Alabama Softball Faces No. 20 Louisiana, Five-Game Field at Mardi Gras Mambo

This Week: at #20/20 Louisiana, Mardi Gras Mambo

No. 2 Alabama plays a Thursday night road game against 20th-ranked Louisiana before five more games at the Mardi Gras Mambo in Youngsville, La., including a rematch with the Ragin' Cajuns on Sunday.
The two games against Louisiana will be the Crimson Tide's fourth and fifth ranked matchups so far this season, previously beating then-No. 9 Arizona, 11-0, and then-No. 8 Virginia Tech, 1-0 and 2-0
Alabama went 5-0 at the Easton Bama Bash, defeating Evansville once and taking two from both Middle Tennessee and then-No. 8 Virginia Tech
Montana Fouts was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week after going 2-0 last weekend with just one run allowed and 24 strikeouts
Head Coach Patrick Murphy is in his 24th season as head coach at Alabama with a 1,158-320 (.783) record
Alabama returns 11 players from last year's team that made the Women's College World Series semifinals, including a pair of All-Americans in Montana Fouts and Kaylee Tow
The Tide welcomes nine newcomers, including three transfers and six freshmen

Alabama went 5-0 at last weekend's Easton Bama Bash, outscoring its opponents 30-3 including three run-rule victories along with a trio of shutouts.
The Tide has now gone undefeated at the Easton Bama Bash in five of the last six seasons
Ally Shipman batted 6-for-12 (.500) over the weekend, hitting two doubles, two home runs and driving in a team-leading nine RBIs
The Tide pitching staff earned a combined 0.68 ERA with three earned runs allowed over 31.0 innings pitched with 43 strikeouts and just four walks

Fouts went 2-0 over three appearances at last week's Easton Bama Bash, allowing just one run on six hits while striking out 24 batters over 13.1 innings pitched
She started the weekend with a complete-game shutout over then-No. 9 Virginia Tech, holding the Hokies to three hits while striking out 11
She then notched a save in the weekend's first matchup against Middle Tennessee before earning a complete-game win in the rematch with the Blue Raiders, striking out 13 over 6.0 innings
The weekly award is the first this season for Fouts and the 10th of her career, previously winning Freshman of the Week four times in 2019 and Pitcher of the Week five times over her three years in Tuscaloosa
Crimson Tide pitchers have now won a combined 46 SEC Pitcher of the Week awards

Alabama only has one error over its first nine games, its lowest total over a nine-game start to the season in program history, beating the previous record of three from 2019
The Tide's 14 home runs are its third-highest total over nine games to start a season, only trailing the 15 in 2000 and 21 in 2011
The five walks given up by Alabama pitching through the first nine games is its lowest total, just one better than the previous record of six set last season

Kaylee Tow's double on Saturday against Virginia Tech gave her sole possession of 10th place in Alabama career history with 42, now two shy of ninth-place Dani Woods (2005-08)
Tow is also tied with Charlotte Morgan (2007-10) at 7th in career walks with 134, five shy of sixth-place Jackie McClain (2001-04)
Montana Fouts has 21 career shutouts, which is tied with Jaclyn Traina (2011-14) for 6th in UA history