Alabama Hosts T-Town Showdown This Weekend at Rhoads Stadium

Thursday, March 12

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6 p.m. CT

Alabama

BYU

Photo by: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

3/11/2020 1:24:00 PM | Softball

The Crimson Tide welcomes BYU, Texas and Bryant for four days of games starting Thursday

This Weekend: T-Town Showdown

Alabama heads into week six with a 14-8 record after winning two of its three games last weekend in Tuscaloosa against Arkansas
This weekend's tournament continues a stretch of 18 straight home games, with ends next Wednesday against Troy
The two games against No. 3/2 Texas this week gives Alabama 12 ranked matchups on its schedule so far, including six in the top 10
Alabama is ranked No. 10 in this week's NFCA poll, No. 11 in the D1Softball poll, No. 12 in the Softball America rankings and No. 13 in the USA Softball poll
This year's roster consists of 13 returnees from last year's SEC Championship squad along with seven newcomers, including six freshmen and graduate transfer Alexis Mack from Oregon
Head Coach Patrick Murphy, last year's SEC Coach of the Year, returns for his 22nd season at the helm of the Crimson Tide

Game One: Arkansas 1, Alabama 0: Alabama and Arkansas could not push a run across over the first six innings, until a one-out single in the top of the seventh from Razorback first baseman Danielle Gibson broke the scoreless tie. The Crimson Tide had the potential winning run at the plate in the home half of the seventh but could not complete the rally
Game Two: Alabama 10, Arkansas 2 (6 Inn.): After being shut out in Friday's series opener, the Alabama offense came out in full force in game two against Arkansas, scoring 10 runs on 12 hits to end the game in six innings
Game Three: Alabama 9, Arkansas 1 (6 Inn.): Alabama scored first with a run in the opening frame before Arkansas answered to tie it in the top of the second. Seven unanswered runs in the second and third innings padded the Tide's lead until freshman Karla Hice drove in the game-ending RBI for the second-consecutive game in the bottom of the sixth

The top three in Alabama's order (Skylar Wallace, Alexis Mack and KB Sides) went a combined 16-for-27 (.593) on the weekend with nine runs scored, six RBIs and a .656 on base percentage
The Tide bullpen had a combined 1.47 ERA over 19.0 innings, allowing just four runs with 14 strikeouts while only two of the 16 hits allowed went for extra bases
The two run-rule victories increased Alabama's total to nine this season, seven of which have come at home and three against ranked opponents
With a 3-for-4 performance by Mack on her senior day Saturday, every Tide hitter has posted a multi-hit day on their senior day this season, following two-hit performances from Taylor Clark and Bailey Hemphill earlier this spring
Freshman Jenna Johnson hit her first career home run on Saturday, making her the eighth Alabama player to hit one this year

A dominant weekend at the plate helped earn junior KB Sides recognition from the league office on Tuesday, announced as the SEC Co-Player of the Week
Sides led the team with seven hits and a .778 batting average in the weekend series against then-No. 20 Arkansas
She had three multi-hit performances, including a career-best three hits in the series opener, and scored a season-best three runs in game two against the Razorbacks
The weekly honor is the first of Sides' career and the second for Alabama this year, with freshman Lexi Kilfoyl previously winning Freshman of the Week accolades after week two of the season
The Crimson Tide has claimed 48 Player of the Week awards in program history, with junior Kaylee Tow last doing so on Feb. 11 of last season

KB Sides heads into the weekend tied at 17th nationally in batting average at .483
She is third in the SEC, only trailing the Kentucky duo of Bailey Vick (.556) and Alex Martens (.500)
Appearing in all 22 games this season, Sides has played in more games than 11 of the 17 ahead of her on the list and has more at-bats than eight of them

After setting the Alabama single-season home run record last season, it's no surprise teams are pitching cautiously to senior Bailey Hemphill this season, as she is second in the NCAA with 24 walks, just two off the national leader
Averaging 1.09 walks per game she is on pace to finish the regular season with 58 walks, which is just one off her previous season high set last season which ranks fourth at UA

Senior Bailey Hemphill's 50 career home runs ranks fifth all-time and sits 10 behind Kelly Kretschman's (1998-2001) career record of 60
She is the fifth player in program history to reach the 50 home run mark, the first since Kaila Hunt (2011-14)
Hemphill hit nine home runs her freshman season, improved to 13 as a sophomore and tied the UA single-season record last season with 26
Her power potential also leads to a lot of teams pitching carefully to the slugger, as she has drawn 180 career walks, which is tied with Cassie-Reilly Boccia (2009-12) at second all-time and is 19 away from Haylie McCleney's (2013-16) record total of 199
Hemphill also owns 183 career RBIs, putting her within striking distance of becoming the third Alabama player with 200 RBIs
Charlotte Morgan (2007-10) owns the UA record with 264 career RBIs and Kaila Hunt (2011-14) is the only other player to surpass 200, finishing with 215

This weekend's tournament marks the closing stretch of an 18-game home stand, which concludes next Wednesday against Troy
Alabama is 10-3 at home this season, outscoring opponents 94-25 while holding teams to three or fewer runs in 11 of those 13 games
Alabama sports a 620-115 (.844) all-time record at home, including a 584-99 (.855) mark under head coach Patrick Murphy and a 565-95 (.856) record at Rhoads Stadium, the Tide's home field since 2000
Since Rhoads Stadium opened in 2000, Alabama has won at least 25 home games in 17 of its 20 years there