Oklahoma softball: Red River Showdown in Women’s College World Series

If the top-seeded Oklahoma softball team is to successfully defend its 2021 national championship, it will have to do it against its big rival, the Texas Longhorns.

The Lady Longhorns spoiled what could have been an all-Oklahoma Women’s College World Series championship series by beating the Sooners’ other big rival, Oklahoma State, twice on Monday to advance to the best-of-three championship final that begins Wednesday night at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The Sooners take a 57-3 overall record into the championship series against a team they know infinitely well. Oklahoma and Texas have played four times already this season, including in the winners’ bracket in this year’s WCWS. The Sooners defeated the Longhorns 7-2 this past Saturday, putting them in the position of having to win two games against Oklahoma State to remain alive and advance to the championship series.

Texas also is one of the three teams that has beaten Oklahoma in this historic Sooner softball season. The Longhorns defeated the Sooners 4-2 behind a masterful two-hit pitching performance by Texas ace Hailey Dolcini, who OU beat this past Saturday but will have to do it again to win back-to-back national championships.

OU is 4-1 against Texas this season. The Longhorns (47-20-1) are the first unseeded team to make it into the championship series in the 40-year history of the WCWS. Despite their record, the Horns are an extremely dangerous team, and they are playing their best ball of the season when it counts the most.

Game 1 of the WCWS championship series between Oklahoma and Texas is at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN, with Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza and Michelle Smith doing the play-by-play and commentary.

Scouting the Longhorns

The championship series will ultimately come down to pitching, especially how well the Texas pitchers can limit the powerful Sooner lineup, which leads all of Division I softball in multiple offensive categories.

The Longhorns have two starters they primarily rely on. Aside from Dolcini (24-11, 2.35 ERA), Estelle Czech has made 15 starts this season and has a 13-1 record with a 3.11 ERA. Czech is 2-0 in this year’s WCWS along with a team-best 1.11 ERA. If Dolcini gets in trouble, Czech will be the first call out of the bullpen.

Second baseman Janae Jefferson is the offensive leader of the team. The four-time All-American is batting .416 and is the toughest out in the starting lineup. Courtney Day has hit a home run in three straight WCWS games, and catcher Mary Iakopo. Day and Iakopo are the Longhorns’ biggest long-ball threats.

What to look for from Oklahoma

Home-run power throughout the OU lineup is what makes the Sooners so difficult to beat. Six different OU players, led by NCAA career HR record-holder Jocelyn Alo, have hit 10 or more home runs this season and three Sooners are ranked in the top-10 nationally in that category: Alo (32), Tiare Jennings (27) and Grace Lyons (22).

The Sooners have outscored their opponents’ this season by the combined score of 553-59. In the four previous games with Texas, Oklahoma has outscored the Horns 21-7.

OU’s dominance this season, however, hasn’t all been about its offensive firepower. The Sooner pitching staff is among the very best in the country. Three OU starters rank in the top 10 in ERA, led by Hope Trautwein with an ERA of 0.58. Jordy Bahl, the Freshman Player of the Year, who was impressive in four-plus innings of relief in the Sooners’ WCWS loss to UCLA, has an ERA of 1.02, and Nicole May is right there too with a season ERA of 1.36. Trautwein and Bahl are a combined 42-2 this season.

Prediction

Texas is playing extremely well this late in the season. The Longhorns got here by defeating both Washington in the regional and Arkansas in the Super Regional on the road, and they eliminated Oklahoma State, the Big 12 Championship winner and second-best team in the Big 12 in the WCWS. They will be a formidable foe for the Sooners in the championship series, but they are not at the same level as this Oklahoma team. The Sooners win the WCWS and their second straight and sixth national championship in a two-game sweep.