The Alabama Crimson Tide, the overally No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, beat South Alabama 5-2.

With the win Alabama advances to Sunday’s 2012 NCAA Softball Tuscaloosa Regional championship game.

South Alabama will play again at 6 p.m. in Saturday’s second elimination game.

The lefty Hannah Campbell started for the Jaguars and got off to a hot start, Campbell struck out the first three batters she faced.

South Alabama jumped out to the early lead when senior Christin Crocker hit a solo homerun in the second inning. Alabama came right back, scoring three runs in the top of the third inning, including a Kaila Hunt 2-run homerun, before adding a pair of runs in the fifth inning to put the game away.

The Jaguars scored in the bottom of the seventh when senior Haley Hopkins opened the inning with a solo homerun over the fence in left-center field.

Alabama sophomore Jackie Traina picked up the win for Alabama, pushing her record to 34-2 on the season, while sophomore Hannah Campbell took the loss for South Alabama, falling to 24-11.

Alabama returns to action Sunday at 1 p.m. against the winner of Saturday’s third game. South Alabama will play in that third game, which starts at 6 p.m., against the winner of Saturday’s second game between Georgia Tech and UT Martin.