by Boomer Sooner!
On Thursday, the top seeded Oklahoma Women’s Softball team capped off an absolutely dominant season, beating 10-seed Florida State and capturing the 2020-21 National Championship!
The series went to three games, with Oklahoma winning game 3 with a score of 5-1.
This Sooner team (56-4) will be going down as one of the best teams in NCAA softball history, and had one of the most dominant seasons by any team, in any sport.
Let me just rattle off some of the records Oklahoma broke this season…
- Shattered the NCAA single season home run record, finishing with 161 home runs
- Crushed the NCAA single season runs record, notching up 638 runs
- Broke the record for runs and home runs at the College World Series, crossing the plate 49 times and hitting 15 home runs
- Smashed the record for most runs scored in a regional
- Never lost back to back games
This team is the definition of all gas, no brakes.
Throughout the regular season, the Sooners offense was ranked number one in the NCAA for: Runs/game with 11 runs, batting average, home runs hit, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and OPS.
These girls didn’t even give other teams a chance to breathe, let alone out-score their offense!
The Sooners also had one of the greatest softball players ever hitting in the fourth spot, home run machine and USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Jocelyn Alo.
Alo not only hit the blast that gave the Sooners the Div-I record for most home runs, but she also broke the record at OU for home runs hit in a single season, with 34 home runs.
Alo has put her name in the ring not only for player of the decade, but one of the most dominant players to ever stand in the batters box!
Despite all the success and broken records, this team had to overcome several obstacles to capture the crown, which makes their run even more impressive.
The Sooners came out of the losers bracket after losing to James Madison, an unseeded team, in the tournament’s opening game.
Oklahoma went on to win out in 6 elimination games, including the championship series, after the Seminoles won the first game of their three game series.
The resilience this team has is what makes them so impressive. They survived game after game and had everything to lose. But they kept winning!
The Sooners were electric to watch this season, and drew in millions of viewers throughout the tournament, but their successes still went under the radar in the media.
In my opinion, NCAA softball is under-appreciated and doesn’t get talked about as much as it deserves! The passion that these girls have and the excitement of the games are unmatched.
Put some respect on their names, and on the game of softball!
-Paige Atkinson (@paigeatkk)
