Texas softball may have been the No. 1 seed in the Women’s College World Series this year, but Oklahoma was the juggernaut. And that juggernaut made history on Thursday.
The Sooners defeated Texas 8-4 in Game 2 of the WCWS, completing an unprecedented string of four-peat NCAA softball titles. It is the Sooners’ eighth title overall and their sixth in the past eight tournaments. They all came under legendary head coach Patty Gasso, who tied Arizona’s Mark Candrea for the most NCAA rings by a softball coach.
It was a victory in which Oklahoma dug deep. The top four hitters accounted for just three hits total, while the bottom four hitters went a combined 7-for-10, led by three singles from senior outfielder Rylie Boone. And after a complete game from Kelly Maxwell, the Sooners used a WCWS Championship Series record five different pitchers to reach seven innings against Texas, including Maxwell.
Maxwell, who received no shortage of criticism last season for transferring from Oklahoma State to its in-state rival, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after going 5-0 with the save in Game 2.
The loss robs the Longhorns of what would have been their first-ever national title, in a season in which the Longhorns went 55-10. Four of those losses were to Oklahoma, who also defeated them in the Big 12 championship game.
UCLA was previously the only other team to win three in a row, from 1988 to 1990. The Sooners have gone 235-15 in this series of titles, with no shutout or run-rule losses. It started with All-Americans like Jocelyn Alo and Jayda Coleman and now features Alyssa Brito and Kinzie Hansen. Shortstop Tiare Jennings was the average, with four first-team All-American selections and four national championships.
However, this hasn’t been the easiest season, at least by Oklahoma standards. The Sooners dropped a series to both of their main rivals in Texas and Oklahoma State and had to settle for the No. 2 seed behind Texas in the WCWS after being the top seed in the previous three tournaments.
That didn’t matter in the end. Oklahoma entered the game with a 1-0 lead via their runaway Game 1 win, breaking through freshman All-American Teagan Kavan for an 8-3 win.
Texas drew first blood in Game 2, thanks to a bloop two-out single by Kayden Henry in the second inning. Oklahoma’s response was quick, with Kasidi Pickering going deep to left field and taking a 2-1 lead on a double by Brito.
Texas scored another run in the next two innings and seemed well on its way to the tying run until the Sooners loaded the bases against Estelle Czech. Cydney Sanders cleared them with a three-run double.
While all this was happening, Oklahoma was cycling through pitchers at an unprecedented rate. When it ran into trouble in the sixth inning when Texas put runners on second and third base with one out, it turned to Game 1 starter Maxwell to face the heart of the Texas order.
What happened next essentially decided the match. Mia Scott hit a chopper to second base that Oklahoma’s Avery Hodge couldn’t muster. It looked like Texas No. 3 hitter Viviana Martinez would get a chance to tie the game until Scott inexplicably took a turn toward second base as Hodge prepared to throw the ball back to Maxwell.
Thanks to a heads-up play, that became the third out of the inning.
It might be presumptuous to say Texas was shocked after that, but Oklahoma scored three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, and that was it. The Longhorns can’t deny they had a chance to tie the series, but Oklahoma, like so many times over the last four years, continued to seem inevitable.
