There’s a giant eight on the wall in the Alabama softball locker room, serving as a daily reminder.

It’s meaning isn’t overly cryptic, like the number of wins the team needs to get to Oklahoma City for the College World Series or how being seeded in the top eight of the NCAA Tournament means hosting a super regional if the team advances that far.

This message has been much more direct.

When the Southeastern Conference coaches voted in the league’spreseason poll back in January, the Crimson Tide was tabbed to finish eighth. That corresponded to maybe a .500 conference record and in the bottom half of the standings.

“We just used it as fuel,” junior outfielder Elissa Brown said.

Heading into this week’s SEC Tournament, which gets under way at Texas A &M on Wednesday, Alabama is the top seed. Ironically, it could face the No. 8-seeded team after a first-round bye, and needs just two wins to reach the championship game.

That’s important because the more it plays at College Station the better it helps the Crimson Tide’s RPI, which the selection committee uses in helping determine the NCAA brackets.

Alabama is No. 7 in the latest RPI, which doesn’t quite seem right since the Crimson Tide is the only team in the nation with 50 wins, but this year the Pac-12 is a little more top-heavy with Washington, UCLA and Arizona all in the top five

However, both major polls see it differently.

The USA Today/NFCA poll has Oklahoma the unanimous No. 1 followed by Washington, UCLA and Alabama. The ESPN.com/USA Softball top 25 has it Oklahoma, UCLA, Washington and Alabama.

“Shoot, that tournament’s like a World Series, except it’s one-and-done,” Murphy said about SEC Tournament. “That’s the fun part of it, you have to play well to advance and hopefully it’ll help us down the stretch.”

Although a lot can still happen, Alabama is the SEC’s best chance to reach Oklahoma City and advance.

Yet the other league coaches did have their reasons for doubting this team.

For the past couple of years the Crimson Tide had regressed a little. Granted, a .500 team in the league is still a very good team in the national scope, but Alabama hadn’t been to the Women’s College World Series since 2016.

In 2017 it lost in a super regional to No. 2 Florida. Last season ended at the same point, at No. 5 Washington. Alabama finished 46-18 and 36-20, with the corresponding conference records of 12-11 and 12-12, respectively.

Plus, there was a lot of turnover on the team. The 2019 squad has a completely new infield and the pitching staff was overhauled with three new arms.

So yes, there was doubt. Not just in the league, but even Alabama’s biggest boosters were beginning to openly wonder if Patrick Murphy’s program had peaked.

2019 SEC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll (First-Place Votes in Parentheses)

Place, School, Points; Final standings

1] Florida (10) 142; Alabama 18-6, 50-6

2] Georgia (2) 130; Tennessee 14-10, 39-13

3] Tennessee 108; LSU 14-10, 40-15

4] South Carolina 105; Kentucky 14-10, 32-21

5] Arkansas 97; Ole Miss 13-10, 36-16

6] LSU 85; Florida 12-12, 40-15

7] Kentucky (1) 81; Georgia 12-12, 39-16

8] Alabama 80; Arkansas 12-12, 38-17

9] Auburn 69; Missouri 12-12, 32-22

10] Mississippi State 40; Auburn 10-14, 35-18

11] Texas A &M 32; South Carolina 9-14, 36-16

12] Ole Miss 30; Mississippi State 9-15, 32-20

13] Missouri 15; Texas A &M 6-18, 28-24

He just did what the coach always does, kept plugging away.

“Murphy has been very consistent with how he approaches us and how he coaches us,” senior outfielder KB Sides said. “I think that’s what made us and what we’re doing now. He’s just awesome.

“He doesn’t go crazy when we lose a game. He tells us every day that he’s proud of us. We could barely win a game, like against Arizona we had a couple of games we didn’t score a lot of runs, but he was like ‘keep working.’ Coming off the loss from South Carolina, it was hard for us to lose a series, but he didn’t change anything at all. We came to practice the next day and it was like nothing had happened, and just kept going.”

The second-guessing aside, there are primarily five things that a softball team needs to make a postseason run at this level and this team has all of them.

The first three are the key components of the game: Hitting, fielding and pitching.

Last season, Alabama his .273 as a team with 51 home runs, 250 RBIs. Even without playing a single postseason game yet this year’s team is batting .292 with 74 home runs and 320 RBIs.

A year ago the Crimson Tide committed 55 errors. The .965 fielding percentage was 11thin the league. This season Alabama is third at .973.

In 2018, staff ERA was 2.44, with opponents batting .218. This year’s staff ERA is 1.94, with opponents hitting .204.

Freshman Montana Fouts’s 1.00 ERA is second in the league, as is the .156 batting average by opponents. Krystal Goodman’s 1.18 ERA is third. Sarah Cornell, the SEC Pitcher of the Year thanks to a 20-1 record is at 2.09.

Having one pitcher with those kinds of numbers would give any team a lot of confidence. Having three like on the same team is rare.

Alabama lowest career ERA (minimum 300 innings pitched)

1] 1.16 Chrissy Owens (531.0 IP) 2005-08

2] 1.46 Shelley Laird (1054.2 IP) 1999-02

3] 1.53 Stephanie VanBrakle (844.0 IP) 2003-06

4] 1.61 Kelsi Dunne (869.0 IP) 2008-11

5] 1.77 Sydney Littlejohn (538.2 IP) 2014-17

6] 1.83 Alexis Osorio (748.0 IP) 2015-18

7] 1.93 Penny Cope (394.1 IP) 1998-99

8] 2.03 Jaclyn Traina (863.2 IP) 2011-14

9] 2.10 Christy Caccavo (350.2 IP) 1997-98

10] 2.12 Charlotte Morgan (389.2 IP) 2007-10

The fourth element is leadership. Murphy points to senior catcher Reagan Dykes and relief pitcher Courtney Gettins.

“Our senior class has done a heck of a job,” he said. “Reagan has been an incredible leader.

“That’s really been the key to the whole season, those two. When you have good leadership and people respect them, our job’s easy because they’re taking care of stuff behind the scenes.”

But finally, there’s Murphy himself. Not only is this a little redemption for him, but he’s been here before and won the SEC’s first national championship.

Maybe this team is good enough to get that far. It has all the necessary qualities, plus speed, although Oklahoma will be clear favorite, especially with the World Series easily within driving distance of campus.

But Alabama nearly swept the SEC postseason awards and has played nine games against opponents with a top-10 RPI. It won them all and still feels it has something to prove.

“From the beginning we knew that this team was special,” Brown said. “We just mix well.”