[Tuck4Bama]

Alabama Softball Arrives in Seattle, Prepares for NCAA Super Regional Release: 05/22/2007
Washington Super Regional Website 2007 Alabama Statistics
Alabama will look to make its fifth trip to the Women's College World Series
SEATTLE, Wash. – The No. 11 seed Alabama softball team landed in Seattle Tuesday evening and will continue its preparation for the upcoming NCAA Super Regional contest against sixth-seeded University of Washington Friday and Saturday.

The Crimson Tide will play in its third straight NCAA Super Regional this weekend with a best-of-three series with sixth seeded University of Washington. The Crimson Tide won its fifth NCAA Regional Championship, storming back from a loss in their first game to take four straight. Washington won its first two, but Georgia took the first Sunday game forcing a final contest in which the Huskies pulled out 1-0.
NCAA Super Regionals History
The NCAA started having Super Regionals for softball in 2005 and Alabama has not lost a game sweeping both Texas A&M in 2005 and Stanford last season to go to the Women’s College World Series.
Series History
This will be the first ever meeting between Alabama and the University of Washington. The Huskies are the only Pac-10 school that the Tide has not faced in its 11-year history. Bama has a 11-26 all-time record against teams from the Pac-10 Conference.
Last Year’s Super Regional
The Crimson Tide hosted its first Super Regional in 2006 and came away with two straight victories over a Pac-10 school, Stanford, to advance to the Women’s College World Series. Alabama manufactured the first run of the weekend with a walk, sacrifice bunt and RBI single by Mandy Burford in the second inning. Burford added a two-run single in the third to give UA a 3-0 lead. Burford finished the game 3-for-3 with a run and three RBI while the Cardinals only scored one run off Stephanie VanBrakle in a 4-1 loss. In the second game, Alabama hung seven runs on the board in the first inning. The Tide only had three sits but walked six times. VanBrakle, Ashley Holcombe and Brittany Rogers all had two-run hits. Stanford battled back to score three in the first and four in the fourth to tie the game but a RBI single by Jordan Praytor in the eighth gave UA an 8-7 win.

Alabama Players in the Super Regional
Several Alabama players have had success in leading the Crimson Tide through the NCAA Regionals and into the World Series. Last year Mandy Burford led the way going 3-for-6 with three runs scores and three RBI. Brittany Rogers went 4-for-8 with two RBI and two stolen bases. Jordan Praytor is 4-for-11 with three runs and one RBI in four Super Regional games.
Five NCAA Regional Championships
The Crimson Tide battled back from a loss in their first game to win four straight and claim the fifth NCAA Regional Championship in school history. After falling to Tennessee Tech, 4-2, Bama was in unfamiliar territory as the loss ended a 12-game home winning streak in NCAA tournament play. Alabama found its hitting rhythm on the second day and would sustain it throughout the rest of the tournament. They went on to pound out 45 runs on 43 hits over the next four games and advance to Super Regionals. The Tide eliminated all three teams, including perrenial Pac-10 powerhouse Cal, 13-1. UA also set a single game school record with 19 runs in a 19-10 victory over Tennessee Tech. The Tide scored a run in 13 straight innings over the weekend.

NCAA Regional All-Stars
Alabama put on a hitting display over the weekend to rally back and win the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. Kelley Montalvo had a tournament to remember going 10-for-16 with eight runs scored, six doubles, one home run and 10 RBI. She had a slugging pct. of 1.188 and on-base pct. of .650. Charlotte Morgan hit two home runs and drove in nine more while batting .438. Dani Woods had a .556 OBP and .417 avg. Jordan Praytor had a .600 OBP and .333 avg. with nine runs scored, eight walks, two doubles, one triple, five RBI and five stolen bases.
Women’s College World Series
The Crimson Tide will try to advance to the Women’s College World Series for the fifth time. Oklahoma City is becoming a familiar place for Alabama as They have gone the past two seasons and three out of the last four years under head coach Patrick Murphy. The Tide has defeated a Pac-10 team on the way to three of their four trips to the World Series. In 2000 they beat Arizona State twice in the Regional. In 2005 they beat the Sun Devils again in Regional play and last year they won two games against Stanford in the Super Regionals.

NFCA All-South Region Selections
The University of Alabama placed a school record six players on the NFCA All-South Region team in 2007. The four first team selections match the most by any squad as the 2001 team also had four first team picks. Brittany Rogers received her second consecutive first team selection. Chrissy Owens appeared on the list for the second straight year was named to the first team for the first time. Sophomore transfer Lauren Parker and Kelley Montalvo each made their first All-Region appearances. Jordan Praytor was named to the second team for the third straight season while Charlotte Morgan made her first appearance on the All-Region squad. The Tide has had two or more players named to the All-Region teams in all 11 seasons of the program.
One of Top Programs Since 2000
Since 2000 the Alabama softball team has won the second most games of any team in college softball with 424 victories. They are only four wins shy of the winningest program in the country, Arizona, at 428 wins. LSU is close behind with 419 overall victories.
Crimson Tide in the Rankings
Alabama achieved its first ever No. 1 ranking in school history earlier this season. Entering the NCAA Tournament the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 5 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25. Since the first regular season poll came out the Crimson Tide has been ranked in the top five every week this season giving them 14 straight weeks. The Tide has been ranked in the top 10 for 31 straight weeks and have been ranked in 75 consecutive polls.
Record Setting Regional
Alabama’s offense put up some astounding numbers in the NCAA Regional this past weekend and broke numerous school records. Included in the records that fell were the team season runs, RBI and home run marks. Also the single game runs by a team fell and the individual doubles, home runs, total bases and walks single game records were also broken.
Double or Nothing
Kelley Montalvo (Miami, Fla.) found every gap imaginable this weekend on her way to recording six doubles in five games. In two games Saturday she tallied five doubles, including a school record three doubles against Florida State in a 6-3 win. She followed with two more doubles in a 13-1 win over Cal. The six doubles on the weekend give her a team-high 16 on the year, 11 more than she had in her freshman season.
Walk This Way
Jordan Praytor (Vancouver, Wash.) recorded a .600 OBP on the weekend thanks to four hits and eight walks. She posted back-to-back games of three and four walks against Tennessee Tech and Florida State. The four walks matched a single game record. Six other players have drawn four walks in a game. The last to do it was Jackie Wilkins against Cal State Fullerton in 2003.
Homeward Bound
Vancouver, Washington native Jordan Praytor will get a chance to go back to her home state this weekend when the Tide faces the University of Washington in the NCAA Super Regionals. Praytor will get to play in front of friends and family in Seattle, which is about three hours away from Vancouver. Praytor’s home is just across the border from Portland, Oregon. It will be her first time playing collegiately in Washington. Alabama will also travel to Seattle for a tournament in 2008.

SEC Runs and RBI Records Fall
The Crimson Tide have made it a habit this season to score a lot of runs. They are averaging 7.22 runs per game and have broken school and SEC records for runs (455) and RBI (397). Both records fell this past weekend at the NCAA Regional in Tuscaloosa. The previous school records were 411 runs and 363 RBI.
BAMA Sets SEC Home Run Record
The 2007 Alabama softball team set a new school and SEC single season home run record with six home runs in the NCAA Regional. Kellie Eubanks hit a solo home run to break the record. This season in 63 games they are averaging 1.25 per contest.
Record Setting Year
Alabama has already set four stolen base records and the single season, runs, RBI and home run records. They are on pace to shatter other records including, batting avg., slugging pct. and on-base pct.

Strengths in Numbers
Alabama is the only team in the country that puts nine starters in the batting order every day who have hit four or more home runs. They are actually the only team with more than eight players who have hit four or more as 10 different players have hit four this season for Coach Murphy’s squad. The Tide is also one of only three teams in the country with 13 or more different players who have hit home runs (Alabama -13, CSU-14 and Hawai’i-13).
Stealing Records
This season nearly every season and game school record for stolen bases has fallen or is close to being passed. On April 3 against Northwestern State, Alabama set a record with nine stolen bases in one game. It broke the previous mark of eight. In the first game at Ole Miss, the Tide swiped seven bases to set a new single season record with 139 and now have 169 for the year. Mandy Burford had four SB in the game to match the record held by Kelly Kretschman against Arkansas in 1999. Brittany Rogers has set the single season individual record with 44 SB, one more than Kretschman’s 43 SB in 2000.

150 Stolen Bases and Counting
The Crimson Tide has blazed their way to a SEC-leading 186 stolen bases in 63 games this season, an average of 2.95 stolen bases per game. Brittany Rogers leads the team with 48 stolen bases. Jordan Praytor is next with 34 SB while Mandy Burford has 31. Mallory Benak is 17-of-21 and Lauren Parker is 15-of-20. The Tide has stolen 156 more bases than their opponents and has three or more stolen bases in 34 games.
Speed Demons
Alabama is far and away leading the nation in stolen bases per game at 2.95 per outing. They have posted 186 SB in 63 games. The next best team is Tennessee who is averaging 2.49 per contest and has 154 SB in 62 outings. Only two teams have over 150 SB this season.
Crossing Home
The Crimson Tide players have stepped on home plate 455 times this season to lead the nation. They are averaging 7.22 runs per game to lead the country. So far 11 different players have scored 20 runs. Eight of those have tallied over 30 with five over 40 and one over 60. Brittany Rogers leads the SEC with 67 runs, scoring in 42 of the 63 contests. Lauren Parker has scored 47 times with runs in 36 of her 53 games. Jordan Praytor is next with 48 runs scored and has scored in 35 outings.

[Tuck4Bama]

Continued From Last Post

Hitting on All Cylinders
Alabama has been outstanding at the plate all season and currently leads the nation with a .339 team batting average. The Tide has 533 hits in 63 games, an average of 8.46 hits per game. Three players have over 60 hits with Brittany Rogers leading the way with 87 and both Lauren Parker and Jordan Praytor have 63. If the season ended today, Parker would be just four points shy of the school record held by Kelly Kretschman at .467.
Leading the Nation
Alabama is ranked first in the country in four different NCAA team and individual categories. They are first in scoring (7.22 rpg.), batting (.339 avg.), slugging pct. (.560) and stolen bases per game (2.95). The Tide also ranked in the top-10 in four other categories when the last NCAA rankings came out prior to the NCAA Tournament. They were third in win pct. (.879) and scoring (7.03 runs per game), and 10th in both fielding pct. (.974) and home runs per game (1.26).
SEC Leaders
Alabama finished tops in the SEC in 12 team categories after the SEC Tournament was concluded. They were batting 10 points higher, had scored 74 more runs, hit 17 more HR and stolen 21 more bases than any other school. In SEC games only, Alabama led the conference in 14 different team categories. They batted 32 points higher, had a 111 point higher slugging pct., scored 50 more runs, tallied 18 more hits, hit 13 more HR, walked seven more times and stole eight more bases than any other SEC school in conference play.
Eyeing SEC Records
Alabama is right on target to finish the season close to several single season SEC records. With the numbers the team has currently they would be close to or break records for batting avg. (UA .339 - SEC .342), slugging pct. (UA .560 - SEC .527) and on-base pct. (UA .435 - SEC .409). They have already broken the records for runs scored (UA 408 - SEC 437) and RBI (UA 353 - SEC 374). Lauren Parker is also close to the SEC record for batting avg. in a single season with her .463 avg. Sarah Fekete of Tennessee hit .500 in 2006.
55-Win Season
The Crimson Tide won No. 55 against Tennessee Tech to claim the 2007 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional Championship. It was the third highest win total by an Alabama team. The 2000 team went 66-14 and the 2005 squad was 63-15. They have recorded 50 wins for the fifth time in school history and third straight year. Bama won over 50 games the last two years going 63-15 in 2005 and 54-11 last year. Bama’s .893 winning percentage (50-6) this year was the top regular season mark in program history.
Saving the Day
Junior pitcher Chrissy Owens came in to close out the victory against Florida State last weekend for her second save of the season and 16th of her career. The 16 career saves matches a school record set previously by Shelley Laird. It also equals the second most in SEC history after Kellie Wilkerson of Mississippi State tallied 32 in her career.
Who’s Next
With the 2007 Alabama lineup you never know who is going to come up with the big hit to drive in runs. This season six players have driven in 40 or more runs on the year providing a balanced Crimson Tide attack. Freshman Charlotte Morgan (Moreno Valley, Calif.) leads the way with 49 RBI. Senior Mandy Burford (Anniston) is next with 47. Lauren Parker, Jordan Praytor and Dani Woods all have 45 for the year while Kelley Montalvo now has 43 after recording 10 in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional.
Setting the Table
As the leadoff hitter in the Tide lineup, Brittany Rogers (Dacula, Ga.) has done a good job setting the table for her teammates this season. She leads the team with 87 hits and is tops in the SEC with 67 runs scored. She has also set the school record with 48 stolen bases this season. In the 22 times she has reached base in the first inning, she has 16 stolen bases providing a deadly threat early in the game for Bama. In her last 13 games she is batting 25-of-58 (.431) with 19 runs scored and 12 stolen bases.
Workhorse on the Mound
Senior pitcher Blair Potter (Columbus, Ga.) was a workhorse on the mound last weekend for Alabama, pitching in all five games and starting the last four. She earned wins in all four of her starts and recorded 29 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings. She threw a total of 430 pitches in three days with 389 combined in the final two days of work. In her final start which clinched the NCAA Regional Championship, she threw 137 pitches and went the distance for win No. 20.
No-Hitters
Blair Potter tossed the 11th no-hitter in school history against Kentucky on April 29 and the first of her career. She nearly equaled the task against Tennessee Tech but was pulled with a 12-0 lead after four innings. She had not allowed a baserunner with seven strikeouts when she came out of the game. Chrissy Owens was the last to record a no-hitter before Potter when she did not allow a hit in five innings against Mississippi Valley State in the NCAA Regionals last year.
Owens Moves Up on Shutout Lists
Junior righty Chrissy Owens has blossomed into a No. 1 pitcher this year with a 24-4 record and 1.27 ERA. She has started 26 games with 11 shutouts and five combined shutouts for 16 total. She has only allowed 30 earned runs in 165 innings with 142 strikeouts. She tallied two shutouts at Ole Miss to move into second on the single season record list and third all-time.
Victory Milestones
Chrissy Owens (Miami, Fla.) earned her 50th career win against Tennessee Chattanooga, becoming just the fifth Tide player to win 50 games. The win also was her 20th of the season and she is now 24-4. Blair Potter recently won her 20th of the year to give Alabama two players with 20 or more wins in three straight seasons. Potter’s 20 wins is the 13th 20-win season in the program’s 11-year history. Potter has the fewest losses of any 20-game winner at UA. Owens has accomplished the feat in back-to-back seasons after recording 21 victories last season as a sophomore.

Multi-Hit Games
The Crimson Tide players have tallied 136 multiple-hit games this season. So far 13 different players have posted a game with two or more hits. Brittany Rogers leads the way with 30 multi-hit games while Lauren Parker is next with 21. Rogers has 22 contests with two hits and eight with three hits. Parker has 17 games with two hits, three with three hits and one with four hits. Charlotte Morgan and Jordan Praytor each have 15 on the year with Kelley Montalvo at 14 and Mandy Burford at 12.
Tough to Strikeout
Alabama is a tough out at the plate. They have struck out the fewest times of any SEC school with only 211 k’s in 1,935 plate appearances. Charlotte Morgan is one of the toughest players in the country to strike out with only 10 total strikeouts this season, an average of only one strikeout every 15.9 at bats. Lauren Parker has only k’d nine times, one out of every 15.1 at bats.
Multi-RBI Games
Part of the reason why the Crimson Tide are averaging over seven runs per game is the number of times they have had a player with two or more RBI in a game. Lauren Parker and Jordan Praytor leads the way with 14 multi-RBI games. Three other players have recorded 13 multi-RBI games, including Dani Woods, Charlotte Morgan, Kelley Montalvo. Mandy Burford is next with 11 games with two or more RBI.

Walk this Way
The Crimson Tide leads the SEC with 231 walks this season. The patience at the plate has paid off with the team’s SEC-leading .435 on-base percentage. There have been 22 games this season Alabama has drawn five or more walks. On April 3 against Northwestern State the Tide walked 12 times, an Alabama Softball Complex record. Six different players have recorded over 20 walks on the year. The Tide had 27 walks in five games of the NCAA Regionals.

Two-Out RBI
With two outs you can’t count the Tide batters out. They have produced 134 runs this season with two outs. The Tide scored 11 runs with two outs in the NCAA Regionals. Lauren Parker and Jordan Praytor lead the team with 18 two-out RBI while Parker is batting .400 (18-of-45) with two outs while Praytor is hitting .410 (16-of-39). Brittany Rogers is hitting .419 (18-of-43) with two outs and has nine RBI. Mandy Burford has driven in 15 runs with two outs while Dani Woods is next with 14 RBI. Charlotte Morgan has 12 RBI with two outs and Kelley Montalvo has 11.
New Infield Has Bright Future
At the start of the 2007 season the Tide had new starters at all four infield positions. So far they have all been pleasant surprises with 38 combined home runs and only 29 errors in 63 games. Another bright side is all four are either freshman or sophomores. Kelley Montalvo is the only returning starter moving from second to third base. She has 11 home runs and eight errors in 202 chances. Sophomore shortstop Kellie Eubanks has seven home runs and 14 errors in 203 chances. Sophomore transfer Lauren Parker has nine home runs and five errors in 159 chances. Freshman Charlotte Morgan has 11 home runs and two errors in 380 chances.
New Positions
Of the nine every day starters, the Crimson Tide has seven players who are in new roles. All four infield positions features new starters. The starting first baseman from 2006, Dani Woods, has played in the outfield for the first time in her career. Chrissy Owens is the No. 1 pitcher for the first time and Blair Potter became the second SEC starter.
Scoring in Bunches
One of the big reasons that Alabama is 55-8 this season is the fact that they have scored three or more runs in an inning 64 times. They have had an inning with at least three runs in 40 of the 63 contests. They have two games this season with a 10-run inning with both coming in the second frame. They accomplished the feat against Winthrop and most recently Georgia. The 10 runs tied for the second highest run total in a single inning in school history. Alabama has also recorded nine, eight and seven-run innings this season. They have scored six runs seven times, five runs 10 times, four runs 17 times and three runs 25 times.
BAMA vs. Ranked Teams
Alabama has played 18 games against teams ranked in the Top-25 this season and own an 11-7 record. The Tide shutout No. 22 N.C. State twice in the Crimson Classic. The following weekend Alabama downed No. 11 ULL twice with a 6-0 victory in the first game and a walkoff three-run home run in the eighth inning by Mandy Burford in the second. The Tide split with No. 22 Florida and followed by sweeping 24th-ranked South Carolina on the road. The Tide lost 2-of-3 at No. 8 LSU but bounced back by winning two of three at home against Georgia. Alabama recently lost two games to No. 2 Tennessee ane one to No. 4 LSU.

[Stoney]

I don't mean to be rude but shouldn't this have been posted in the other thread?