OKLAHOMA CITY — Rachel Lawson thought her eyes were playing tricks.In the final moments before Kentucky’s Women’s College World Series matchup with Alabama, the video board listed the tale of the tape for the game’s two starting pitchers.If the names and school logos hadn’t been there, Lawson wouldn’t have been able to say which statistics belonged to UK ace Kelsey Nunley and Alabama’s Jaclyn Traina.”They had Traina next to Nunley and the stats were identical,” Lawson said. “Like, identical. I thought that they had made a typo.”Entering the game, Nunley had 29 wins to Traina’s 24. Their earned-run averages stood at 1.99 and 1.83, respectively. A battle, it seemed, was in store for the fans watching at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium and at home on ESPN2.A battle is what they got.Just as the two sides of the video board were almost indistinguishable from one another pregame, the same was true for the two sides of the scoreboard afterward. UK had four hits to Alabama’s three. Neither team committed an error.The only real difference was in the most meaningful column, where Alabama came out on top 2-0 to send the Wildcat into the loser’s bracket.”Just an awesome game tonight,” Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said. “I thought it was a made-for-TV sporting event, the way it ended, the way it played out. Two really good teams with two really good pitchers.”The drama, as Murphy referenced, came to a crescendo in the seventh and final inning.Just an inning after Sylver Samuel finally broke up Traina’s no-hit bit with an infield single, Nikki Sagermann — reaching base for the third time in as many trips — Lauren Cumbess and Griffin Joiner singled to lead off the frame and load the bases for Emily Gaines. The senior put together a seven-pitch at-bat, but looked at a changeup that was called strike three.It was then Krystal Smith’s turn to take a shot at being the hero. Smith smacked a grounder to shortstop that was hit just hard enough for Alabama to turn a game-ending double play.”I just think the fact that they were able to turn the double play, that’s the way it goes,” Lawson said. “We have one missed pitch and they hit a home run and then the game ends on a double play. That’s the way softball should be played.”In a matchup between two pitchers as dominant as Nunley and Traina — Lawson called Traina the best pitcher in the country — the separation between victory and defeat is always going to be razor thin. In this case, it came down to a double play and a homer.Following a scoreless first inning, Peyton Grantham kept the Alabama second alive with a two-out single. When Nunley fell behind 2-0 and left a pitch just a little too high in the zone, Leona Lafaele made her pay with a shot over the fence in left center.”My approach to the at-bat was just get my barrel there,” Lafaele said. “Nunley is a great, fantastic pitcher and she’s been mowing teams down and Kentucky definitely had momentum coming into the game.””The girl definitely made a good swing,” Nunley said. “The pitch was a little high, so she hit it right over. And, you know, it happens. So you just gotta flush it and move on to the next batter.”Nunley managed that just fine. She retired 16 of the final 18 batters she faced in going pitch for pitch with Traina, a senior who has two years’ experience on Nunley.”I love playing games that it’s a good matchup,” Nunley said.Nunley won’t have to wait long for another such matchup. The Cats now await the winner of No. 8 Florida State and No. 13 Baylor at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in an elimination game. Already this NCAA Tournament, the Cats have won three games in which their season was at stake. Most recently, UK advanced to its first-ever Women’s College World Series by taking two Sunday games at UCLA to complete an unlikely comeback from a 1-0 Super Regional deficit.”We’re a tough team and I know we’ll battle back from this,” Samuel said. “It’s just another bump in the road, but we like to play extra games so we’ll come back from that.”The way UK closed Friday night’s game is another reason to believe the Cats will bounce back.Traina, for the first 5.2 innings, was literally unhittable. Sitting in the high 60s in terms of velocity and at times reach 70 miles per hour, Traina was difficult to prepare for. Add in the late start time and you have a recipe for a long night for hitters.”Traina’s outstanding and under the lights she’s incredible,” Lawson said. “I think that it took us that long to really adjust visually to it.”UK eventually did make the necessary adjustments, catching up with Traina’s power arm for those three hits. The rally was eventually undone, but not the momentum and confidence built by it. That the Cats will carry forward.”I definitely think that our team felt good in the seventh inning,” Lawson said. “That was the fight that they’ve had this entire postseason and they know that they have more life in them. They know that they have at least one more game tomorrow.”