The University of Alabama softball team’s pitching has been at a premium lately despite a sagging offense that has played a part in the 12th-ranked Crimson Tide losing four of its last five games.
Last week’s midweek shutout of Southern Miss was the 23rd of the season. The 23 shutouts are the most since 2009, leaving UA three short of tying the single-season school record.
Madi Moore (5-1) was the winning pitcher in the shutout, allowing three hits in 6 1/3 innings. It was her second consecutive shutout as a starter and her fourth win in a row. The sophomore from Winfield has two solo shutouts and has been part of five combined shutouts.
Despite dropping two games to ninth-ranked Washington over the weekend, Alabama held at No. 14 in the official NCAA RPI (ratings percentage index) rankings, which are a component used in seeding teams for the NCAA Tournament. The selection committee which will choose the field of 64 teams for the national championship tournament released a top-10 ranking last weekend to give a glimpse into which teams might earn top seeds, and the Crimson Tide was not among the 10 teams.
UA drew more than 3,000 fans for each of the games against the Huskies, giving Alabama six home crowds above the 3,000 mark on the season. The Crimson Tide has drawn a total of 74,899 fans in 2017, an average of 2,674 per game.
After its weekend off from SEC play, Alabama (37-11) is in fifth place in the conference standings with a 10-7 record. Florida (18-2) is first, followed by Texas A&M (14-3), Tennessee (13-4) and Auburn (12-6).
UA will visit Samford on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Alabama will play on the road at No. 18 Ole Miss this weekend. Alabama is 2-5 against currently-ranked teams this month: losing two games to ninth-ranked Washington, twice to 11th-ranked Tennessee and winning two out of three against 21st-ranked LSU.

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