Alabama’s comeback 6-5 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers Thursday night belonged to the team’s freshmen. Sydney Littlejohn threw eight innings of scoreless relief, Marisa Runyon hit a bottom-of-the-seventh home run to send the game to extra innings, Chandler Dare came in as a pinch runner and made a sliding catch in right field to end the top of the 10th, and the night was capped by Peyton Grantham’s walk-off home run to centerfield, ending the longest game in NCAA Super Regional history in the bottom of the 12th inning. “It was the freshmen show tonight,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “All four of them contributed. Sydney obviously did her job. When I gave her the ball I said, ‘the job of the reliever is to keep the score the same of the other team,’ and she did it for eight innings. And then Peyton comes through. She had just missed the time before and she didn’t miss that time. It was just a heck of a game to start the super regional.” Senior ace Jaclyn Traina only made it four innings of the 12-inning contest, giving up eight hits and four runs, facing 20 batters and throwing 100 pitches. “I thought she was trying to throw a little too hard,” Murphy said. “When she throws too hard, the ball doesn’t move as much. It comes in 70 mph. They were right on it, gotta give credit to their hitters.” Littlejohn had one of the best outings of her career relieving Traina, retiring 9 straight in a 3-hit, 115 pitch outing. “Coming out of the bullpen, it’s just about keeping the team in the game – leaving the game where it is,” Littlejohn said. “But going out there, that’s all you have to do. The job of the reliever is to leave the score the same.” Four defensive errors by Nebraska ruined the Huskers’ hot start, letting Alabama back in after the Crimson Tide fell behind 4-0 in the first two innings. Of the six runs the Huskers conceded, only two were earned. “My heart breaks for our players after a loss like that,” Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle said. “We fought. I said to them our spirit, our fight and our investment gets an A-plus. In the earlier innings we didn’t execute some things. That ended up hurting us. We could’ve pulled an upset in an environment like this and against the caliber team that we are playing in Alabama. They played with tight energy and a lot of heart. Because both teams just kept throwing punches, I think it was a very good game for people to watch Alabama capitalized on those errors to cut Nebraska’s lead to 5-4, but the Crimson Tide found themselves down to their final three outs when Runyon, who had only started 11 games this season, sent a ball over the centerfield wall to keep Alabama’s hopes alive. “[Runyon]’s been clutch, ever since she started, probably at UNC,” Murphy said. “She hit a home run against Georgia Southern, hit a home run against Southern Miss, hit the home run against Georgia. She’s been very good in her time. She’s the left handed bat that we were looking for. We needed last year and we didn’t have it at all. She’s provided a lot.” Sophomore star Haylie McCleney was held hitless on the night for the first time since April 12, part of a docile Alabama offense that got 12 hits but struggled to generate runs. Alabama squandered several opportunities in the late innings, leaving 15 on base. Thursday night, at least, the chances gone wanting didn’t matter for the Crimson Tide, sent home victorious at 12:27 in the morning by Grantham’s walk-off, to prepare for their next game less than 15 hours later: game two, 5 p.m, Friday night.