How No. 2 Alabama Wants to Respond after Loss to Samford

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama softball is coming off its most surprising result of the year. The Crimson Tide is up to No. 2 in the national polls and has won its first five SEC series, but Alabama lost at Samford, 3-2, on Tuesday night for the program's first loss to the Bulldogs since 1997.

"Just a perfect storm all the way around, and not for us," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said before Wednesday's practice. "We got a good start out of Kaitlyn. No issues there. The only thing with her was hitting the nine-hole in the arm int he fifth inning. And then it kind of snowballed from there. Vic comes in, and I think she walks two or three, and then you get a double down the line that might’ve been fair, might’ve been foul. Who knows? But they called it fair, and there’s no replay. So it all kind of just…"

“And then we had the leadoff on in the sixth and the seventh, and she stayed where she was at— a single and a double. That was the biggest disappointment. We didn’t move either one of them. Offensively, you have two solo home runs, and that means your defense and pitchers basically have to be perfect, and then that didn’t happen.”

Alabama led 2-0 after solo home runs from Audrey Vandagriff and Ana Roman. Samford scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Alabama couldn't respond.

"We just knew we didn’t execute," Alabama infielder Jena Young said. "We didn’t do what we needed to do at all. We just know that we’ve got to bring it in practice today and just do the little things right. We’ve gotta step it up and have our best practice of the year today. We all know that needs to happen.”

While the loss was disappointing and will likely have an impact on Alabama's NCAA seeding, it does not derail the season, unless the team allows that to happen.The Crimson Tide hosts a struggling Kentucky (24-22) team this weekend that has only won one SEC game in 18 tries. The Wildcats have been run ruled nine times in SEC play alone.

The loss to Samford can be a lesson for Murphy's team.

"Learn from it, move on," Murphy said. "We don’t need to dwell. We have 10 regular season games left–– three series and a solo at UAB next week. We’ll start to improve today, get better for Kentucky. Because I’ve said it over and over, anybody can beat anybody, and now we have proof.”

Because it was a non-conference game, the loss does nothing to affect Alabama's SEC standings. The Crimson Tide is one game out of first place behind Oklahoma. This weekend's home series is a great opportunity to respond and get back on track heading into the most crucial weeks of the season.

"We have all our big goals in front of us," Murphy said. "That’s the key. We know now that if you don’t play your best game, bad things can happen. It’s going to start right now with Kentucky, and then UAB, and Tennessee and South Carolina. Ten big games left.”

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