Miscellaneous
The season is over, a champion has been crowned, and Tom Canterbury and Gray Robertson are ready to review the softball year that was in 2021 and even look ahead a little bit to 2022. Here's your trip around the bases (it's a long one, but you can parse it out all summer...we took our time trotting around the bags): At the Plate (0:00-38:05): After a stupendous intro, Tom and Gray recap the WCWS and discuss Alabama’s run in OKC, including Montana’s perfect game against UCLA and what happened in the two games against Florida State. Then, the guys give a detailed tribute to every senior leaving the program. Advancing to First (38:11-1:11:09): At the risk of everything changing, the guys go through the entire SEC and take a glance at what rosters might look like in 2022 while also talking about which teams might contend for next year’s conference title. Stealing Second (1:11:28-1:39:57): Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy joins the show to discuss his main takeaways from Team 25, the impact of the seniors, the potential for the pitching staff in 2022, Lexi Kilfoyl’s WCWS performance, Bailey Hemphill’s place in the Alabama power hitter rankings, the retirement of Mike Candrea and Lu Harris-Champer, ways to keep growing the sport, rules that need to be changed, and much more. Plus, Coach Murphy drops some breaking news about the coaching staff and gives a 2022 schedule sneak peek. Rounding Third (1:40:16-1:59:57): Fresh off watching Oklahoma win the national championship, ESPN analyst and All-American Kayla Braud joins the podcast to give her immediate thoughts on the win for the Sooners, life on the set of 7Innings Live during the championship series, whether this might be the best WCWS ever, Jocelyn Alo’s place in history, takeaways from the season both nationally and at Alabama, and so much more. Plus, everyone plays one final round of “What’s Good, Braud?” for the 2021 season. Heading Home (2:00:12-2:38:43): To close the show, the guys dive into the 2021 All-Name Team before explaining the wondrous meals in Oklahoma City for “Tom’s Hungry.” Then, Tom and Gray decide their medalists for the year-long Tom’s Hungry Podium before finishing off with an “Off the Wall” that details speculation around what players will do next year, evaluations of the season, and the fact that the segment even had to exist at all in 2021. Oh, and we’re coming back for Season Four.