About an hour after the Morgan State softball team learned Sunday night that its NCAA Division I tournament debut would involve an opening matchup on Friday night against overall No. 1 seed Oklahoma in the Norman Regional, senior right fielder Aliya Ewell received a text from her paternal uncle Terrance Taylor.
The message read: “Let’s be David, not Goliath on Friday.”
“At first, I was a little nervous,” Ewell said Monday afternoon. “I was like, ‘Dang, of all the teams, we get the No. 1.’ But then it just set in, and I’m extremely excited to have the opportunity to have the opportunity to be on the field with such a high-caliber team, and it will be great recognition for Morgan State as an HBCU in the NCAA tournament. … I say we give it our all and go in with all of the confidence and play aggressive and play hard and take advantage of the moment.”
The challenge awaiting the Bears (24-15), who captured their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament crown on Saturday, seems daunting. The seven-time Big 12 tournament champion Sooners (45-2) opened the season with 33 consecutive wins, won 33 games in run-rule fashion and lead the nation in major hitting categories such as runs per game (11.3), batting average (.420), home runs per game (2.7), and on-base percentage (.505).
Still, Morgan State is not adhering to the “nothing to lose” refrain so often espoused by underdogs when facing heavy favorites. Instead, the players have adopted coach Larry Hineline’s “everything to win” variation.
“Don’t get me wrong. You’ve got to have things go your way and then maybe them not do as well as they normally do,” Hineline said. “But listen, they’ve got to swing the bats, they’ve got to catch the balls, they’ve got to throw the balls, and maybe they’ll have their worst game of the year. That’s kind of the way I’m looking at it, that we’ve got everything to win.”
Added graduate student pitcher Stephanie Rundlett: “When we first found out, at first I was intimidated for the first two minutes when I was thinking about it. But then after thinking about it, I was like, ‘OK. They have more than 130 home runs this season, and they’re amazing in every aspect. Even their coach said they have no flaws.’ So whatever we do against them is going to be amazing for our program and for us.”
The Bears’ morale might be at an all-time high after they defeated North Carolina Central and Norfolk State by one run each before waltzing to a 10-5 victory over North Carolina Central on Saturday for the MEAC tournament championship. That they swept all three games was a reminder of what they are capable of.
“It showed our determination and our drive to be the best,” said Ewell, who went 3-for-3, scored three runs, and drove in one run in the title-clinching win. “We went in believing that we were best and not in a cocky way. we weren’t like, ‘Oh, we’re so much better than these girls.’ We just went in knowing that we needed to take it one pitch and one inning at a time to secure the win.”
One of three players who returned as graduate students, Rundlett said there was a certain gratification gained in achieving an objective they had prioritized earlier in the season.
“It was definitely very satisfying what we did,” said Rundlett, who was named the tournament’s Outstanding Performer after earning all three wins in the postseason. “We didn’t even lose a game. We swept all the teams, and it just shows that we really came together as a team.”
Perhaps the lone surprise of the weekend was how quickly Morgan State’s name was announced on the Selection Show aired by ESPN. Less than three minutes into the show, the team was paired with Oklahoma in a game scheduled for Friday at 8:30 p.m. in Norman, Oklahoma. The regional is a double-elimination format with the winners advancing to the Super Regionals and then the College World Series.
“I think I looked away from the screen for a second, and I just heard our school’s name, and I was like, ‘No way. I can’t believe it,’” Ewell said. “But I’m really excited for the opportunity.”
Said Rundlett: “Because I wasn’t expecting it to be the first one announced, I was talking to my teammates around me, like, ‘Oh, look, it’s Oklahoma.’ Then all of a sudden, they said, ‘Morgan State is going to be going to Oklahoma to play Oklahoma,’ I think we all froze and just kind of looked around and were like, ‘Uh, what?’”
Hineline said he anticipates few people outside of the program will give the Bears much of a chance to pull off an upset in a regional that also includes Wichita State (39-11-1) and Texas A&M (31-21). But that suits him just fine.
“What other opportunity are you going to get to play the best team in history?” he said. “I told the kids, ‘Hey, listen, if we do well, can you imagine how good that would be?’ So why not? Let’s play them. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur, but I’m certainly saying, ‘Let’s see what we can do. let’s see if we can make some things happen.’”
Norman Regional
Norman, Oklahoma
No. 1 seed Oklahoma (45-2) vs. Morgan St. (24-15), Friday, 8:30 p.m., ESPN3
Texas A&M (31-21) vs. Wichita St. (39-11-1), Friday, 5 p.m., ESPN2