For the 15th time in school history, the Alabama Softball team is heading back to OKC for the Women's College World Series. It is even sweeter that this Crimson Tide team was able to go on the road, against arch-rival Tennessee and give the Volunteers their first SEC series loss of the season. The entire weekend run in Knoxville was magical as this Alabama team overcame a heart-breaking loss on Friday, got a walk-off win in the 14th inning on Saturday, and then came back strong to coast to a Super Regional Championship. Sunday's game was unusual. It included a first inning grand slam and a three hour weather delay.
This Alabama team has overcome so much. There have been many doubters all season. The lack of hitting during the regular season, and the first losing record in SEC play may be the first time many fans seriously doubted the program's direction. There seemed to be a feeling from some that maybe it was time to move away from Murphy. The complaints seemed to get louder as things ended quickly for the Tide in the SEC tournament. Clearly the team took the criticism personally and used the doubt as motivation during this wild ride back to OKC.
You can't say enough about this team's grit and tenacity. The pitching performances from Jocelyn Briski and Kayla Beaver this weekend will go down in Alabama softball lore forever. Riley Valentine's first inning grand slam on Sunday and Kristen White's walk off winner in the 14th on Saturday will long be remembered favorably by the Crimson Tide fan base.
It will be fun to see what this softball team does next week in the World Series. For now we just need to enjoy what is becoming the best run in program history. Similar to the basketball team, with a lot of naysayers going into the post season, Alabama Softball shined the brightest and showed up when the season was on the line.