OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — It's on the wall in the practice facility and in the dugout whenever Alabama plays. It's right there in black and white on the players' wrists, too. FINISH IT.
With one game left to decide the NCAA softball championship, the Crimson Tide's season-long mantra has reached its ultimate point.
Jackie Traina and Amanda Locke each had three-run doubles and Alabama forced a decisive third game in the Women's College World Series finals by beating Oklahoma 8-6 on Tuesday night. The trophy will be handed out after Game 3 on Wednesday night.
"It's the perfect time to finish it right now," Traina said. "Tomorrow's going to be the day."
Traina laced a double to the warning track in left-center field with two outs in the second inning, putting the second-seeded Crimson Tide up 4-1. They wouldn't trail again.
Kaila Hunt added a sacrifice before Locke's bases-clearing double in the fourth for the Crimson Tide (59-8), who are trying to become the first Southeastern Conference team to win the NCAA softball title.
"Everybody was locked in and ready to go. I couldn't be more proud of a team," said Patrick Murphy, who briefly left to coach LSU for a few days last June before having second thoughts and returning to Alabama.
"This is what we've been working for — me for 16 years but these guys for four years. I'm just excited. I wish we could play right now."
Becoming one of my favorite sports, hate to see the season end. Exciting, enthusiastic, good sportsmanship and world class athletes. There is elation when they win, and some tears when they lose, just pure enjoyment. Watch the game tonight, the last one for the year. I lean toward Alabama, home of my old Citadel friend, Ambrose Copelan Hortman, Junior, from Euphala, Alabama on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Wonder where he is now.
