2012 Alabama softball title team still has special connection with each other
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Ten years later, Courtney Conley still gets emotional thinking about it.
It was such a seminal moment in the story of the 2012 University of Alabama softball national championship season, and one that perhaps defines the team.
“It kind of brings me to tears,” said Conley, the third baseman on the 2012 team.
In the decisive game of the Women’s College World Series on a wet night in Oklahoma City, Alabama trailed 3-0, but was in the middle of a rally against the Oklahoma Sooners. OU pitcher Keilani Ricketts threw her third wild pitch of the inning to score Kaila Hunt for Alabama’s first run of the game.
Sooners coach Patty Gasso immediately met with umpires, who suspended play due to weather.
During that 11-minute delay, Alabama players stood in the rain and led the Crimson Tide faithful who made the trip to OKC in a series of cheers while Sooners’ players sat unmoved in the dugout.
It was also during this time that Crimson Tide player Cassie Riley-Boccia mentioned to the team something her grandfather once told her.
“He said that rain is one of the only ways God can touch you,” Conley said. “I think that’s cool that’s what happened to us in that rain delay.”
The rest of the story you already know. Alabama scored four runs in that fourth inning and held on to win 5-4 and claim the school’s first national title.
Members of that title team reunited this past weekend to celebrate that moment at Rhoads Stadium.
“I didn’t know I needed it, but I needed it,” Conley said of the reunion. “You forget, after being gone for so long, the electricity in that stadium.”
The 2012 team finished the season with a 60-8 record, an SEC Tournament title and the national championship. Four players earned All-America honors: Jennifer Fenton, Amanda Locke, Kaila Hunt and Jackie Traina, who was also the SEC Pitcher of the Year.
Traina was in the circle again last weekend to throw out the first pitch before the Crimson Tide’s game with Georgia.
“It was actually my first time back,” Traina said. “Being able to surround myself with such great people and fans, my heart couldn’t be any fuller.
“We picked up where we left off. This is exactly what everyone needed.”
The 2012 team won the first title, but the 2011 team paved the way. That team had its best WCWS start, winning the first two games. Alabama was crushed by Florida the next two games and eliminated.
“The mindset (for 2012) was, we know what we have to do, we just have to put that plan into motion,” Traina said. “We’ve been there and know what it takes. We had the tools to do it, we just had to make it happen.”
They did. Alabama won its first 25 games.
“Everyone was on the same page,” Traina said. “We had the speed, the power, the pitching was going well. We were like, ‘Let’s just keep going with what we have and display our talent.’”
Alabama lost just once in the postseason, the opening game of the title series with Oklahoma, and Traina pitched the final 10 games. That’s 70 innings in 18 days.
“Her body is probably still taking hits from that 10-game stretch,” Conley said. “She was like a robot out there. She could keep going and going.”
In that final game with Oklahoma, Conley played a big role in the outcome. She had just one hit in the WCWS and came to the plate with the tying run on second.
“(Trainer) Nick Seiler told me before the season that he had a gut feeling I would get a really big hit in a key moment,” Conley said. “I laughed it off.”
Conley doubled to straightaway center field on a full count with two outs.
“I really believe in the power of suggestion now,” Conley said.
Conley later scored the go-ahead run on an error as part of the big fourth-inning rally that propelled Alabama to the title.
It all started with a rally in the rain.
“They were so fired up for that moment,” Traina said of her teammates. “They were prepared for that moment. They were ready to continue playing. We didn’t take time to gather ourselves or settle down. It was like we were still playing. It was contagious.”
Traina, fittingly, recorded the final out, striking out Ricketts, Oklahoma’s star player. Then the celebration was on as players dogpiled in the circle as head coach Patrick Murphy hugged his assistants near the dugout.
The team watched those highlights this past weekend. As she watched sitting beside her former teammates, Traina thought about a Buddhist term Murphy likes to use -- Mudita. The simple definition is, taking joy in the success of others.
“There were so many people that were just happy for each other,” Traina said of winning the title. “That’s what made our team so special. With everyone coming back this weekend, it really showed that we still have that.”
