Oklahoma softball: Sooner pitcher Alex Storako No. 1 overall pick in 2023 pro softball draft
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball pitcher Alex Storako headlined a trio of Sooner players selected in the World Professional Fastpitch League Draft on Monday.
Storako was selected by the Oklahoma City Spark as the first player taken in the second annual draft of the nascent WPF. The new pro softball league is in its second year of operation this season.
A graduate transfer and former All-Big Ten First-Team selection from the University of Michigan, Storako is having a stellar season playing for Patty Gasso and the top-ranked Oklahoma softball team. She is a perfect 13-0 in 2023 with an ERA of 0.70, second best in the Big 12, and a opponents’ batting average of .138, which leads the conference.
In the previous four seasons at Michigan, the right-handed Storako compiled a record of 69-20 a 1.70 ERA, 38 complete games and 20 shutouts for the Wolverines.
“We knew we had the first overall draft pick, and we knew Alex was the one for a lot of different reasons,” Spark head coach told reporters, including Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World. Flores herself was a former star pitcher at Oklahoma and a three-time All-American.the first softball player to be named Big 12 Player of the Year twice.
Storako will be joined on the Spark roster by Haley Lee, who also elected to play her final collegiate season at Oklahoma, having transferred from Texas A&M. Lee leads the homer-happy OU team with 12 home runs and is batting .426, third best on the Sooner team fifth-best in the Big 12. She was a fourth-round draft selection by the Spark.
If Storako and Lee ultimately sign with the Spark, they will team up with three other former Sooners: 2022 OU softball teammates Jocelyn Alo, the NCAA career leader in home runs, and Lynnsie Elam, and 2013 alum Kelani Ricketts, two-time Big 12 Player of the Year.
The third current Oklahoma player taken in the 2023 WPF Draft was Grace Lyons, the second player selected in the sixth round, by the Texas Smoke. A National Fastpitch Coaches Association 2022 First-Team All-American and member of the 2022 USA Softball National Team, Lyons has been called by her head coach Patty Gasso the best college shortstop she has ever seen.
NCAA regulations require that players selected in the pro softball draft are not permitted to sign with respective teams until after the 2023 collegiates season has ended. Selected players have the option to play for teams in one of two professional leagues. Athletes Unlimited will hold its draft on May 8.
As the No. 1 overall pick in the WPF Draft, Storako becomes the fourth Oklahoma Sooner to be the first player selected in a women’s fastpitch league. The others are Lauren Chamberlain (2015, USSSA Pride, National Pro Fastpitch), Paige Lowry, Chicago Bandits, NPF) and Alo (WPF and Athletes Unlimited).
With the three OU selections in this year’s WPF Draft, the number of OU players taken in pro fastpitch softball drafts all-time grows to 42.