Jaclyn Traina’s pitching talents are almost unheard of. Not many experienced pitchers can win a softball team a national championship. Traina, now a senior, did so as a sophomore.
In 2012, she went 42-3 with a 1.87 ERA. Thirty-seven of her 43 starts were complete games, and she pitched seven shutouts.
She was named the MVP of the Women’s College World Series and earned first-team NFCA All-American, Capital One Academic All-District, SEC Pitcher of the Year, SEC Tournament MVP and USA Softball Top 10 Player of the Year finalist accolades.
“She’s shown that you can win a national championship as a pitcher and still be a servant-leader and a very unselfish teammate, and that usually doesn’t go together, especially in that position,” coach Patrick Murphy said. “She hasn’t been a prima donna. She’s been very, very team-oriented. I mean, she’s just been a breath of fresh air, and I think everybody would say that about her too. They love playing behind her. She never points a finger. … She’s a rare breed.”
The team-oriented attitude existed before the 2012 National Championship.
Fellow senior Ryan Iamurri has played with Traina since tee ball. They’ve grown up together on and off the field.
Iamurri said she has seen her friend develop into the player she is today. When they played in high school, Traina wasn’t the team’s No. 1 pitcher.
“Her biggest strength as a pitcher is that she was consistent, like in the mind and on the field, so for her to carry that throughout, that’s what’s made her the best,” Iamurri said. “That’s what’s made her as good as she is, is because she’s consistent in her mind and on the field, so that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed growing up is just how emotionally mature and mentally strong she is on the field.”
If Traina is one thing, she is consistent. In each of her four seasons, she has more than 130 strikeouts. Her career ERA is under 2.0. She’s pitched 781 innings in her career with 899 strikeouts and 308 walks.
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When she came to Alabama as a freshman, Traina said she didn’t think about her future.
“I had confidence in myself, so I was going to do whatever the team needed, but I wouldn’t get as much as I did or have if it wasn’t for the girls behind me, you know, the rest of my teammates,” Traina said.
When she and junior Leslie Jury are practicing, Traina makes the experience fun, Jury said. Part of bullpen practice involves pitching around counterfeit batters. It’s not good when they hit the batters, but Jury said Traina encourages her to not let that bother her.
“Jac’s just like, ‘Get in there with them. Don’t be afraid to get it in there,’ and she just makes bullpens fun and light, and that’s just a great testament to who she is and [how she is] every day,” she said. “She makes working with her in the bullpen fun. It’s never a drain to be with Jackie.”
Traina plays for her teammates even when they are new to the team.
Senior catcher Molly Fichtner transferred from the University of Texas-San Antonio after her sophomore year. She said she wasn’t sure what to expect catching someone of Traina’s caliber.
“It’s never fun to go to a new catcher as a pitcher if you’re used to one catcher. You like to stick with what you know,” Fichtner said. “But when I came in, she was very, very open and welcoming, and I think that made my transition that much easier.”
This selflessness is part of the legacy that Traina said she wants to leave behind. Winning a national championship was great, she said, but the relationships she formed with her other teammates are a highlight for her. It’s important to Traina that people remember her as a team player.
“Probably that I played for my teammates,” Traina said about her legacy. “I didn’t necessarily play for the game, I played for my teammates because they’re what makes this special for me.”
The 2012 National Championship was all about the team’s theme, “Finish It,” for the six seniors on the team. She pitched every game in Oklahoma City. When Alabama played Oklahoma, the loss in the first game was Traina’s first loss in nearly a month.
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“At that point, she’s throwing every single game,” Iamurri said. “And at that point, your run is fully on your mental capacity, your mental strength, and of course she’s tired, she’s hurting, but if you look at the big picture, which is winning a national championship for those six seniors that year, it’s like nothing hurts. Nothing in your body hurts. You forget about it, and she was able to put all that aside and just win.”
The 5-4 win over Oklahoma in 2012 that clinched the program’s first national title was Traina’s 42nd win that year. She owns the Alabama record for most wins in a single season and led the nation in wins that year.
Her presence in the circle is something for the younger pitchers on the team to emulate.
“Jackie’s always been so dominant, so it’s been great to learn and gain some experiences from such a dominant power pitcher,” Jury said. “She never shows any emotion. She’s always attacking the batter. She’s developed a name for herself, and batters fear her, so it’s great to get to watch that because it instills in me the character that I want to have as a pitcher.”
Traina’s success wasn’t guaranteed. Recruiting a pitcher is almost as hard as recruiting a quarterback, Murphy said. Personality, perseverance and relentlessness are all factors.
“You’ve got to have the talent, obviously, but if you don’t have the head and the heart, you’re not going to last very long, because when there’s a circle drawn around you, and that’s the position that you play, you’d better have a lot of heart,” Murphy said.
Traina, he said, has the heart.
“I thought we were going to get a good one, but obviously you never know until they get on campus, and she just really blossomed,” Murphy said. “[She’s] one of those rare kids that come along maybe once or twice in a coach’s lifetime.”
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