Alabama will be staying home.

The Crimson Tide was named a five-seed in the NCAA softball bracket released Sunday night. Its first game will be against LIU in the Tuscaloosa Regional. The Sharks went 32-24 and won the Northeast Conference tournament, securing their place as an auto-bid.

Middle Tennessee (39-18) won the Conference USA title and will face the ASUN tournament champs Central Arkansas (44-10) as the other side of the bracket.

Alabama had another strong year under longtime head coach Patrick Murphy, who was seen on ESPN2′s live feed with a wind-up celebration as the Tide saw its seeding revealed.

Murphy picked up his 1,200th win of his career in February. In Alabama’s last four seasons, not including a pandemic-shortened 2020, it has at least 40 wins, going 40-18 overall this year with a 14-10 mark in the Southeastern Conference.

Alabama had slightly faltered heading into the postseason and went on a 6-5 stretch before the conference tournament. The Tide reached the SEC semifinals, knocking off Missouri and defending champs Arkansas before falling to Tennessee. But despite the failure to win the auto-bid, the Tide’s NCAA tournament resumé was well cemented before last week.

The Tide entered Sunday as the No.12 team in the country per NCAA’s RPI behind two other SEC schools, LSU and Tennessee. It had 10 wins over ranked opponents and placed four players in the conference’s end-of-year awards. Graduate student Montana Fouts had another historic campaign with a 1.44 ERA and 311 strikeouts. Infielder Ashley Prange also belted a team-high 16 home runs.

According to ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Fouts will see an orthopedic doctor in Tuscaloosa tomorrow to evaluate a lower leg injury suffered versus Arkansas on May 11. Fouts did not pitch in Alabama’s 7-6 loss to the Lady Volunteers.

The Women’s College World Series will take place June 1-9 in Oklahoma City.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].