Joley Mitchell denies Oklahoma is in Texas' head

Joley Mitchell and other Texas players denied Oklahoma is in the Longhorns’ heads. After losing Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series, it’s easy to make that assumption.

Going into the finals, the two teams split four meetings, but Oklahoma got the last laugh with the Big 12 Championship win. Now with the Big 12 and soon-to-be SEC rivals facing off for the national title, Oklahoma got another win.

If the Sooners aren’t in Mitchell and other’s heads, then the Longhorns should be able to get a Game 2 win and force the winner-take-all Game 3.

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“I mean, we have a lot of respect for them,” Mitchell said. “We talked about them in our postgame meeting. You just have to respect the opponent. It’s not necessarily that we’re intimidated by them. I think it’s just that we have to stay within ourselves. We don’t need to worry about anything else. It’s just the game of softball. We have to play Texas softball.”

Katie Stewart echoed Mitchell’s comments. Texas is just on to the next game, looking to stay alive.

“I think like she said, we got a lot of respect for them,” Stewart said. “I think that just made us put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed and execute. Just remembering that we’re a good team also and that we’re meant to be here I think is going to be important to remember as we go see ’em again tomorrow.”

Mitchell took a look back to the regular season though. Oklahoma took Game 1 of a three-game set earlier this year.

Texas ended up winning the next two games.

“I think we’ve done a good job of shifting the momentum,” Mitchell said. “We’ve done it in the regular season series, against Texas A&M in the super regional. We’re a tough team. As long as we stay together, do the job, we’ll be just fine the next two games.

Mitchell didn’t place blame on one side of the ball in Game 1. A quality team effort in Game 2 will give Texas a chance.

“I mean, it’s always a team effort,” Mitchell said. “I had to pull Teagan aside and say, Hey, it’s fine, just one bad inning. It snowballed a little bit there. We have to do our job individually and as a team. We got away from our plan. We weren’t helping ourselves. We really need to stick to our plan and just play Texas softball.”