Oklahoma softball wins document 4th straight nationwide championship: ‘God was actually current this season’
By Joshua Doering Jun 7, 2024
Oklahoma’s softball workforce celebrates after successful a fourth consecutive nationwide championship on June 6, 1944 (Photograph courtesy of Twitter/@OU_Softball)
The Oklahoma softball workforce misplaced a complete of eight video games whereas successful back-to-back-to-back national championships in dominant vogue the previous three seasons. This season was, comparatively talking, extra of a battle.
Oklahoma misplaced seven occasions and dropped regular-season collection towards its two greatest rivals, Oklahoma State and Texas. The Sooners have been right down to their remaining out within the Girls’s School World Sequence semifinals towards Florida and survived in additional innings. That arrange one other assembly with the No. 1 seed Longhorns within the championship collection.
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Like they’ve so many occasions earlier than, the Sooners discovered a technique to come out on high. They beat Texas 8-3 on Wednesday and 8-4 on Thursday to win the best-of-three collection and grow to be the first program to ever four-peat. UCLA (1988-1990) is the one different program to win three nationwide titles in a row.
FOUR PEAT#ChampionshipMindset pic.twitter.com/AZeA5a30xq
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 7, 2024
“All people has one thing to say about us on a regular basis and other people counted us out,” catcher Kinzie Hansen said in the postgame press conference. “It was only a grind. All-in. Mentally. Bodily. And we fought the entire yr, and it was so value it on this second.”
Texas jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in Recreation 2, however Kasidi Pickering’s second home run in as many days put Oklahoma up 2-1.
FIVE residence runs for @PickeringKasidi in her debut NCAA Match 💪
↓2 | OU 2, UT 1#ChampionshipMindset | @espn pic.twitter.com/JrWcRMIzTa
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 7, 2024
After Texas reclaimed the lead, Cydney Sanders drove in three runs with a bases-clearing double within the fourth inning that gave the Sooners a 5-3 benefit.
Cyd Strikes 💥
📺 ESPN#ChampionshipMindset | @SandersCydney pic.twitter.com/pWe45GOBOp
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 7, 2024
The Longhorns scored a run within the sixth, and Oklahoma responded with three of its personal within the backside of the inning. Kelly Maxwell, who threw 119 pitches in Recreation 1 and was the fifth pitcher utilized by the Sooners, recorded the final four outs.
FOUR-PEAT COMPLETE 🏆🏆🏆🏆#WCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @OU_Softball pic.twitter.com/Pu5TYx2Msh
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) June 7, 2024
The numbers are staggering. Over the previous 4 years, Oklahoma has performed 250 video games and has been victorious in 235 of them. Per the ESPN broadcast, the group of gamers who spent their total four-year profession will go away having by no means been shutout. Texas was 43-0 when scoring the primary run in a sport this season, too.
On the middle of head coach Patty Gasso’s program is a robust tradition of religion. After successful her eighth nationwide championship, Gasso spoke in regards to the necessary function it performs in her workforce’s success.
“You hear their religion,” she said. “[It] has so much to do with this, in order that they’re by no means afraid. They’ve not afraid to lose. That is larger than a sport for them. It’s about life. It’s about belief. It’s about all types of issues they’ve modified one another’s lives with.”
A lot of Oklahoma’s gamers brazenly discuss their religion and use their platform to deliver glory to God. Additionally it is frequent for gamers to get baptized, as pitcher Kierston Deal — who acquired the win in Recreation 2 — did earlier this season.
“This one I felt His hand over this program greater than I ever have,” outfielder Rylie Boone said. “There was a number of souls saved this yr. and doubtless some that we don’t even learn about … I really feel like God was actually current this season.”
One of many defining moments of the workforce’s season — Jayda’s Coleman’s walk-off residence run in additional innings towards Florida — illustrates simply how necessary religion is to the Sooners. Coleman was pissed off with how she was enjoying, and third baseman Alyssa Brito supplied encouragement by praying over her earlier than the at-bat.
“Despite the fact that I hit a house run, Jesus nonetheless loves me,” Coleman said in the postgame press conference. “If I might have struck out, Jesus nonetheless loves me. I believe that simply actually put me into my basis … Going across the bases, I simply misplaced it and began crying as a result of I simply knew instantly, like, Brito, simply the presence that I felt with God. It was unbelievable.”
Brito helped organize a faith and worship night on Oklahoma’s campus in April and is among the workforce’s religious leaders. She got here on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in February and talked in regards to the development she’s skilled in her three years with the Sooners.
“By no means in my wildest goals would I’ve ever thought God would put me on a platform like this the place individuals wish to hear what I’ve to say via His work inside me,” she stated on the podcast. “I simply by no means thought I may talk that means. I by no means thought I may have the arrogance to go on a stage and speak in entrance of individuals.”
Whereas the Sooners should substitute many key contributors together with Brito, Coleman, Hansen, Maxwell and shortstop Tiare Jennings, Sanders and Pickering are among the many gamers eligible to return subsequent season. The senior class leaves a outstanding legacy on the sphere, and the bond they fashioned due to their shared religion will stay as they enter the following chapter of their lives.
“They’ve cemented this program in historical past,” Gasso said of the departing seniors. “They’ve cemented themselves in historical past. Historical past can change, however these guys won’t ever, ever be forgotten.”
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