Alabama Softball Coach Patrick Murphy elected to not sign a pitcher to replace graduated all-star Alexis Osorio. No. He signed three, including the national high school and junior college players of the year.

The Crimson Tide players started the spring semester Wednesday, and also opened preseason practice. Bama returns 12 players from the 2018 team that made its 20th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament (with a 14th straight season of winning a regional championship). There also are seven newcomers, with particular interest in pitchers.

Montana Fouts was USA Today and MaxPreps national prep player of the year after finishing her career at Easter Carter High School in Grayson, Ky. The 6-1 right-hander was a four-year All-America. As a senior she was 37-1 with 31 shutouts and 12-no-hitters, eight perfect games. She allowed just nine runs, three earned, in 232 1/3 innings for an earned run average of 0.09. She struck out 481.

Murphy called her “already the hardest-working pitcher we’ve ever had here.”

(Fouts will likely get more playing time than just pitching. Shee hit 64-113, a .566 batting average, with 71 runs batted in and 12 home runs among her 32 extra base hits).

Krystal Goodman, also a 6-1 righty, comes to Alabama from Chipola College where she was the National Junior College softball pitcher of the year. The Long Beach, Miss., native was 26-2 with an ERA of 0.46 last year as her team finished runner-up for the national championship. She struck out 227 batters in 181 1/3 innings, turned in 18 complete games, and held opposing batters to a .116 batting average. She was a two-time All-America and was also Academic All-America and had a 4.0 GPA in her first semester at Alabama.

Also joining the Bama pitching staff this year is Sarah Cornell, a 5-9 right-handed junior transfer from Hofstra, where she was Colonial Athletic Association pitcher of the year. She started 31 games as a freshman in 2017 before leading the league with 245 strikeouts over 222 1/3 innings as a sophomore in 2018, posting a 23-9 record. She helped lead the Pride to a CAA Tournament title last year, earning a save in the championship game against James Madison. That earned Hofstra an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, its first since 2015. The Pride was ranked No. 24 in the season's final NFCA poll.

Although Osorio has gone from last year’s Alabama team, the Tide returns senior Courtney Gettins, who was 14-5 with a 2.48 ERA last season, and 5-11 sophomore left-hander Madison Preston, 7-5 with a 3.17 ERA in 2018.

The newcomers are different than the returning pitchers. Gettins is best known for an excellent change-up, Preston for ball movement, particularly down drops.

Montana Fouts was national prep player of year

Regarding the newcomers, Murphy said, “Montana hit 72 on the gun (72 miles per hour on the speed gun measurement), Krastal hit 69, and Sarah hit 68, all on the same day. You hardly ever get a player who hits 68, and then let alone to have another 69 and another 72 on the same team.

“I’m really excited about the pitchers.”

Having five pitchers for the first time in his coaching career also offers a new challenge for Murphy.

“The biggest challenge for us is getting them to buy into the team concept of ‘maybe you pitch three (innings), you pitch two, you pitch two.’ In softball, that’s not really the way it’s done. They’ll pitch five games – not innings, games – in a day at a summer ball tournament and think it’s okay. And now we’re going to use everybody, particularly with two early tournaments – five games at Troy opening weekend (beginning Feb. 8) and five games at Arizona the next aainst really good teams.”

Murphy also recognizes the challenge he faces in managing the pitchers. He said, “I think that’s the hardest part of being a coach: ‘Do I take her out, or do I let her work herself out of it?’ You don’t want her to lose confidence by taking her out, but you don’t want her to get bombed and really lose confidence. It will be a tough thing for me to figure out.

“And then, which combinations work best because Montana and Madison might be incredible because they are complete opposites – Montana throws gas and Madison has more movement and is a little craftier. One’s a righty, one’s a lefty. Which one goes first, which one goes second. That’s the kind of thing we have to figure out as we go.”

Other observations from Murphy:

Bama has three who can catch in Reagan Dykes, Bailey Hemphill, and Caroline Hardy. “I just don’t think you can catch one kid for 56 games in college softball. We could do the same thing with catchers, match them with pitchers or 3-2-2 and keep them fresh for end of year.”

Alabama lost its three infielders (with 11 total seasons starting) in Sydney Booker, Demi Turner, and Peyton Grantham.

“Claire Jenkins has most experience,” Murphy said. “She has looked really, really solid at shortstop. Skylar Wallace is going to be one of best athletes we’ve ever had on our team – just made junior Olympic Team with Montana – has played short and second. And a transfer from Virginia Tech, Taylor Clark, who can play all three. KB Sides who we brought in this summer to play second base. She got better and better every day. Maddie Morgan, a sophomore, can play second and third. We’re going to play musical chairs in practice.”

Overall, Murphy said, this is a “very athletic team with 15 hitters and the five pitchers – and Montana will get a chance to hit. I think we have seven lefties and eight righties (hitters). It’s going to be a lot of fun to mix and match.

“And then we have Elissa Brown, one of the fastest kid in college softball. She could get 50 stolen bases this year, but she can’t steal first. She had 30-34 last year, but has to get on base.” The leadoff hitter batted .341 last year.

“Bailey Hemphill came along last year as 3-4 hole hitter. (Soph outfielder) Kaylee Tow was second rteam All-America. We have to have production in 6-7-8. Weren’t consistent last year. If get .280, .300 from those 6-7-8 I think we can do some damage.”

He said that Hemphill, Hardy, Wallace, KD Sides, and Merris Schroeder are hitters with power. “We could have a really, really tough 3-4-5-6,” Murphy said.

As usual, he expects the Southeastern Conference to be very good. For the past two years all 13 teams (Vanderbilt does not field a softball team) have made the NCAA Tournament.