Patrick Murphy knows he’s crashing the party this year. The Alabama softball coach wasted no time acknowledging that Wednesday during the Crimson Tide’s opening press conference at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
“How many of you expected me to be here?” Murphy asked rhetorically with a smile draped across his face.
The answer is not many.
This is Murphy’s 15th trip to the WCWS with Alabama. It’s also his most unlikely.
The No. 14 seed Crimson Tide secured its spot by upsetting No. 3 seed Tennessee in the super regionals last weekend. After dropping Game 1 of the best-of-three series, Alabama battled back for a 14-inning win in Game 2. That set up a winner-take-all Game 3, where the Tide held on for a 4-1 victory thanks to a first-inning grand slam from Riley Valentine.
Postseason heroics aside, it’s been a tough road for Alabama. The Crimson Tide (38-18, 10-14 in the SEC) experienced its first-ever losing season in SEC play, dropping all but one of its conference series.
Until recently, the hitting has been abysmal. Alabama ranked second-worst in the SEC in batting average (.252), on-base percentage (351), slugging percentage (.386), hits (362) and runs scored (232). In its final eight games leading into the NCAA tournament, the Tide managed a combined eight runs over 64 innings, suffering four shutouts during that span.
While Alabama’s bats haven’t exactly erupted during the postseason, the Tide has been able to string together more runs by utilizing a small-ball approach at the plate. After opening its regional with a 1-0 win over South Carolina Upstate, Alabama has scored 27 runs in its other five NCAA tournament games.
“We really started working on hit-and-run, slap-and-run, bunt-and-run, delayed steal, steal, all of it. A little bit at a time. I think the second game against Southeastern in regionals where it's 1-1 in the ninth, a pinch hit for two runs, we pile on three more, I think that kind of started — everybody took a deep breath, We can do this.”
Of course, the biggest reason Alabama is still standing is due to its work inside the circle.
The Crimson Tide is led by a pair of ace pitchers in Central Arkansas transfer Kayla Beaver and freshman Jocelyn Briski.
Beaver (18-9) boasts a 1.58 earned-run average and has struck out a team-high 178 batters over 186⅓ innings pitched. The graduate transfer has been practically untouchable during the NCAA tournament, allowing just one earned run and 14 hits over 25 innings pitched.
Briski (10-5) has a 2.17 earned-run average and has struck out 75 batters over an even 100 innings of work. That includes the deciding game in the Knoxville Super Regional when she earned the win by holding Tennessee to one run on four hits over 6⅓ innings.
“The name of the game is fastpitch softball,” Murphy said. “Not fast run, not fast hit, not fast defense. The reason we're here is because of these two young ladies [Beaver and Briski]. … They have done a tremendous job all year.
“We preach the defense and the pitching stays constant. If we can scratch a run, we're going to win. They've basically done that all year.”
Alabama will continue its unexpected run at 11 a.m. CT on Thursday when it takes on No. 6 seed UCLA (42-10) at Oklahoma City’s Devon Park. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Now that Murphy and his team have crashed the party, they plan on putting a show.
“We went through the stuff. Now we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that's Oklahoma City,” Murphy said. “We persevered. We got through it. Nobody quit. It was one of the most enjoyable teams to coach because they didn't quit. Now we're here. We're going to relish every second because there's no bad day at the College World Series.”
