Alabama Softball Advances

Alabama Softball went 3-0 this past weekend to earn its 13th-straight NCAA Regional title, its 15th overall.  With the win, the Tide maintains its streak as the only team in the country to advance to every NCAA Super Regional round since its inception in 2005.

Alabama has now won 34-straight games in NCAA Regional play, last falling in the opening game of the 2007 tournament. All 34 games have come at home, where the Tide owns a 46-3 (.939) record in NCAA Regional play.

The two shutouts over Minnesota give Alabama 26 this season, tying the single-season school record originally set in 2009. The pitching staff’s 1.51 ERA currently ranks as the third-best in program history and its .164 opposing batting average currently stands at #1.

2017 RECORD – 45-16 (12-11 SEC)

RANKINGS (May 16):

NCAA Tournament Seed: #16

USA Today/NFCA: #15 (Week Prior: #15)

ESPN.com/USA Softball: #14 (Week Prior: #16)

RPI (May 15): #15 (Week Prior: #16)

 WEEK 15 RECORD – 3-0

RESULTS:  2017 NCAA Regional – Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Friday, May 19 vs. Albany – W, 5-1: RECAP

Saturday, May 20 vs. #1/3 Minnesota – W, 1-0 (9 Inn.): RECAP

Sunday, May 21 vs. #1/3 Minnesota – W, 1-0: RECAP

-          The Tide is 19-8 (.704) all-time in Super Regional play, winning nine of its 12 appearances. Seven of those nine wins came in two games, while the series wins against Stanford (2011) and Oklahoma (2015) stretched to three.

-          This weekend marks just the fourth time in 13 seasons Alabama will be on the road for the NCAA Super Regional round. The Tide won its road series at Texas A&M in 2005 before falling in subsequent road series against Washington (2007) and Tennessee (2013).

-          This is the first NCAA Tournament matchup between Alabama and Florida outside of the Women’s College World Series. The Tide and Gators have previously met five times at the WCWS, with Florida winning all five games.

-          Alabama has won each of its previous two regular-season road series in Gainesville against Florida, doing so in 2014 and 2016. On both occasions, Florida was ranked No. 1.

Week 15 Individual Standouts:

-Sydney Littlejohn (Sr. – RHP – Rusk, Texas) was 2-0 over the weekend, tossing 10.0 shutout innings with 11 strikeouts. She earned the win in relief against Albany on Friday, May 19 before going 5.1 innings against Minnesota on Sunday, May 21 to earn the win in her final career game at Rhoads Stadium.

-Alexis Osorio (Jr. – RHP – Riverside, Calif.) earned a complete-game win over Minnesota on Saturday, May 20, tossing 9.0 shutout innings with just two hits allowed and 11 strikeouts. On Sunday, she threw 1.2 perfect relief innings against the Gophers for her fourth save of the season, clinching a regional title for the Tide.

-Demi Turner (Jr. – IF – Huntsville, Texas) made her return to the starting lineup for the first time since suffering a facial injury on April 1 at Missouri. Over three appearances and two starts this weekend, she was 3-5 with a walk and a pair of stolen bases. She reached base safely in all three games, stretching her reached-base streak to a team-leading 17 games.