No. 2 Alabama stays perfect

The No. 2 Alabama softball team did not win its second home tournament of the season - but it wasn't because they were beaten.

The torrential rain Sunday morning cancelled the championship round of the Hampton Inn Crimson Classic.

The Crimson Tide hosted New Mexico, Middle Tennessee State and Georgia Tech over the weekend and played each team once to determine playoff seeding.

Alabama was unstoppable, defeating New Mexico 10-2 in five innings and MTSU 6-0 on Friday night.

"[I was] happy with the defense," head coach Patrick Murphy said. "It was one of the keys for this week was to play better defense as a team and the second game was I thought terrific. [It] might have been the best defensive game we've played all year."

The Alabama bats also led to the victories for the Tide Friday by outscoring their opponents 16-2.

"Offensively, it's been a lot of fun so far with so many different people with the two freshmen to come in big in the top of the order, the bottom of the order, it's nice to have the bottom of the order hit a two-run homerun," Murphy said.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were next up for the Tide on Saturday afternoon and the Tide put its bats to work to get a 9-5 victory.

The win gave Alabama a 3-0 record against the field and put them in the No. 1-seed going into the first playoff game Saturday afternoon.

Alabama took on No. 4-seed Middle Tennessee State, who went 0-3 in the tournament, to determine who would go to the championship round.

The Tide had no problems advancing to the championship game, defeating Middle Tennessee State in convincing fashion 7-1.

Senior Chrissy Owens was dominant for Alabama, pitching five innings against the Blue Raiders with five strikeouts and giving up one hit and no runs.

Junior Allison Moore came in to relieve Owens and had two strikeouts, two hits and one run in two innings of work.

The Tide bats were led by Charlotte Morgan, who had two hits and three RBIs, and Brittany Rogers and Ashley Holcombe, who also had two hits.

Georgia Tech defeated New Mexico 6-0 to earn the right to play Alabama in the championship game on Sunday before the rain came over Tuscaloosa.

Despite not being able to play the championship game, the weekend was a success for Alabama in many ways, as they brought their season record to 10-0 and are looking at a new national ranking.

The Tide was ranked No. 2 nationally in both polls heading into the weekend, behind the Arizona Wildcats.

Arizona was supposed to open the season on Friday with a double-header but it was cancelled due to rain.

Saturday, the Wildcats lost to No. 7 Northwestern and No. 3 Texas A&M in a double-header to start the season off 0-2.

This gives the 10-0 Tide a chance of being No. 1 in the nation for the second time in program history when the rankings are released today.

Alabama won't play in Tuscaloosa again until SEC rival Tennessee comes to town for a three-game series beginning March 8.

The Tide's next action will be Friday as they travel to Miami, to face Connecticut, Florida International and Illinois at the Florida International Fun in the Sun Tournament.