OKLAHOMA CITY–– No. 1 Alabama is rolling into the 2026 Women's College World Series semifinals after a 5-1 victory over No. 4 Nebraska in a winner's bracket game on Saturday night. Crimson Tide head coach Patrick Murphy, plus catcher Marlie Giles and pitcher Jocelyn Briski spoke with the media after the game. Here's everything they had to say: Full transcriptTranscript courtesy of ASAP SportsHE MODERATOR: We are joined by Alabama. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach.PATRICK MURPHY: Well, it was just an honor to be in front of I think the largest crowd ever maybe for this session. Attendance has been incredible. Thanks to all the fans who buy a ticket to watch us.What a great college game. Ms. Briski was incredible again. One hitter, six Ks, no walks. We didn't give them any momentum. We had a solo home run, but we came back and scored. Marlie had a huge hit. If you're familiar with Alabama, our slogan is "Where legends are made," and she solidified that tonight, both of them.It was a great win for us against a really, really good team. I see why they won the Big Ten tournament, had won 30 games in a row. Just a great team.THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for the players.Q. Marlie, observing Jocelyn's performance, what was the communication like?MARLIE GILES: I mean, not much I did. She pitched her butt off. She just worked so hard to be here and to perform for us. Even though we had a couple miscues on the field, she had our backs. I called time each time I think there was a mishap, and she was confident as all get-out. She was like, hey, I got their backs, we're good, we're getting the next out. It just shows her leadership and how amazing she is as a person.Q. Marlie, how comfortable are you at the plate right now?MARLIE GILES: I'm not doing anything specific, I mean, we plan ahead depending on the pitcher. Jordy, it was more be aggressive early and be on time with her pitches.That's what I was trying to do. I got lucky the first one. I hit it. She's a great pitcher. So is the second pitcher they brought in, even though she's a freshman, she got me I think my third at-bat.Just keep working and trusting everything we've done thus far. Yeah, just happy to be here.Q. Jocelyn, for the first two innings you get a chance to go against Jordy. What was your approach and mindset going into this game, two premier pitchers?JOCELYN BRISKI: She's a great pitcher and hitter. Just a great all-around athlete. It's really fun to go against them. Looking at it as an opportunity. Just really wanted to be efficient, throw first pitch strikes, get ahead of batters, use my drop ball a little bit more today. I feel like I was able to get a lot of groundballs.Q. Marlie, I think you hit a home run in every trip to the World Series. What have you liked about this stage? Jocelyn, how big was it for you to have that early run support?MARLIE GILES: I would just say I'm very blessed. God's blessed me beyond anything I can even imagine. I haven't hit as many home runs as Lex and Brooke have. For me to hit it here, I don't have an answer for you except it's His will, His plan. That's all I got for that answer.JOCELYN BRISKI: I think any pitcher will tell you when you score in the first inning, it takes a lot of pressure off you for the rest of the game. It allows me to trust throwing my pitches through the zone a little bit more and trying not to be so perfect.Definitely that 3-1 lead took a lot of pressure off of me, for sure.Q. Marlie, I think you'd have the best perspective as a hitter and a catcher. How cool is it to see the way Jocelyn tunnels both her rise and her drop and why it's so tough for anyone to handle?MARLIE GILES: I think rise and drop are two of the hardest pitches to hit, as well as the change-up. She throws all three of them. We were able to face her all fall. She made us better in the fall and in the spring. Even to our success on the field hitting-wise to help her, she did on her own. She really has done so much for us. It's been so amazing to watch her perform and do so well.Q. Jocelyn, Lance came out and met with you after that home run. How does he refocus you? How have you been able to turn the page after giving up home runs?JOCELYN BRISKI: He came out there, just wanted to let me know it was a good at-bat. She fouled some really good pitches off, and she got a pitch she could hit. She took advantage ever it. Kudos to her.He wanted to let me know it's just one run, still early in the game. I think that helps me calm down and slows the game down. When hits happen or home runs happen, you start to get a little sped up and stuff. That timeout kind of just helps me stay in my zone.THE MODERATOR: Thank you, players. We'll continue with questions for Coach Murphy.Q. Murph, Marlie wears the C. In what ways does she embody that as a young lady from the state of Alabama?PATRICK MURPHY: I think it's huge, one of the toughest things to do nowadays as any leader is to realize the role of leader supersedes that of friend. Nobody in here wants to correct a friend or a work mate or a teammate, right? It takes a special person to be able to say to somebody, That's not the way we do it here. She does that. I think everybody respects her for that. They look up to her.She's from an hour away. She's more Southern than a turnip green. She's a great young lady. She representing the school, the team. Wouldn't want anybody else wearing that.Q. What do you make of what Jocelyn continues to do? Keeps winning, pitching well.PATRICK MURPHY: It's amazing to see 'cause this is kind of like an SEC series. Thursday would be opening day. She had the day off yesterday. She pitches the third game today. It kind of mirrors that.I was not worried about her stamina today. She threw 83 pitches, 62 strikes, which I think is pretty good. She's been fresh. She looks like she could go forever. It's just been so fun to watch, especially with the no walks. It's very difficult to get people out nowadays. I don't care who it is. But to do it by not walking anybody and only giving up one run in the process is even more amazing.I think if you played softball in college, you guys realize that's difficult to do.Q. You've coached a lot of great pitchers. Where does that rank? She's calm and poised.PATRICK MURPHY: The first two games, that's two of the best we ever had here back to back. I looked at their stats. They were similar to UCLA. They had 4-0 four, 400, 19, 17, 15 home runs. It was the same thing as UCLA. For her to do it back to back against two really good hitting teams.They were on a huge winning streak. It's really cool to watch from the dugout.Q. To the no walks, the free passes kind of killed her at time last year. What kind goes into such dramatic change?PATRICK MURPHY: I apologize if you heard this before. We opened the season at Georgia Tech. She got a injury over Christmas break lifting weights. She was on a pitch count. We didn't think she was going to pitch that opening weekend.The doctors and athletic trainer said I think she could do it. So they gave her a pitch count. The first inning she went out there and retired three people on eight pitches. She came in, I get to go back. She goes back and it was like 14. She comes in again. I get to go back again. I think that weekend she realized I can throw strikes and get people out. It was 40 pitches. She didn't even come close to it. Threw three innings, struck out seven, retired the other two.I don't know if that was a jump shot. Like Marlie said, all fall we had many, many scrimmages where we were 0-fer against her. I mean, it did not look good for the hitters. I don't know who asked the question about rise ball, drop ball, that's what she was doing in the fall.Nobody approached the plate, tunneling the pitch. They were guessing most of the time.Q. When you called the outfielders in, were you talking about calling balls off?PATRICK MURPHY: Yes. That's the benefit and the curse of having 13,000 people at a game. You can't hear anybody. One of the things we practice at our field at practices is if it's a large crowd, which we usually have, you use your arm as well to say I got it, I got it, I got it.They were all encouraged to do that 'cause, I mean, it's a tough error. They should have been caught, both of them.Q. In a game that coming into two of the best pitchers in the country, how big was it to get the three runs in the first inning?PATRICK MURPHY: I mean, huge. I think there was two outs when Marlie hit it. I think it gave us a jolt of confidence, of energy. You name it, whatever you want to say. It was huge.The way Briski was throwing, that's kind of like all we needed. 5-1 is what it ended up. That hit was big.THE MODERATOR: Thank you.Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow