Who will step up as Alabama's ace in the circle? Will having a specialized hitting coach result in changes at the plate? And could this be a breakout year for Bailey Dowling?
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00:00 Welcome into Bama Central's Just a Minute.
00:03 A solo edition on this Thursday is Blake Byler's traveling back from Auburn.
00:07 But with it being Thursday,
00:08 that means the Alabama softball season kicks off today.
00:11 It is team 28.
00:13 And honestly, Alabama's coming into a season with a lot of questions.
00:16 It's the first time in five years that you don't have Montana Fats in the circle.
00:21 And really, it's the first time in over a decade that you don't really know who
00:25 the ace is, which leads me to my first point of kind of three things to watch for
00:29 Alabama this season.
00:30 The first is, who's gonna step up as the ace?
00:33 When I asked Patrick Murphy that in the preseason,
00:35 if he knew who the ace was right now, he said it's gonna have to be something
00:40 that happens as the season goes along because you don't really know what some
00:45 of these people have until they get into the pressure packed sixth and
00:48 seventh innings of an SEC game, a one run game.
00:50 And I'm kind of who's gonna step up in that moment?
00:52 I think, ideally, Alabama's gonna look for it to be Kayla Beaver,
00:56 the transfer from Central Arkansas that got some preseason national hype as
01:02 a top 50 preseason player, didn't maybe get a ton of SEC preseason hype.
01:06 People just don't maybe know a ton about her, but
01:08 I think she can throw above 70.
01:11 She's a hard thrower.
01:12 I think that's who Alabama's gonna look to.
01:14 And then the Crimson Tide saw some really good things from Jayla Torrance towards
01:18 the end of last season, and she's entering her senior season.
01:20 So I think that's someone else that Alabama's hoping is gonna step up.
01:25 Second thing to kind of watch for this season is a lot to make about
01:29 the coaching staff changes, Allison Habits retired.
01:32 But along with that, because the NCAA changed rule allowing a third paid
01:35 assistant, Alabama added Kayla Breaux to kind of replace Habits.
01:39 But also Adam Arbor moved over to the hitting coach role.
01:43 And throughout the offseason, Patrick Murphy's talked about that really kind of
01:46 the folks with this is that the players will only have one coach in their ear
01:51 about hitting instead of all the different coaches telling them different things.
01:54 And so I'm gonna be looking to see if that makes an impact.
01:58 Will Alabama have more offensive production this year?
02:00 Last year, they only had two people hit above 300,
02:02 Allie Shipman and Ashley Prangie, and both those people are gone.
02:06 And so you're gonna have to replace that, which kind of leads me to my third point.
02:11 And is this the breakout season for Bailey Dowling as she enters her senior season?
02:16 At one point early in her career,
02:17 Patrick Murphy said she could be one of the best hitters Alabama's ever seen.
02:20 Her career's been derailed a little bit by a knee injury, but
02:24 she also last season led Alabama in RBIs, I think had eight home runs.
02:28 And she has the power, so will we kind of see her kind of step into that role
02:33 as Alabama's leading hitter, maybe average wise, power wise, run production wise.
02:39 She's had a really good offseason throughout the fall and
02:42 spring according to Murphy, and
02:44 is likely gonna be manning the hot corner at third base.
02:47 And so I think she's in for a big year, and I think Alabama's gonna need that type
02:51 of production from her and all around on offense.
02:54 But the Crimson Tide will kick off the season Thursday night at 5 PM against
02:58 Villanova, and we'll have four more games after that over the following two days at
03:02 the Buzz Classic in Atlanta at Georgia Tech.
03:05 But that'll wrap up today's Just A Minute.
03:07 I'll have Alabama softball coverage all season.
03:10 You can follow along with.
03:11 Thank you so much for watching.
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