.”
Demi Turner was honored on Saturday, March 24 for her senior day. The team played a video including her best highlights in her four seasons at Alabama, quotes from coach Patrick Murphy and background of her career at UA.
“Watching that video I got very emotional,” Demi Turner said. “Just seeing where I came from and my family’s helped me so much. Where I am today, without God I wouldn’t be here right now. I am just thankful he has blessed me with so much, put so many great people in my life. Especially my brother, who couldn’t make it here.”
Powledge, an outside linebacker and special teams coach at the University of Louisiana of Lafayette, could not attend because of his football schedule, but he made he still contributed with a video tribute for his youngest sister.
“I was not expecting that at all,” Demi Turner said. “I lost it when he started talking. It was like waterworks the entire time. He’s not only my brother, but he’s my best friend.”
Evelyn Turner felt the senior day for Demi Turner helped vindicate that choosing Alabama was the best decision she had ever made in her life.
She chose Alabama despite upsetting a lot of her family.
“It wasn’t a hard decision,” Demi Turner said. “It’s funny, my whole family is Aggies fans, but I knew there was something else and I hated to do it to them.”
Alabama was ultimately where she felt most comfortable.
“Whenever I came on my visits here, the whole family atmosphere, it just felt like home to me,” she said. “The feeling that I got when I stepped foot on campus I didn’t get when I stepped foot on any other campus. I knew right away this is where I wanted to be. Luckily Murphy, Stephanie [Prothro] and Alyson [Habetz] all wanted me to be here as well.”
Alabama had always been Demi Turner’s first preference, but she was originally committed to the University of Texas in her freshman season, according to her brother.
“That decision was made in large part to make family happy, staying relatively close,” Powledge said. “I think at the end of the day, Texas was her second choice, but Alabama was her favorite, she just didn’t want to go so far away. As she matured, by her sophomore and junior years, she understood the other things about Alabama outweighed staying at home to make others happy.”
Interestingly Powledge said it was Texas that first made him realize that his sister had a bright future in softball and that she could play at the college level.
Demi Turner was playing as a seventh grader against high school girls in a 16-and-under league, and the youngest player on the field caught the attention of everyone.
“She got in a run down, she’s playing with a bunch of high school girls and she’s in the seventh grade, she created an overthrow and ended scoring on the play,” Powledge said. “I’m sitting there next to the coach from University of Texas and she’s like, ‘Wow, that’s incredible. I have girls that cannot do that at my level.’”
Another reason Demi Turner choose Alabama was that one of her favorite players, Brittany Rogers played at UA (2006-2009). Rogers, like Demi Turner, was a speedy-slap hitter, and is someone Demi Turner has modeled her game after.
Her other two favorite players were also speedy slappers, in Natasha Watley and Kaitlyn Lowe. Watley played the infield, just as Demi Turner has.
Murphy has enjoyed the intensity that Demi Turner has provided to the Alabama program. Murphy credits her for her hard work and her influence on the younger players.
“I just think with all the adversity she has gone through, the injuries, she hasn’t let that define her as a player, or a person,” Murphy said. “She always come in 100 percent at practice. I remember one time we had a base running drill and she slides head first into home, in practice, like it’s championship or world series.”
As a senior, Demi Turner has said she has made it a point to be more of a vocal leader this season, to help out the freshman players like Danae Hayes did when Demi Turner was a freshman.
Alabama has an interesting dynamic with six seniors and six freshman on the team and it has provided Demi Turner with an opportunity to make an impact on the future of the Alabama program.
“She’s the hardest worker on this team,” said freshman Maddie Morgan. “She’s always coming in early, hitting and it shows on the field. I really admire her heart and her work ethic. She leads by example. She’s a great teammate and she holds us accountable for what needs to be done. I truly think she’s the best second baseman in the country. I am blessed to be her teammate and to learn from her.”
While she had her senior day, Demi Turner is not ready to move on yet from Alabama, and she has plenty of the regular season and likely the postseason to extend her Crimson Tide career.
“It’s pretty bittersweet,” Demi said. “I think lately I’ve been more on the bitter side of things. I’m just going to miss being here and around these special people on this team. It’s been a blessing God’s given me the opportunity to step foot here in Tuscaloosa and wear the ‘A.’ It’s been one heck of a ride and we’re not done yet,” Demi said.
