Courtesy of Alabama Athletics/Noah Sutton.
Caroline Hardy
Alabama’s Caroline Hardy, third from left, delivered a pair of clutch hits during the Crimson Tide’s run to the Women’s College World Series.
The University of Alabama softball team calls it a “hug and bounce.”
It normally takes place following a game-winning hit, as the team floods out of the dugout and swarms the person who delivered it to celebrate.
On June 2, the team swarmed senior and Vestavia Hills High School alum Caroline Hardy, who had just ripped a base hit up the middle in the bottom of the eighth inning to score a run and lift Alabama to a 1-0 win over Oklahoma in the Women’s College World Series semifinals.
“That’s the stuff you dream about,” said Hardy, who drove in the game’s only run in her pinch-hit appearance.
In the double-elimination tournament, Alabama needed to defeat Oklahoma twice to advance to the championship series. Oklahoma went on to win the second contest 7-3, but the moment still resonated as one of the highlights of a tremendous season for the Crimson Tide. Alabama started the season with 33 consecutive wins, won the Southeastern Conference regular season title, advanced through regional and super regional tournaments and won three games at the WCWS in Oklahoma City.
Hardy notched her game-winning hit against Oklahoma’s Giselle Juarez, who had allowed just three hits in 7 2/3 scoreless innings to that point in the game.
Alabama coach Patrick Murphy had an inkling Hardy could execute in the pressure-packed moment when called upon.
“We’d decided after watching G cut us apart for a while to go to about a 75% swing, cut it down, you don’t have to kill it, just put it in play,” Murphy said. “[Hardy] did it perfectly. She’s smart like that, so I thought she’d buy in.”
It wasn’t the first clutch hit Hardy delivered during the postseason run. She also cleared the bases with a three-run double that gave Alabama the lead May 18 against Arizona State in the regional round.
“Caroline meant a lot to this team, not only as a senior leader and player, but as a person,” right fielder KB Sides said. “She was constantly making sure that everyone was prepared for their big moments on the field, while quietly preparing for her moment, and she finally had one of the bigger of her career in Oklahoma City.”
She attributed much of her late-season success to a mindset change ahead of the season’s final series — against LSU in Baton Rouge — after going over a month without a hit.
“I was in a bad place in my head and I was letting myself talk myself out of doing well,” Hardy said. “I had this conversation with myself. This is the last SEC series you’re ever going to get to play. Instead of putting pressure on yourself, just have fun and enjoy softball.”
Hardy was one of four seniors for Alabama in 2019, along with Merris Schroder, Reagan Dykes and Courtney Gettins. The road to the WCWS began immediately following the 2018 super regional defeat at Washington, as the upcoming seniors decided then and there to take ownership of the 2019 season.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do as seniors,” Hardy said, “and that was to lead the team, be good influences, hold people to a higher standard. Of course, you can’t do that without a team that’s willing to jump on board.”
Hardy said she’ll miss the relationships that she built at Alabama, along with the belief that everyone in the program had in her. As for the future, she wants to coach and is starting down that path with a position as a volunteer assistant at Georgia Tech next season.
