Oklahoma softball: They did it! Back-to-back-to-back national champions

The three-peat is complete. Top-seeded Oklahoma softball defeated No. 3 Florida State 3-1 on Thursday night and finished off a clean sweep of the Women’s College World Series to win its third consecutive national championship.

Back-to-back home run balls by Cydney Sanders and Grace Lyons in the fifth inning erased a 1-0 Florida State advantage and put the Sooners ahead 2-1 and on the way to a two-game sweep in the best-of-three championship series.

Jordy Bahl, named the Most Outstanding Player in this year’s WCWS, came on in relief of Sooner starter Alex Storako in the fifth inning after Oklahoma had jumped out in front 2-1 in the half-inning before.

Some might have questioned bringing the OU ace in at that point in the game and not saving her for a potential Game 3, if necessary, but head coach Patty Gasso knew exactly what she was doing. She had full confidence in her First-Team All-American pitcher to shut it all down and close out any notion of a deciding third game.

After all, Bahl had appeared in every WCWS game for the Sooners, a total of 21.2 innings before Thursday, and had yet to yield a single run. She was the winning pitcher in all four. She was not the winning pitcher in Thursday’s win, but she was credited with the save, retiring all nine Florida State batters she faced over the final three innings.

The combination of Storako and Bahl held a very good hitting Florida State team to just three hits and four base runners.

A perfect ending to a nearly perfect season. The Sooners’ were one 4-3 loss (to Baylor back on Feb. 19) from completing a perfect 62-0 season, which would have been the first in college softball history. As it is, the 61-1 record is the highest winning percentage (.984) ever recorded in Division I softball. It breaks the previous record of 54-2 (.964) set by the 1992 UCLA Bruins team.

The Sooners’ three consecutive national championships ties another record held by UCLA. The Bruins’ teams from 1988 through 1990 also captured three straight national titles.

As gratifying as the win was and not having to play a deciding third game, the outcome of Thursday’s game might easily have been much different were it not for a potentially game-saving catch by Jayda Coleman in deep center field that took away a home run ball by FSU’s Kalei Harding with two on base in the third inning. Had that ball left the park it would have given the Seminoles a 3-0 lead. That might have changed the entire dynamics of the game.

The pressure on this 2023 championship run by Oklahoma has been building since the beginning of the season, and the 53-game winning streak that commenced following the ninth game only compounded the stress and expectation level felt by the entire Sooners’ team.

After securing the WCWS win with the win over Florida State, Gasso said this season has been the most difficult in her 29 seasons at Oklahoma, a career that now includes seven national championships, including five of the last seven and six of the last 10.

"“This really was the roughest I’ve ever had to go through just because with lots of fans and the growth of the sport comes lots of pressure,” she told reporters in the postgame interview session.“It’s incredibly hard,” the OU head coach said about winning three consecutive national championships. “I just can tell you the way I feel right now is free because the expectation is overwhelming, the pressure is overwhelming.”"

Oklahoma has carried a giant target on its back all season. Every time they took the field they did so knowing they were going to get everyone’s best shot. That included 27 games this season (regular season and postseason) against teams ranked in the top 25. The Sooners were 27-0 in those games.

Oklahoma’s postseason run was a mirrored reflection of the full season. The Sooners completed a perfect 10-0 run through the postseason, including four run-rule victories and three shutouts and outscoring their opponents by a combined 68-15.

OU’s record-breaking 53-game win streak remains intact and will carry over to the 2024 season, which, believe it or not, begins eight months from now. Will there be a four-peat?

Five Sooners make WCWS All-Tournament Team

Five different Oklahoma players were named to the WCWS All-Tournament Team: P Jordy Bahl, CF Jayda Coleman, 2B Tiare Jennings, LF Rylie Boone and C Kinzie Hansen. That is two more than the next best team (Florida State). Stanford and Tennessee each had two players selected. In addition, Bahl was named Most Outstanding Player.

Senior captain Grace Lyons ends her collegiate career in style

Fifth-year senior and team captain Grace Lyons was playing her final collegiate game, and she made the most of it, smashing a home run in the top of the fifth inning to put the Sooners ahead 2-1. That proved to be the winning run in the game. Her home run was her ninth of the season and first since an opening-game win over Hofstra in the NCAA Norman Regional.