Alabama
South Alabama Scores 87 in Historic CFB Win vs. NWST Despite Shortened 4th Quarter
Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
South Alabama set FBS, program and conference records during Thursday night’s 87-10 victory over FCS member Northwestern State.
The win marked the highest-scoring victory by an FBS team over an FCS opponent in the matchup’s history, per Fear the FCS. Houston set in 1990, and Oklahoma State tied in 2012, the previous FBS-FCS record of 84 points.
The victory also marked the highest-scoring FBS outing since Fresno State’s 94-17 win over New Mexico in 1991.
South Alabama racked up the record-breaking points total despite the blowout being cut short as the fourth quarter was replaced with a six-minute running clock, per College Football Report.
South Alabama also set a program and Sun Belt Conference record with the team’s 87-point total. The team recorded its previous high of 55 points twice last season during wins over UL Monroe and Southern Mississippi.
Northwestern State was put in an almost immediate deficit when South Alabama’s Jamaal Pritchett returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown in the opening minute of the game.
South Alabama, which led by 14 points at the end of the first quarter, had extended the lead to 42 points at the half and 70 points by the end of the third quarter.
Jaguars quarterback Gio Lopez went 15-of-19 for 257 yards and four touchdowns in his season debut, while Fluff Bothwell and Kentrel Bullock combined for 15 carries, 245 rushing yards and four touchdowns in the victory.
South Alabama totaled 620 total yards of offense in the wind, while holding Northwestern State to 237 yards.
The victory marked Major Applewhite’s first win since he was named the program’s coach in January. The former Houston coach spent the past three years building the Jaguars’ offense before he was promoted to his current role.
Northwestern State will meanwhile continue searching for the program’s first win of the season following an 0-3 start.
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.
Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.
Follow
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.
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
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.
More high school sports
-
Culture3 minutes agoBook Review: ‘Permanence,’ by Sophie Mackintosh
-
Lifestyle9 minutes agoHow ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Red Carpet Looks Came Together
-
Technology21 minutes agoThe Vergecast Vergecast, 2026 edition
-
World27 minutes agoMexico pyramid shooter who took hostages and killed 1 is identified
-
Politics33 minutes agoByron Donalds cracks down on persistent border blind spot leaving US vulnerable to overstays
-
Health39 minutes agoHealthy diets spark lung cancer risk in non-smokers as pesticides loom
-
Sports45 minutes agoPGA Tour signals new era with axing of Hawaii events from schedule
-
Technology51 minutes agoAlexa+ lets you order food like a real conversation