Softball | Why this opening weekend has a postseason feel

(photo credits: Robert Sutton)

A marquee opening weekend in Austin, Texas for No. 8 Alabama softball begin against Colorado State. Next up are College World Series hopeful’s No. 3 Arizona and No. 6 Texas in the Texas Classic, beginning Friday, Feb. 12.

“I think this is the best tournament this weekend in Austin,” head coach Patrick Murphy said. “You learn a lot more when you face really good teams instead of steamrolling everyone.”

In this three-day tournament, Alabama will go against six players who were named to USA softball’s “Top 50 Watch List.” Of the six, Arizona’s Deja Mulipola stands out. She is an Olympian and a homerun threat every time she steps in the batter’s box. The Crimson Tide has four of its own named to the top 50: graduate student Bailey Hemphill, senior K.B. Sides, junior Montana Fouts and sophomore Lexi Kilfoyl.

Despite not having any players on the “Top 50 Watch List” and being unranked, Colorado State is not a team Alabama can look past. The Rams made the 2019 regionals and are composed of a strong offensive lineup.

“Colorado State was a great team two years ago and hit the ball like crazy,” Murphy said.

Facing top talent in the first weekend of the season does not faze the team, according to graduate student Alexis Mack. Throughout the fall and winter preseason, the team competed in a hefty amount of intrasquad scrimmages. Playing against each other allowed the team to be prepared for its season opener.

“This is the most prepared we have been going into a season because of how much we’ve scrimmaged each other,” Mack said. “We have been fortunate to face such elite pitching these past few months because of our pitching staff.”

Alabama’s six-arm pitching staff will come in handy this weekend. The team plays five games in less than a 72-hour span. Murphy acknowledged that this schedule gives both freshmen pitchers Jaala Torrence and Alex Salter an opportunity to pitch some innings throughout the weekend.

“Our depth on staff will hopefully help us and there’s a different look from everybody,” Murphy said. “We [the coaching staff] will have to try and figure out which opponent can’t hit what pitch and that is how we will start people this year.”

For Mack, playing against Texas is not just another game, nor a reminder of the 2019 season before she transferred to Alabama, but a reminder of her time at the University of Oregon. Mack’s former head coach at Oregon is now Texas’ head coach in Mike White. Scheduled to play against White and the other former Oregon players who ended up following him to Texas ignites an extra spark in Mack.

“It just fires me up even more,” Mack said. “I’m definitely excited to see some people I have not seen in a long time, but even more so getting to play against them.”

Analyzing The Opponents:

Colorado State - Colorado State doesn’t strike a serious threat to the Tide, but it’s also not a team that Alabama can let its guard down on. The Rams went 11-12 in last year’s shortened season, but they do have the talent to build off of from last season. The roster is composed of transfers from Arizona, Nebraska and Baylor. With these transfers and experienced pitching, Colorado State has the ability to compete with Alabama, but the odds of winning are slim.

No. 6 Texas - A rematch of the 2019 Tuscaloosa Super Regional is almost identical in big-name talent, but nearly a month ago Texas’ ace pitcher Miranda Elish announced she will not play this season due to COVID-19 concerns. There are few players who can replace a talent like Elish, but luckily for the pitching staff it adds Ole Miss transfer Molly Jacobson and highly-ranked incoming freshman Ryleigh White.

The Longhorns have the Big 12’s preseason predicted player of the year, according to D1 softball, Janae Jefferson. Jefferson has a batting average north of .400 the past two seasons and the Longhorn offense has three offensive players with true home run power: Mary Iakopo, Shannon Rhodes and Colleen Sullivan.

No. 3 Arizona - Saturday night’s game between Arizona and Alabama will be the third straight year the two face one another. Arizona and Alabama will match up very evenly, with each having deep pitching staffs, home run power and speed through its lineups. Both also have freshmen ranked in the top five, according to D1 softball, with Arizona’s ( No. 2) Carlie Scupin and Alabama’s (No. 3) Bailey Dowling.

The offense edge goes to Arizona. The Wildcats offense has three home-run threats outside of Mulipola in Jessie Harper, Malia Martinez and Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza. Harper is chasing Oklahoma’s Lauren Chamberlain’s home run record and both Palomino-Cardoza and Martinez drove in game-winning runs in last season’s matchups against the Crimson Tide.

The pitching advantage swings toward the Crimson Tide. Fouts and Kilfoyl look to be a stronger one-two punch than Arizona’s Alyssa Denham and Mariah Lopez. Kilfoyl and Denham’s top pitches are each a drop ball and changeup, but Kilfoyl draws softer contact. Fouts and Lopez both throw in the high 60s to low 70s, and Lopez is more prone to giving up the long ball.

The first pitch of the season is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CT against Colorado State and will be televised on the Longhorn Network.