A Great Weekend Around Alabama Athletics

It was a weekend of firsts. Something any sports fan can appreciate, something those that follow these particular teams closely will remember for ages.

“To have four straight shutouts versus SEC teams is unheard of.”

That was a quote from Patrick Murphy following Saturday’s action, when the Tide not only shut out the South Carolina Gamecocks softball team, but both games were called under the mercy rule.

Now, I have to wonder what he’s thinking. After Sunday’s game, the Alabama ladies have shut out five consecutive SEC teams dating back to last week's two-game series against Arkansas.

The team sits comfortably as the crowned SEC West Champions. The ladies have lost two SEC games this season, one of them to Florida. I bring that up because it’s Florida that holds the best SEC record right now, and they still have one of their toughest series on the horizon.

Barring an Alabama loss, which I don’t see happening, Alabama fans might find themselves in an unusual position rooting for Tennessee when the Vols face the Gators in a three-game series to conclude the season.

One loss for the Gators would put Alabama and Florida sitting together on top of the SEC.

Breaking that down a little further…

Regular season champions in SEC Softball are determined by the win/loss record. If two teams are tied, which Bama and Florida may be, it becomes a shared title.

The next question falls into where they are seeded in the SEC tournament, scheduled to be played in Baton Rouge in May. If both teams are tied, then the tie breaker is winning percentage. That puts a lot of weight in the series UT and the Gators are looking at during the last week of the season.

The softball teams’ sweep of South Carolina wasn’t the only sweep UA enjoyed this weekend.

The Alabama Men’s Golf team swept, for the first time in our history, the SEC Championships this weekend at Saint Simon's Island in Georgia.

Not only did the team win the tournament by an impressive margin, but nationally recognized Michael Thompson won the tournament as well.

The win marks the sixth victory in 10-stroke tournament play this year. What's more striking is the team's SEC title makes the first title for Alabama in the last 29 years.

Thompson’s win marks the first individual title for an Alabama golfer in the last 56 years.

Undoubtedly seasoned by the rigors of facing PGA competition several days ago, Thompson would be a great example of something Nick Saban talks about often:

Finishing.

“Michael played unbelievable golf. A 65 today under all the pressure and everything that’s going on,” said Alabama Head Coach Jay Seawell, "That was a total round today. I’m very proud of him and happy for him.”

“There’s nothing I can describe in words how pumped up we are,” said Thompson from the clubhouse after his team won. “We were high-fiving on the 18th green, just going nuts. It was crazy.

"And then one of our former golfers who flies us, he was calling all the guys who played on that 1979 team (the last Alabama squad to win the SEC title,) and he said that they were all screaming.”

Just to demonstrate how strong a team Seawell has put together this year, Thompson’s win marks the fourth different UA golfer to have won a tournament this season, joining Joseph Sykora, Mark Harrell, and Matthew Swan.

The NCAA announces the fields for its three regionals on Monday, May 5.

Did I mention the Alabama baseball team won its series against Mississippi State this weekend?

Alabama has won 51 of the 69 SEC home series under Jim Wells since the 1995 season. Dating back to the 2005 season, Alabama has won 16 of its last 18 SEC home series.

The Crimson Tide has won six straight SEC home series, dating back to last season.