Alabama Softball WCWS Practice Report- May 29, 2024

OKLAHOMA CITY–– The Alabama softball team took the field at Devon Park in Oklahoma City for 50 minutes on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the Crimson Tide's matchup with No. 6 UCLA in the Women's College World Series.

It was unusually pleasant weather for late May in Oklahoma with overcast skies keeping the temperature down while the Crimson Tide did a little bit of fielding before taking batting practice in three different groups.

Here are notes and observations from Wednesday's practice:

Practice notes- May 29, 2024

Alabama opened practice taking some fly balls and grounders to get used to the field in Oklahoma City. There are seven players on the roster who have never played in the WCWS before.
Then the team moved into batting practice with head coach Patrick Murphy throwing to the team in three separate groups of five.
The first group of hitters consisted of Lauren Esman, Kali Heivilin, Larissa Preuitt, Lauren Johnson and Jenna Johnson. Riley Valentine, Kristen White, Bailey Dowling and Kenleigh Cahalan made up the second group. This leads me to believe that these are the ten that will make up the starting lineup, like it was in Supers. Esman will likely start at first base instead of Emma Broadfoot while Valentine will continue as the designated player. Preuitt will likely start in right field again, but clearly Lauren Johnson is also in the mix.
Reserve players KJ Haney, Emma Broadfoot, Abby Duchscherer, Kendal Clark and Kat Grill hit in the third group.
Each group first started with just hitting the ball straight up with Murphy often yelling instructions to "smoke it up the middle." Then the players moved into situational hitting with runners on second with one out, runners at third with one out and finally going through hit-and-runs, slap-and-runs and squeeze bunts. Assistant Kayla Braud was overseeing the base runners.
Valentine has been one of Alabama's hottest hitters as of late, batting .412 with a double and two home runs in the NCAA Tournament. And she was knocking balls out of the park during Wednesday's BP.
Kendal Clark was hitting the balls the furtherst during BP. She was knocking them way up into the left field bleachers.
The players I saw hit balls out of the park were Valentine, Clark, Cahalan, Dowling, Broadfoot, Duchscherer and Haney.
Alabama's pitchers wern't throwing super hard. Alea Johnson and Jaala Torrence were throwing in the bullpen, and Kayla Beaver and Jocelyn Briski were mainly stretching with Beaver doing a few soft tosses with pitching coach Lance McMahon in the outfield.
The practice ended with Murphy tossing BP to some of the assistants and staff like McMahon, Braud and other members of the support staff.