OXFORD, Miss. | This time, there were a few tears scattered among the University of Alabama softball team's smiles and hugs.

Tears of joy, for winning a second straight Southeastern Conference title.

Tears of relief, for pulling out an unlikely championship on the final weekend of the regular season.

And tears of pain, for a city devastated by a tornado - a city they would return to after Sunday's 10-1 victory over Ole Miss to claim the league crown.

When the Crimson Tide clinched the championship a year ago, players through gloves in the air and jumped around in exultation. This time, they hugged and went to the edge of the field to share a cheer with parents and fans in the stands.

And when they broke their final team huddle after the game, they chanted as one: "T-town, never down."

That is the motto for fifth-ranked Alabama, which canceled three games a weekend ago in the wake of the disaster that leveled so much of Tuscaloosa. This is the motto the Tide will carry as long as the 2011 season lasts.

"This was for Tuscaloosa, West Alabama and all the communities that were hit by the tornado," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said.

Added outfielder Jennifer Fenton, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs, "We just wanted to bring it back for them."

That's not all this team is bringing back. After the Kentucky series was canceled, players were sent home to be with their families. Courtney Conley, a sophomore from Missouri, spent that time rounding up an 18-wheel truck and donations for tornado relief.

That truck, now full of food and diapers and clothing and other donated items, will pull into Tuscaloosa today.

"I just asked everybody I knew to bring whatever they could," Conley said. "The city has given us a lot, all the support. For 15 years they've built our program, so it meant a lot to me to go back there and bring something."

The team arrived back in Tuscaloosa last Tuesday for its first practice since the devastation rained down, carving a path across the city that came within a mile or so of UA's softball stadium, where the team had been practicing less than an hour earlier. Murphy could sense that the players were ready to move forward, but with a mission.

"When we met with the team, everybody got in a circle and I let them talk, whoever needed to talk," the coach said. "Six o'clock Tuesday night we had practice, and I heard one of them say, 'This feels good.'"

He told the team another thing at that meeting. He told his players they still had a championship to play for, that UA could repeat its league championship with a sweep of lowly Ole Miss if Florida beat Tennessee at least twice over the weekend.

By Sunday, the Gators have provided Alabama with the chance.

"Thankfully, we got the opportunity to have it in our hands," said senior ace Kelsi Dunne (23-3), who scattered six hits with six strikeouts and a couple of walks over seven innings for the win. "We knew we had the opportunity."

Ole Miss made it easy. By the end of the fourth inning, Alabama led 5-1 with just one hit, scoring its runs with help from a series of walks, hit batters and an error by the Rebels.

Fenton, who had a sacrifice fly in the second inning, doubled in a pair of runs in the fifth and singled in another in the seventh.

Alabama (45-7) earned the top seed in next week's SEC Tournament, which will also be played at the Ole Miss Softball Complex. The Tide will face eighth-seeded Mississippi State.

Alabama players wore houndstooth ribbons - a symbol of the tornado relief effort - on their sleeves all weekend. They will wear them for the rest of the season.

"We decided we were going to be playing for something bigger than ourselves," Conley said.

With a league championship, a top-five national ranking and a chance to enter the NCAA Tournament as a true contender, the Alabama softball team has higher aspirations than just the game.

"Maybe here and there we can provide a little smile for them with what people are going through," said Jazlyn Lunceford, an outfielder from Northport.

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