OU softball finds its 'freedom' in three-peat accomplishment

OKLAHOMA CITY – OU softball pitcher Jordy Bahl fittingly put the punctuation mark with one final strikeout to close out the Women’s College World Series.

The dogpile celebration was on for Oklahoma. The celebration, and after all these wins and all these months, the freedom for the Sooners.

Because since even before the season started, all eyes were on whether the Sooners could make history and win their third straight national championship.

OU was able to do that, taking down No. 3 Florida State 3-1 on Thursday night to sweep the championship series at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.

No more questions about a three-peat. No more trying to explain the team’s place in history. Gone are the questions, for now, about the winning streak. Soak in the moment because it’s been earned.

“It is incredibly hard. I don’t know how to explain it,” head coach Patty Gasso said. “I just can tell you the way I feel right now is free because the expectation is overwhelming. The pressure is overwhelming.

“I know what they’re feeling. I know what I’m feeling. It’s very difficult, extremely rewarding. It’s so crazy to see how our lives have changed. The fact that we got here and we won this is just mind-boggling with all of the wave of pressure and so forth, I could not be more proud of this group.”

You want to talk pressure? OU closes the season with a ridiculous 61-1 overall record and ending on a 53-game winning streak, the longest in softball history.

The expectations built and built with each win, each week. Setting the stage for a postseason run that saw it tested repeatedly.

And passing those tests with flying colors each time.

“I’m really just proud of this team for how we have stuck together this year,” Bahl said. “I think not a lot of other people would fully understand what it’s like to go through just the day to day from off-season during the summer to August, everything up until now. Everyone just sees what’s put on the field on game day.

“There’s a lot. I’m just proud of how we’ve stuck together through pressure, adversity, and just have ultimately been one strong, cohesive unit that has at the end of the day taken that pressure and giving the glory to the Lord and been able to still play free and play together and find joy in things outside of the playing field.”

That final test came from the Seminoles, a worthy championship series foe. FSU took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. OU, as always, didn’t flinch.

The Sooners had come back in big-time moments before. Chalk up one more to make history. It started with an opposite field solo home run by Cydney Sanders to begin the top of the fifth. Here comes that wave as Gasso has liked to say throughout this season.

Then it happened. Captain Grace Lyons, who had been in a hitting rut in the postseason, connected on a solo home run to make it 2-1.

From anxious moments just minutes before to the feeling of inevitability. A feeling of undeniability. OU wasn’t going to be stopped.

“We work so hard to create a cohesive circle, to where the outside wasn’t that big of an impact on us and our mindset,” Lyons said. “I think from day one, we had to do that. We had to continue that until now.”

It was time for Bahl to close the show one final time. Alex Storako did her job in pitching the first four innings. She gave up three hits, one home run, a walk with two strikeouts.

The final game of her career is a victory, making her 18-0 this season. But Bahl’s fourth save of the season cemented why she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the WCWS.

Three more scoreless innings. No hits and two of her three strikeouts occurred in the seventh.

“When she’s here, this is her playground,” Gasso said. “This is her heaven right here, at the World Series where it’s real. And it’s someone else that we’re competing against.”

Bahl was hoisted upon teammates’ shoulders when she was announced as the Most Outstanding Player. Some players allowed the emotions to run free. Some were celebrating and running up and down the field.

For Gasso? She didn’t quite know. Because to get to this point, the weight of expectations were at an all-time high.

It’s not the plucky, little underdog days like when OU won its first in 2000. This is three in a row, and crazy enough, it was expected. Absolutely expected.

“I think this really was the roughest one I’ve ever had to go through just because of with lots of fans and the growth of the sport comes a lot of pressure,” Gasso said. “I think I’ve felt that. And they have felt that. I don’t know if they shared that with you.

“To be sitting up here and telling you this is still kind of amazing because everybody’s out to get us. They want to bring down the Evil Empire, whatever it is. I don’t know.

“I’m still in kind of – I didn’t even know how to react after because I just felt freedom and I wanted to just – I don’t even know. I still don’t know. I guess I’ll figure it out.”

The Sooners join UCLA as the only two programs to win back-to-back-to-back national championships. The Bruins accomplished the feat from 1988-90.

OU had some real scares in the Super Regional against Clemson and at the WCWS against Stanford and Game 2 vs. FSU. But a team that was not afraid to lose also simply would not taste defeat.

Every single time there was someone ready to step up and play hero. A complete team, a team for the ages. Most importantly, now, a national championship team.

And finally free.