TUSCALOOSA | How intimidating is Jackie Traina?

Ask the shark.

Traina, the University of Alabama softball team's sophomore pitcher, was attacked by a shark while swimming off a beach in Naples, Fla., her hometown, at age 16.

"It was like a little nibble," Traina said, "and I got 23 stitches in my toe."

She pitched that weekend in a national youth tournament.

Now, opposing batters are beginning to understand how the shark felt. Traina has emerged as one of the most intimidating pitchers in the nation, let alone the Southeastern Conference.

With a 1.08 earned-run average, a 15-0 record to go along with 120 strikeouts and 22 walks in 84 innings, she is the towering force behind Alabama's undefeated record and No. 1 national ranking.

Standing 5-foot-11, with shoulders like the Incredible Hulk, Traina throws power pitches that carry a top-end speed of 73 mph - the equivalent of a 103-mph fastball in baseball, because of the shorter distance from the pitching rubber to home plate.

Stanford shortstop Ashley Hansen, college softball's reigning national player of the year, saw her 2011 season come to an end at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Super Regional when Traina struck her out.

It was the fifth time Hansen had struck out in 226 plate appearances.

"When I step into the batter's box, I personally try not to pay attention to the stature of the pitcher," Hansen said. "I concentrate on the pitch she's throwing and try to block everything else out. But I can definitely see how she would be an intimidating presence on the mound because she's a big, tall girl and she's just 43 feet away."

And that's before Traina unleashes her power.

"Anyone who throws 70 mph, that can be intimidating because you don't see that speed every day," Hansen said. "I try to see it and react. Maybe I should have guessed. She struck me out because I couldn't get around on her.

"It's hard to describe. You can still see it, but your reaction time is just so much shorter."

Traina's catcher, Kendall Dawson, sees batters inching back in the box when they face Traina's heat.

"They don't really say a lot, but they kind of make a face and you can pretty much read from that when they swing through a pitch and she's throwing gas," Dawson said. "They take that first cut and they look back to see where the ball's at, because they couldn't see it the whole way in."

Dawson isn't immune to the dangers of Traina's heat. Under her catcher's mitt she wears a piece of foam beneath two shock-absorbing layers of padding.

And all that does only so much.

"My index finger, every time she throws it's like when you get hit in the funny bone," Dawson said. "It vibrates all the way up my finger and I can't feel my finger the rest of the day."

Traina's intimidation comes not only from her physical presence and the overpowering speed of her pitches. It also comes from reputation.

Cat Osterman, three-time national player of the year in college and owner of two Olympic medals, understands how that works. She threw a one-hitter against the U.S. national team when she was 17 years old.

"I think that's a big part of intimidation, what you've already done," Osterman said. "Teams are going to know about it. Anyone that's done their homework, the players know. Your reputation is going to be a big part of your intimidation as long as you start your game in that same way - not necessarily striking everybody out, but just going after people."

For Traina, the game against Stanford served notice. Not only did she strike out Hansen, the nation's toughest out, she sat down 11 batters in a row to finish off the Cardinal. The game was nationally televised, and the softball world was watching.

Engage her in conversation and she punctuates sentences with smiles and giggles. Hand her a softball and put her in the pitching circle, however, and her face becomes a blank mask. Her body language becomes deliberate, her focus always on the next batter.

"Once she gets in the zone and she puts the face on," said Alabama's All-America left fielder, Kayla Braud, "it's 'Uh-oh, here we go.' The first time I saw her I was like, 'Oh my gosh.'"

Traina's pitching coach, Stephanie VanBrakle, knows something about intimidation. She hit 40 home runs in her UA playing career from 2003-06 and also struck out more than nine batters per game on average. She sometimes sees batters, even entire teams, go weak in the knees.

"They're scared they can't hit it, scared they're going to get hit," VanBrakle said.

Traina often wears a necklace with a shark tooth. The tooth didn't come from her own shark attack, but she's willing to let people believe it did.

"It's just a total joke," she said.

That's the side her teammates see. Once they got to know her, she wasn't so intimidating.

"She'll just bebop around the dugout," Dawson said. "She likes to dance. She loves to do the wobble. She cracks everyone up."

The shark attack came on a stormy summer day. Traina wasn't supposed to be swimming.

"I was at the beach when I shouldn't have been," she said. "My mom came and she was so upset with me because I wasn't supposed to be there."

Traina's mother took her to the hospital. The player considered another alternative.

"I was bleeding," she said. "I was like, 'I've got to get stitches. I can't duct tape this together.'"

In the game, Traina shakes off adversity on the field the same way she did the shark attack.

"There's times when I'm like, 'This batter can't get on, this batter needs to get out,'" she said. "I don't want anything to faze me. I kind of like stay in the bubble, I always call it.

"When I get in a rhythm, you're aware of your body, you're aware of the umpire, (the catcher) behind the plate. When all that comes together and comes into synch, it feels good."

When she finds that place, Traina works fast. She throws a strike and immediately reaches out with her glove, demanding the ball back so she can throw it again.

"You want to get going," she said. "You want to set your tone."

No. 11 Tennessee at No. 1 Alabama

Where: Rhoads Stadium

When: 4 p.m. doubleheader

Records: Alabama 25-0, 6-0 SEC; Tennessee 19-6, 3-3 SEC)

TV: CSS

Radio: 90.7 FM

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.