OKLAHOMA CITY — Stack up the softball histories of Kentucky and Alabama and there’s little comparison. The Crimson Tide, in fact, will best almost any school in the country in that department.Since the program’s first year in 1997 and before this season, Alabama had reached nine Women’s College World Series. In its most recent trip to Oklahoma City, the Crimson Tide took home its first national championship in 2012.The Wildcats, meanwhile, are only just getting their feet wet on softball’s biggest stage. Nonetheless, you needn’t look any further than UK’s Women’s College World Series debut for evidence that the Cats aren’t about to shrink in the spotlight at 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday.And to give fans added reason to believe UK will be confident, the Cats played very well the last time they saw the Crimson Tide.UK and Alabama haven’t faced off in 2014, but the Cats traveled to Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the final regular-season series of 2013. Let’s look back at what happened as UK claimed its first-ever series win over the Crimson Tide.Game one — Kelsey Nunley, as she has been all postseason, was dominant. She tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five in UK’s 5-0 win in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader. Shortstop Christian Stokes, now a sophomore, went 2-for-3 with with a home run, two RBI and two runs as UK claimed a 3-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back.Game two — This one wasn’t so memorable for UK, at least not for good reasons. Smarting from that game-one defeat, Alabama played 10 first-inning runs against three different Wildcat pitchers en route to a 14-0 run-rule win in five innings.Game three — If UK and Alabama play a game like this one on Friday, the primetime audience on ESPN2 is in for a treat. The Cats took a 5-0 lead into the sixth inning behind Nunley, who was once again cruising. Alabama, however, rallied to tie it and send the game to extra innings. Unfazed, the Cats responded with four in the top of the eighth to come away with a 9-5 win. Third baseman Nikki Sagermann struck the big blow — a three-run homer — to give her a school-record six RBI in the game.These are obviously two different teams than a year ago — both much better, clearly — but there has to be some value for Kentucky’s youngsters in the experience of taking two of three at Alabama. In that series, players on this year’s roster accounted for all but two of UK’s runs, all but one hit and every RBI and win on the mound.