Crimson Red Sports

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama softball team claimed the number one ranking in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll, the organization announced Tuesday. The Crimson Tide has been ranked the No. 1 team in the country in five of the last six seasons. UA stayed ranked No. 2 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll.

For the third time this season there is a new No. 1 team in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 poll. After another wild week across the nation, Alabama takes over the pole position from SEC foe Florida, which dropped to third after suffering its first loss of the season.

The undefeated Crimson Tide (13-0) received 14 of 30 first place votes in the latest poll, while Cal (12-0) jumped up one spot to second and had five first-place votes. Florida (13-1) took home 10 of the remaining 11 first-place votes in third, while Washington (14-1) jumped from fifth to fourth and grabbed the last top vote. Arizona State (14-2) rounded out the top five by dropping from fourth to fifth, despite going 4-0 last week.

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/022812aaa.html

I'm impressed with the way they hit the ball and score runs.  Our pitching does not seem to be as strong as when we had Kelsi Dunn as our #1 hurler.  Although we're undefeated we have given up a lot of runs.  I'm hoping we find our groove, cut down on walks and start throwing shutout games.

  I'm confident our pitching will improve as the season goes along. I guess I've been spoiled by 4 years of KD.

Nice to see four SEC teams in the top 10.

I agree Lee. I think the team might be a little overated at this time and I would rather see them ranked a little lower and not have that pressure of being ranked #1 hanging over their heads.

I agree the pitching needs to improve. We are giving away too many free passes on walks. I do think we have a good group of pitchers to work with and they will only get better.

Now for the good news. These girls know how to swing the bat. We are strong 1-9 in the line-up. One of CPM toughest jobs as coach must be who to play. We have very good players sitting on the bench.

There is a lot of bench strength possible but it's still a little early and the young ones haven't faced the quality of pitching that they will see in the very near future. I will say that they have looked very good up to this point in time though.