Softball 2025-expectations?

[TideATL70]

Ladies fought hard bit OU pitcher Landry is incredible. Wish A&M had drawn the 2 seed and we’d be beating Liberty and headed to OKC
That said we shocked UcheaT last year in Knoxville, let’s do it again.

 

[Krymsonman]

Ladies fought hard bit OU pitcher Landry is incredible. Wish A&M had drawn the 2 seed and we’d be beating Liberty and headed to OKC
That said we shocked UcheaT last year in Knoxville, let’s do it again.

I don't think this team could beat Liberty. We don't hit any where near good enough.

 

[Krymsonman]

So far in this series, we're 0-9 with runners in scoring position. OU decided to open the full can of whoop-ass on us in the top of the 3rd. It's now 9-0, after yet another double. This umpire has a bit of a tight strike zone, but not too bad. OU is crushing anything we throw in there. Meanwhile, we're striking out on balls in the dirt and stuff like that. We haven't scored a run yet in these two games. We like like little leaguers playing the major leagues.

 

[Krymsonman]

Hey, we scored 2 runs!!! Heivilin and Giles both hit solo home runs. I think we have 3 total hits. The problem is OU just hit their 4th home run of the game and leads 13-2 after the top of the 5th inning. If we don't score a bunch in the bottom of the 5th, it's over.

You know what. It's kind of fun watching a team that has plate discipline and can hit the ball.

 

[Krymsonman]

We get back to back singles by Johnson and Heivilin with 2 down in the bottom of the 5th. Heivilin hit was our first hit in the series with runners on base. We were 0 for 14 before that.

BAMA falls 13-2. OU had 14 hits, including 4 home runs. We had 5 hits, 2 in the last inning.

We got a lot farther than I thought we would this year, but we were not quite ready for the big time. Maybe next year. We could just not hit good enough to be a serious contender. It looks like all we did when we took the series from OU in T-Town was awaken the proverbial sleeping giant. They certainly kicked our butts today.

Now it's on to next year. Let's see how the freshman develop and how the new kids coming in do.

Maybe we can pull a Texas Tech and set up a $1,000,000 NIL deal to get a pitcher like Nijaree Canady to come over from Stanford. Oh, they also gave her $50,000 for housing. Hey, it got Texas Tech to the WCWS.

 

[TideATL70]

Thanks for all your posts and analysis this season, Krymsonman- great stuff. As someone who closely follows every Bama team, I’ll be the first to admit the first 21 years of this program got me spoiled into thinking it’s not a legit CWS without the Tide there. So, even falling to (probably) the eventual champion in the Supers really disappoints. The SB landscape is changing and your TTU example is certainly a part of it.
Hopefully the youngsters like Vandagriff and Briski keep developing and Murph can recruit well by promising IMMEDIATE playing time- I think we only lose 5 seniors but it feels like we need to retool the lineup and of course HAVE TO get 1-2 more arms to go with Briski.
As always Roll Tide and hoping for some Baseball magic in June!!!!

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Well, we improved over the course of the year. But neither pitching nor hitting were championship level.

Counting only SEC games, we were 9th in batting average, 11th in slugging, 12th in on base percentage, and 11th in runs scored. A symptom of the plate discipline that Krymsonman has noted several times is that we are dead last in walks at 56. Kentucky was next to last at 66. So it wasn't close.

None of that looks so good until you think we were dead last, or close to it, in all of those categories for the past couple of years.

Pitching was a little stronger, but poor scoring support killed us against good competition. We were a decent 5th in ERA at a hair over 4. But we weren't so great on opponents' batting average allowed at .281 -- putting us in 10th place on that measure.

A telling stat is that Briski had an ERA of 3.18, for 7th among qualifying league pitchers. But poor run support meant she had a W-L record of 6-5. Must be incredibly frustrating for her.

Before the season, I fully expected 8 or fewer SEC wins. So the team exceeded my expectations. And it did show some life late in the season. But even with the improvement, inconsistency was a big problem, along with ongoing mistakes at the plate, punctuated by a maddening propensity to swing at bad pitches, often striking out. That, in combination with the SEC's lowest walk total already noted above tells me we lack discipline at the plate.

 

[TideATL70]

Thanks for the analysis Basket Case. We needed more walks and more timely hitting- I think with Briski and Riley, it was an above average 1-2 punch but certainly hoping for the next Montana Fouts.
I just read in Tidesports.com we had 5 run rule losses? That has to be most in a season or at least feels that way.
The incredible Supers win over Tennessee last year kind of made it “feel” like last year was better, but your stats show this year was an improvement probably. And Vandagriff could be the next legend and face on the outfield wall if she stays healthy and stays period!!! A real treat to watch with the 50.steals.

to quote Coach Bebes Stallings, nothing wrong with expecting excellence.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Thanks for the analysis Basket Case. We needed more walks and more timely hitting- I think with Briski and Riley, it was an above average 1-2 punch but certainly hoping for the next Montana Fouts.
I just read in Tidesports.com we had 5 run rule losses? That has to be most in a season or at least feels that way.
The incredible Supers win over Tennessee last year kind of made it “feel” like last year was better, but your stats show this year was an improvement probably. And Vandagriff could be the next legend and face on the outfield wall if she stays healthy and stays period!!! A real treat to watch with the 50.steals.

to quote Coach Bebes Stallings, nothing wrong with expecting excellence.

Thanks, ATL. Just for the record, the stats come from the SEC.

2025 Softball Stats (PDF) - Southeastern Conference

It's a document of over 100 pages. While it's likely somewhere in there, finding the data you want can be a challenge. And you have to double-check to be sure whether you're getting information on just SEC games, or the whole season.

My real issue with the softball program is that this weakness has been going on since the heyday of Bailey Hemphill and Montana Fouts. Collectively, they covered up some glaring weaknesses. When Hemphill exhausted her eligibility, the hitting problems were laid bare. Same for pitching when Fouts finished.

Then there were a couple of years of mass exodus of high-end talent -- Skylar Wallace (SEC POY at Florida), KB Sides (SEC POY at Arkansas), Lexi Kilfoyl (first draftee in the last professional softball draft). Kenleigh Cahalan was our best player last year and is now tearing it up at Florida. Other players transferred out as well.

Stephanie Van Brakle Prothro left the coaching staff for a HC position at Memphis. She's now an assistant at Florida.

My real issue isn't the season. It's the multi-year trend of talent and brain drain. Yeah, I know pay-for-play might have played some part. But it wasn't nearly the whole story.

 

[Rkharley98]

Krymsonman, I agree with other posters, thank you for your posts on the team. Always very informative.

 

[Cruloc]

Fire Murph.

We have been stagnant to declining....but just adequate enough to not fire him.

 

[81usaf92]

We have had extreme highs and extreme lows this year so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been but not where this program should be with the amount of money and support that is poured into it. I think this series proved definitively where this program is and has been for since 2014. We have lived off one generational player or one person playing very hot in May to will us to an early exit in OKC. For some… making it to OKC is like making it to the Elite 8 in basketball, but the god to honest truth that is a losing bet in the long run. Too many teams around us have upgraded around us and are more set in the long run than us. Yes we can get excited for a particular recruiting class class here and there that Murphy may get every other year but ask yourself…. When people see Savannah Woodard go from a slapper at Alabama to legit threat in May at Liberty in one year… does that really look good for us? That doesn’t even mention the KB sides types of transfers that are littered in the program’s history.

This is not an Oklahoma team that we are accustomed to. This is actually a down year for them. Yes we beat them in the regular season series but does it really matter right now???? Yes, but only to people who want to see the program as still a strong brand. To everyone else it look like how people saw the two Alabama- Tennessee series last year.

Murphy deserves to call his own shot. But it’s to the point in which serious conversations need to happen as to where he sees a potential last stand to happen within the next 3 years. This program needs to have some post Murphy plans in place now or else we are going to resemble Auburn softball very soon.

This year we overachieved but again… “ is this a program of champions or a program that is happy to get to OKC every now and then”. Until that is answered then this will be viewed as the typical Alabama year.

 

[JDCrimson]

That would not be the Mudita thing to do...

Fire Murph.

We have been stagnant to declining....but just adequate enough to not fire him.

 

[Krymsonman]

Thanks, ATL. Just for the record, the stats come from the SEC.

2025 Softball Stats (PDF) - Southeastern Conference

It's a document of over 100 pages. While it's likely somewhere in there, finding the data you want can be a challenge. And you have to double-check to be sure whether you're getting information on just SEC games, or the whole season.

My real issue with the softball program is that this weakness has been going on since the heyday of Bailey Hemphill and Montana Fouts. Collectively, they covered up some glaring weaknesses. When Hemphill exhausted her eligibility, the hitting problems were laid bare. Same for pitching when Fouts finished.

Then there were a couple of years of mass exodus of high-end talent -- Skylar Wallace (SEC POY at Florida), KB Sides (SEC POY at Arkansas), Lexi Kilfoyl (first draftee in the last professional softball draft). Kenleigh Cahalan was our best player last year and is now tearing it up at Florida. Other players transferred out as well.

Stephanie Van Brakle Prothro left the coaching staff for a HC position at Memphis. She's now an assistant at Florida.

My real issue isn't the season. It's the multi-year trend of talent and brain drain. Yeah, I know pay-for-play might have played some part. But it wasn't nearly the whole story.

Well, I'm glad you took the time to go thru 100 pages. I don't think I would have the patience. I'm hoping we are building a good future. We have some great young talent, but in this day and age, I'm hoping we can hold on to the players we have. We have more talent coming in, so if we hold on to what we have, maybe we'll be better going forward. But when you see Texas Tech spending $1,000,000 just to get a pitcher, I just shake my head. I guess we will all see what Murph does with next year's team. Hopefully he will teach them to hit.

 

[Krymsonman]

Well, we improved over the course of the year. But neither pitching nor hitting were championship level.

Counting only SEC games, we were 9th in batting average, 11th in slugging, 12th in on base percentage, and 11th in runs scored. A symptom of the plate discipline that Krymsonman has noted several times is that we are dead last in walks at 56. Kentucky was next to last at 66. So it wasn't close.

None of that looks so good until you think we were dead last, or close to it, in all of those categories for the past couple of years.

Pitching was a little stronger, but poor scoring support killed us against good competition. We were a decent 5th in ERA at a hair over 4. But we weren't so great on opponents' batting average allowed at .281 -- putting us in 10th place on that measure.

A telling stat is that Briski had an ERA of 3.18, for 7th among qualifying league pitchers. But poor run support meant she had a W-L record of 6-5. Must be incredibly frustrating for her.

Before the season, I fully expected 8 or fewer SEC wins. So the team exceeded my expectations. And it did show some life late in the season. But even with the improvement, inconsistency was a big problem, along with ongoing mistakes at the plate, punctuated by a maddening propensity to swing at bad pitches, often striking out. That, in combination with the SEC's lowest walk total already noted above tells me we lack discipline at the plate.

Regarding the "swinging at bad pitches", I think what drove me nuts the most, was that many of them were on full counts, and the pitch was never remotely in the strike zone. That needs to be fixed. We'll see what happens, but you can no longer count on scoring a couple of runs and being able to win a softball game.

 

[81usaf92]

Well, I'm glad you took the time to go thru 100 pages. I don't think I would have the patience. I'm hoping we are building a good future. We have some great young talent, but in this day and age, I'm hoping we can hold on to the players we have. We have more talent coming in, so if we hold on to what we have, maybe we'll be better going forward. But when you see Texas Tech spending $1,000,000 just to get a pitcher, I just shake my head. I guess we will all see what Murph does with next year's team. Hopefully he will teach them to hit.

Arkansas will win a CWS and/or a WCWS within the next 5 years. They have deep deep pockets that are spending stupid amount of money to win at hardball.