The University of Alabama softball team needs a home stand coming off last weekend, and gets one starting Wednesday.

The Crimson Tide hosts North Florida to begin a string of six straight home games after dropping the final two games of a three-game series at ranked Louisiana-Lafayette last weekend.

Alabama won the first game, 3-0, but scored just two runs over the last 16 innings of play against the Ragin' Cajuns. Alabama was outscored 18-2 in the two losses, which included a run-rule defeat in the middle game of the series and a shutout loss in the finale.

UA's pitching, which had been sterling in the first seven games of the season, was ineffective over the course of the two defeats. With all three pitchers returning from last season, including All-Americans Alexis Osorio and Sydney Littlejohn, pitching is expected to be the Crimson Tide's strength in 2017.

The hitting, however, was par over the course of a week that saw Alabama go 2-2, with a midweek victory over South Alabama in the only home game so far this season. The top hitters for the week, freshman catcher Bailey Hemphill and sophomore outfielder Merris Schroder, batted .333.

Alabama will host Central Florida, Texas Tech and Gardner-Webb this weekend in the Easton Bama Bash, which runs Friday through Sunday

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