Covering the Bases: Season 1, Volume 18
The Sooners' dynasty is alive and well with a fifth national championship.
We have more parity in college softball today than probably any other point in the sport’s history.
That was no match for what might well be the greatest team of all time.
Oklahoma did not have an easy road in the Women’s College World Series. The No. 1 Sooners had to win four elimination games just to reach the finals, and two more once there. But Patty Gasso’s team was not to be denied, waking up just in time to win Game 2 and leading wire to wire in Game 3 over No. 10 Florida State to bring the trophy a half hour’s drive south to Norman.
It was Oklahoma’s sixth finals appearance and fourth title in the last nine tournaments.
Both teams made somewhat surprising decisions with their starting pitchers for Tuesday evening’s Game 1 — Oklahoma started freshman Nicole May over Giselle “G” Juarez and Shannon Saile, while Florida State went with Danielle Watson over Kathryn Sandercock and Caylan Arnold. While Watson backed up her coach’s trust in her, May did not.
The game was scoreless until the third, when the bottom of the order came up big for Florida State. No. 8 hitter Anna Shelnutt drew a leadoff walk and No. 9 hitter Kalei Harding launched a two-run homer to left, giving the Seminoles the lead. Earlier, Harding had helped keep the game scoreless with an incredible throw from right field to cut down a runner at third.
Harding added a two-run double an inning later as Florida State’s lead eventually swelled to seven. May allowed seven earned runs in 3.2 innings as the Seminoles’ offense just kept coming in the fourth.
But Oklahoma’s record-setting offense was not out of it by any means. Kinzie Hansen and Nicole Mendes hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the fourth, and Mackenzie Donihoo singled home two more in the sixth. Sandercock, though, took over for Watson after that and restored order, and with some help from more great defense, Florida State stood just one win from their second title in three tournaments after taking the opener 8-4.
“We've been blessed with a great pitching staff this year and I think we've been blessed with the pitching staff that works together,” Florida State coach Lonni Alameda said. “They know they're a unit...And Danielle was waiting for her time and she was present. She was completely composed in some big moments.
The Seminoles jumped out to an early lead in Wednesday’s Game 2 as well on Elizabeth Mason’s two-run, first-inning homer off of Juarez. But that was all the Sooners’ ace lefty would allow. Florida State managed just two hits the rest of the way, and against a lineup like Oklahoma’s, that is never enough.
A Jana Johns solo homer brought the Sooners within one in the third, but Sandercock made the lead stand until the sixth. Six outs from elimination, however, Oklahoma finally got rolling. After a leadoff throwing error, National Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo hit her 33rd blast of the year to give the Sooners the lead. The bomb was Oklahoma’s 159th of the season, setting an NCAA record previously held by Hawaii’s miracle 2010 team that went to the World Series.
Fittingly, it was Alo, a Hawaii native, who put the Sooners over the top.
And Oklahoma wasn’t done scoring. Donihoo and Jayda Coleman hit RBI singles later in the sixth, and a Mendes sacrifice fly in the seventh accounted for the final margin in a 6-2 Sooner win, setting up a winner-take-all game Thursday afternoon.
“Jocelyn is always the shot in the arm,” Gasso said. “She's the one in everybody's ear...She is right in the middle of this team and trying to help them get rallied. She's not too big for these guys. She definitely is a great team player.”
Gasso again sent Juarez to the circle in Game 3, while Alameda (an OU alum) went back to Watson. Alo jumped on the Louisville transfer immediately, sending homer No. 34 over the left-field wall in the bottom of the first. Coleman followed suit an inning later, and the Sooners were on their way.
Florida State got one back in the third after Oklahoma’s infielders lost a popup in the sun, but the Sooners put it away in their half. Tiare Jennings’ leadoff single prompted a pitching change, but instead of going to her ace, Sandercock, the Seminoles brought in Emma Wilson, who had pitched just 20.2 innings all year. Wilson struggled mightily. She issued two walks, allowed a run to score on a wild pitch and gave up a two-run double to Coleman, making it a 5-1 game.
Alameda put in Sandercock after the double, but by then it was too late. Juarez, with a four-run lead, was in complete control. She set down Florida State in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth, then struck out the first two batters looking in the seventh. After a two-out walk, Juarez got Devyn Flaherty to pop up back to the circle to seal the deal.
Championship Numbers to Know
5 - national titles for Oklahoma, trailing only UCLA (12) and Arizona (8). Nobody else has more than two. The Sooners first broke through in 2000, then hit a bit of a dry spell before returning to the top in 2013. Since then, they’ve been the standard-setters in the sport.
17 - games played at the 2021 WCWS, the maximum number possible. Both semifinals and the championship series required the “if-necessary” game, the first time since the current format began in 2005 that this has happened.
14 - hits in the WCWS for Florida State’s Kaley Mudge, a World Series record. Mudge, a redshirt freshman, saw limited playing time during the regular season but came up big time and time again in Oklahoma City. She was 5-for-5 in the Seminoles’ win over Alabama to reach the finals, then hit a leadoff double in the first inning Thursday to break the record.
101 - temperature, in Fahrenheit, at field level for Game 3 on Thursday afternoon. Watson wore long sleeves while pitching to avoid sweat dripping onto her throwing hand, and Shelnutt, Florida State’s catcher, had to come out of the game in the fourth before returning in the sixth.
2.6 million - peak viewership on ESPN for Game 2 on Wednesday evening. The average TV audience of nearly 2.1 million was a record for a non winner-take-all game. If Thursday had been broadcast in primetime like it should have, who knows how many people would have tuned in. It’s awesome to see more people realizing what a fun and exciting sport this is.
That’s it for today — thanks to everyone for following along throughout the 2021 season. It’s been great to have this platform to learn more about college softball myself and share my passion with all of you. We’ll be back next week for a newsletter dedicated to addressing the inequities softball faces and what the sport needs to keep growing.