The Alabama softball team‘s streak of hosting a regional in the NCAA Tournament is still alive. The Crimson Tide was awarded the No. 12 overall seed when the 64-team field was announced Sunday night. Alabama will host Oregon State, Wisconsin and Middle Tennessee State in the Tuscaloosa Regional.
Alabama (33-18) will host for the 14th straight year and is making its 20th consecutive appearance in the national championship tournament. UA coach Patrick Murphy talked earlier Sunday with two players who were on the team that were on the school’s first NCAA Tournament team, Christy Kyle and Carrie Moreman.
“Carrie’s got two teenagers and Christy’s got two kids,” Murphy said. “It probably hasn’t hit us yet how cool that streak is.
“It never gets old. You just never know where or when (you’ll play). I’m really, really glad that the seniors got to play at home at least one more weekend. I think we earned that down the stretch.”
The Crimson Tide will face MTSU (39-20) on Friday at 8:30 p.m. in a first-round game at Rhoads Stadium. The Blue Raiders earned an automatic bid by winning the Conference USA Tournament.
Oregon State (28-21) will play Wisconsin (28-21) in the other first-round pairing Friday at 6 p.m.
Senior second baseman Demi Turner has seen Alabama’s name come up in the bracket every year of her career.
“As a team I just know that we’re all excited,” she said. “Leading up to that, everyone has pretty much like bubble-guts because you don’t know where you’re going to fall, where you’re going to go.
“Everyone knows we had a little low part in our season, but we’ve been pretty hot toward the end, so we were pretty excited to see our name pop up that high. I know for the seniors we’re all just stoked to get to play at home again and get to show and prove to everybody we can do this. I feel we’re peaking at the right time and we’re hot right now.”
The Tuscaloosa Regional is paired with the Seattle Regional hosted by No. 5 seed Washington (44-8). The Huskies will host Minnesota, Texas and Boise State. The winners of the two regionals will face off in a best-of-three super regional, with Washington hosting if it wins its regional.
Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.
Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.
