Alabama Softball's Keys to Beating UCLA in WCWS Opener

OKLAHOMA CITY–– Alabama's opening game at the Women's College World Series will be a test of strength versus strength. The top-seeded Crimson Tide has a top-two ERA in the country and will be beginning play against the betting hitting team in the country in No. 8 UCLA.

UCLA's offense is on a historic pace this season. To put things in perspective, Alabama is 11th in the nation with 97 home runs, and the Bruins have more than doubled that number with 200 home runs this season ( a new NCAA record.)

There are eight different UCLA hitters with double-digit home runs and four with at least 20. Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery lead the way with 40 and 34 respectively.

"It's like the New York Yankees, Murderers' Row, you name it," Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said Wednesday. "You look at the numbers, and you're like, wait a minute, how in the world? Woolery has I don't know how many home runs but also like 200 RBIs.

"You say, OK, I'm going to walk her, and then the next girl has 20 home runs, and you say, oh, I'm going to walk her, and then the next girl has 18. It is obviously a very difficult lineup to pitch against, to defend against. It is the Bronx Bombers for sure. I know we're going to do anything and everything. We're going to throw the kitchen sink and see what happens."

It might have been a slight exaggeration from Murphy, but Woolery does have 112 RBIs on the season to lead the nation by a comfortable margin. (The next closest is Boston's Kylie Doherty with 89.)

Murphy never reveals his pitching plan, but Alabama junior ace Jocelyn Briski will likely get the start in the circle for the Crimson Tide. She faced UCLA last season in the Clearwater Invitational and held the Bruins down for five innings before giving up six runs in the sixth.

Briski greatly improved from her sophomore season (17-13, 2.99 ERA) to her junior campaign (23-3, 1.30 ERA.) There hasn't been a single outing all season in which she's given up six runs this year. She is ready for the challenge UCLA brings.

"Obviously UCLA is a great team, historically as well," Briski said. "They have some really, really awesome hitters. I think it’s gonna be a really fun challenge. I think we have to look at it as an opportunity and not something to be scared about. They’re going to score runs, but we’re also going to score runs as well, so it’s just minimizing it. Murph was saying keeping it in single digits, not letting innings get too big, not letting them put crooked numbers on the scoreboard. I think if we do that, we have a great chance to win."

Both Murphy and Briski emphasized limiting the Bruins to single runs in a frame and not allowing any crooked-number innings that create too large of a hole to climb out of.

Alabama has an elite pitching staff to face UCLA's elite offense, but the Tide bats still have to be ready to go. Murphy doesn't want his team to waste opportunities at the plate to provide his starter with run support.

"Against UCLA, they have the best offense in the country," Murphy said. "We cannot get shut down. We have got to take advantage of opportunities— runner at second, bases loaded, whatever it might be. We have to score those people on base.”

The series between the Crimson Tide and Bruins on the softball diamond has been dominated by UCLA, winning 12 of the 13 previous matchups. Alabama was the underdog in most of those past meetings, but that won't be the case in Oklahoma City on Thursday night.

As the No. 1 seed, Alabama is one of the favorites to win the national title, and that journey starts with the Bruins at Devon Park. The WCWS is a double elimination tournament, so Alabama's season won't end with a loss, but the path to the championship series is a lot easier moving through the winner's bracket.

"They play aggressive," UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said of Alabama. "I believe that their culture is strong. They can pitch. They can hit. They can defend. There's a lot of respect for the program.

"We've gone back and forth through the years, and I expect nothing more than just a great, competitive ballgame."