Alabama
USI Softball battles #11 Alabama to very end, falling 2-0
TUSCALOOSA, AL. (WFIE) – University of Southern Indiana Softball battled No. 11 University of Alabama to the final inning on Sunday to conclude the Easton Bama Bash, but the Screaming Eagles came up just short in a 2-0 final against the Crimson Tide.
Trailing 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning against ranked Southeastern Conference power Alabama (10-0), Southern Indiana (1-4) gave itself a chance by bringing the tying run to the plate and potential go-ahead run to the on-deck circle. Following a leadoff single up the middle by junior infielder Hailey Gotshall (Lucerne, Indiana), senior first baseman Lexi Fair (Greenwood, Indiana) stepped up to the dish. Unfortunately, for the Screaming Eagles, a groundball right to the second baseman led to a 4-3 double play, preceding a game-ending strikeout.
Runs were at a premium on Sunday with only five combined hits. The game’s only two runs were scored in the bottom of the first inning. The Crimson Tide scored their first run on a bases-loaded walk and the second run in the next at-bat with a bases-loaded sac fly. From there, USI junior starting pitcher Josie Newman (Indianapolis, Indiana) settled into a pitcher’s duel against the Alabama pitching staff.
Newman backed up her first win and first complete game of the season on Saturday with another strong effort in the circle on Sunday against Alabama. The right-hander went the entire way, allowing only two runs off two hits, three walks, and one hit-by-pitch. Newman struck out three in six innings of work. Newman finished the outing with three consecutive 1-2-3 innings, holding the Crimson Tide hitless after the third inning. The hard-luck loss moved Newman’s record to 1-2 in 2024.
For Alabama, right-handed pitcher Alea Johnson picked up her first win, hurling 5.1 innings of relief. Johnson struck out six and surrendered three hits.
Offensively, for the Screaming Eagles, senior catcher Sammie Kihega (Greenfield, Indiana) and sophomore Caroline Stapleton (Shirley, Indiana) tallied USI’s other two hits next to Gotshall’s single in the seventh.
At the Easton Bama Bash, the Screaming Eagles faced their first Power 5 opponents against Alabama and the University of Virginia since USI made the jump to D-I last season. Plus, Sunday marked the first game for USI Softball against a Division I top-25 team since reclassifying.
With their opening weekend in the books, the Screaming Eagles will next make a return trip to the state of Alabama next weekend, Friday through Sunday, for five games in the Cocky Classic at Jacksonville State University. USI faces the University of Southern Mississippi on Friday at 12:30 p.m., Jacksonville State at 10 a.m. and Belmont University at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, and Southern Miss at 10 a.m. and Jacksonville State at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Coverage links can be found on the USI Softball schedule page at usiscreamingeagles.com
Copyright 2024 WFIE. All rights reserved.
Welcome to BamaCentral’s “Just a Minute,” a video series featuring Alabama Crimson Tide on SI’s beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.
Watch the above video as BamaCentral baseball beat reporter Theodore Fernandez reflects on the first two months of Alabama baseball’s season and explains why the team has left much to be desired despite success on the field.
At face value, this has been a successful campaign for Alabama baseball. Entering the final four weeks of the regular season, a Crimson Tide team that was projected to finish No. 13 in the SEC is 9-9 in conference play, and just one game out of fourth place. The first sweep of Auburn in more than a decade, the Frisco Classic title, and a road series win over Oklahoma are big-time results that speak to the potential Alabama clearly possesses.
But it continues to appear increasingly likely that this team may not realize that potential.
There are issues up and down the roster. The bulk of the attention has been on Justin Lebron’s struggles. His career-high in errors and underwhelming offensive numbers have led to his draft stock beginning to fall, and it led to him even being experimentally moved out of the two-hole for a game against Arkansas.
Players like Luke Vaughn and Jason Torres have struggled, and there is still a significant amount of regular roster experimentation occurring on a week-to-week basis. Will Plattner, Justin Osterhouse, Chase Kroberger, Andrew Purdy and Peyton Steele are all among the players who have started games over the past two weekends and still appear to have undefined roles.
The biggest question remains the bullpen, as it is nearly impossible to predict what it will provide on any given day. There was a two-weekend stretch where it gave up just five earned runs over 22.1 combined innings against Auburn and Oklahoma, willing Alabama to wins in games where the bats did not show up. Then there have been the lows: implosions against Arkansas and Texas that cast serious doubt on the unit’s ability to show up in big moments.
In all of those areas where the team has struggled, there is hope of a turnaround. There are the bullpen’s aforementioned elite stretches. There are the web-gem plays in short by Lebron, that will leave him with one of the most impressive defensive highlight reels of any player in the nation. There’s Torres responding to a 1-for-12 weekend against the Razorbacks with a two-hit game where he drove in one of Alabama’s two runs to avoid a sweep against Texas last Sunday.
In a sport defined by randomness, where the thinnest of margins can mean the difference between going home in a regional or making a run to Omaha, we simply have no way of knowing where Alabama will land.
Would we really expect it any other way?
That’s baseball.
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A “joyful” 10-year-old Alabama girl was found dead soon after being reported missing — with another juvenile charged with her murder.
Katheryn Bigbee, 10, was reported missing just before 11 p.m. Friday, when police were called to an undisclosed address in Calhoun County, AL.com reported.
“Officers responded immediately to the residence,” Piedmont Police Chief Nathan Johnson said in a statement. “They tragically discovered a deceased juvenile inside the home.”
It remains unclear where the house was, or whether it was the young girl’s family home — but another juvenile was soon taken into custody and hit with murder charges.
Their identity and connection to Bigbee have not been disclosed due to their age.
Bigbee’s cause of death also remains unclear, with police saying the investigation was still ongoing.
“Our family has been torn to pieces, and we have lost the most amazing, sweetest little girl,” relative Blake Trammel wrote on Facebook.
“She was a light in any room she walked into. I cannot express the pain, guilt, and emptiness that has come from all of this. We don’t have answers, only more questions,” he added.
The girl’s school also recalled her as a beloved member of its community.
“Our entire Piedmont Elementary School family is grieving as we remember a sweet little girl who brought smiles, kindness, and a bright light to our halls each day,” the school said in a statement.
“Katheryn had a joyful, spunky personality that made her truly special,” the school said. “She was an enthusiastic reader and will be remembered for the happiness she shared so freely.”
“She will always be a part of our school family, and her memory will live on in the hearts of her classmates, teachers, and all who knew and loved her.”
Alabama AHSAA softball key dates and top teams approaching the 2026 playoffs originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Alabama’s AHSAA softball playoffs are just around the corner with three of the state’s top teams ranked in the national Top 15.
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The No. 5 Orange Beach [AL] Makos, No. 10 Thompson [Alabaster, AL] Warriors, and No. 15 Wetumpka [AL] Indians are all ranked in the most recent edition of the MaxPreps Top 50 with the start of Alabama’s postseason less than two weeks away.
Orange Beach was previously ranked No. 1 before losing to the South Warren [Bowling Green, KY] Spartans last week. Both teams were undefeated going into the contest, and the Barbers Hill [Mt. Belvieu, TX] Eagles took the Makos’ place at the top of the rankings following the loss.
WATCH: ALABAMA AHSAA SOFTBALL ON THE NFHS NETWORK
Key dates for the Alabama AHSAA softball playoffs
|
DATE |
PLAYOFF DEADLINES |
|
5/1-5/26 |
Area Tournaments |
|
5/11-14/26 |
Regional Tournaments |
|
5/18-22/26 |
State Tournaments |
National Top 50 contenders by classification
Alabama’s three nationally-ranked teams all compete in different classifications.
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Class 7A
The Thompson Warriors are 34-1-2, and they compete in the AHSAA’s top-level Class 7A ranks. The team’s only loss is to the No. 15 Wetumpka Indians in a 3-2 setback on April 3.
Class 6A
Wetumpka is 34-5, and as noted above, they are the only team to beat Thompson so far.
Class 4A
Orange Beach is the state’s top-ranked team despite competing at the AHSAA’s Class 4A level. Their loss to South Warren of Kentucky in a 6-1 setback on April 9 ended a 45-game win streak at the time. The Makos had only allowed 25 runs all season prior to the relative outburst by the Spartans.
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