The University of Alabama’s 2018 softball schedule will be stacked, with at least 21 games scheduled against teams seeded in the top 16 of this year’s NCAA Tournament, including at least 11 against teams seeded in the top eight.
UA will open the season in February at South Alabama and then play in the Gulf Shores tournament, which has a field that includes Virginia Tech.
In SEC play, Alabama will have home series with Ole Miss (seeded 12th), Florida (No. 1), Tennessee (No. 8) and Texas A&M (No. 9). UA will go on the road to play at Auburn (No. 7), Kentucky (No. 14), Arkansas and Georgia.
Alabama will play No. 4 seed Florida State in a tournament in Tuscaloosa, sixth-seeded Washington in a tournament in Seattle and 15th-seeded Baylor in a tournament at Southern Miss.
Other home out-of-conference home opponents will include Georgia State, Samford, Northern Iowa, Boston College and Fordham.
Academic honors
Alabama softball placed freshmen Elissa Brown and Bailey Hemphill, along with manager Kylie Bengtson, on UA’s President’s List for the spring semester.
Dean’s List honorees were Rachel Bobo, Gabby Callaway, Reagan Dykes, Carrigan Fain, Caroline Hardy, Claire Jenkins, Marisa Runyon, Merris Schroder and Demi Turner, along with manager Cody Lee.
Chandler Dare and Sydney Littlejohn are enrolled in graduate school, which doesn’t have similar honor lists, but both posted perfect 4.0 grade-point averages.
All-Tournament
Freshman first baseman Bailey Hemphill and junior pitcher Alexis Osorio were named to the SEC All-Tournament team for their play last week at the event in Knoxville, Tennessee. UA defeated Arkansas and Texas A&M before losing to Ole Miss in the semifinal.
Osorio struck out 15 batters and gave up one run in a 10-inning, complete-game win over A&M. Hemphill batted .571 (4-for-7) with two home runs and four RBIs. She also drew two walks and was twice hit by pitches for a .727 on-base percentage.
Alabama (42-16) drew the No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host Minnesota, Louisiana Tech and Albany at Rhoads Stadium in the Tuscaloosa Regional.
UA will play Albany at 4 p.m. on Friday in game that will be televised on the SEC Network. Minnesota will face Louisiana Tech at 1:30.
