Oklahoma softball's eyes are on the prize

No Oklahoma softball player is walking home as the National Player of the Year. The Sooners, the unanimous No. 1 team in the country, didn’t have a player make the final cut for the top three players.

You know what, though? That’s OK. OU, 51-1 overall and on a 43-game winning streak, isn’t worried about the individual accolades. It’s something head coach Patty Gasso has reiterated often throughout this season whenever asked about the cutdown list for awards.

Sure, it’s an honor, but it’s not the end goal. The team is focused on one thing and one thing only – winning another national championship. It would be, of course, Oklahoma’s third in a row.

“Honestly, I don’t really pay much attention to that,” junior Tiare Jennings said. “I mean, we have one goal, and that’s to win. So congratulations to those three. They deserve it. They’re having phenomenal years. Right now, we’re just focusing on us and there’s one goal of winning that national championship. And I think that’s all that matters.”

Jennings, centerfielder Jayda Coleman and pitcher Jordy Bahl were in the running when the list was recently trimmed to 10 players.

No Sooners, though, when the final announcement came Wednesday. Jocelyn Alo had been the recipient of the honor the last two seasons. It’s going to either Maya Brady (UCLA), Skylar Wallace (Florida) or Valerie Cagle (Clemson).

Bahl is 15-1 this season with a 1.15 ERA, three saves and 143 strikeouts in 109.1 innings pitched. Bahl has also come up clutch in recent weeks at the plate and running the bases. That included scoring twice vs. Texas in the Big 12 championship last Saturday.

Coleman is hitting .434 this season with 14 home runs, 57 runs scored and 42 RBIs to go along with being one of the best defensive players in the country.

Jennings is just below that with a .429 average with 12 home runs, 49 runs scored, 13 doubles and 53 RBIs.

With the eyes on the prize, it’s time for everybody to shift toward regional play. Oklahoma welcomes Hofstra, Missouri and California to Marita Hynes Field this weekend.

The Sooners begin with Hofstra on Friday afternoon.

“They’ve shown that they deserve to be here just like everybody else,” Jennings said. “So just going out there knowing that everyone’s fighting for their chance to get to the World Series. We’re not taking any team lightly and just going out there and doing what we know.”

Missouri and Cal will play after the Sooners. The winners will then meet Saturday afternoon. The double-elimination format will conclude Sunday afternoon in Norman.

*Announced Thursday, OU had seven players named to the NFCA All-Region Central team. No surprise to see Jennings, Bahl and Coleman. Joining them are catcher Kinzie Hansen and third baseman Alyssa Brito (first team) and second-team members Haley Lee and Grace Lyons. They are now eligible for All-American status.

Oklahoma Quotable

“These teams play hard. They play in tough conferences week after week after week. They’ve knocked off some top-10 teams. They’ve knocked off some top-20 teams. Their records are commendable. They’ve got big wins… I don’t know how they play this all out in the seeding and so forth, but I look at this as like — we kind of put a heat chart together, and we’ve got Missouri and Cal right next to each other on the top left, and we’re on the top right, but they’re right here. To me, that’s way above-average teams. And then you’ve got some teams — five, six, seven — who’s teams are down below, in some of the lowest areas you can be when you add all their numbers up.

“It’s almost like OK, OU can handle this. You guys take this, you can handle this. I think we get looked at like that at times, and that’s a tough place to be. But our team knows we’re going to have to play really, really good softball in order to get through this weekend. We’re not taking anything for granted.” – head coach Patty Gasso