Fresh off the heels of their 2022 national championship, the Oklahoma Sooners made a splash in the transfer portal with the addition of Michigan transfer Alex Storako. Storako joins arguably the best pitching rotation in the country from 2022 to replace Hope Trautwein, the big-time transfer addition from a year ago.
Storako, like Trautwein, comes in having had a lot of success in her time with the Michigan Wolverines. She’s won 69 career games and thrown over 900 strikeouts against the Big 10.
It’s a step-up in competition for Storako, coming to a Big 12 conference that sent all three NCAA tournament qualifiers to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma, Texas, and Oklahoma State. At the same time, she’s joining the back-to-back national champions, so the talent around her has improved from a Wolverines squad that was 38-18 and finished fourth in the Big 10.
The Wolverines were eliminated in the Orlando regional, dropping both games to Regional champ UCF, who the Sooners eliminated in the Super Regionals. Storako pitched 11 innings in three games, including a complete game 4-1 win over South Dakota State. The 25-game-winner pitched in relief in both appearances against UCF, allowing three runs in 4.2 innings, all three coming in the 9-4 loss that knocked them out of the tournament.
Storako is an electric pitcher, recording 300 strikeouts, which was sixth in the nation in 2022. She averaged 10.5 strikeouts per seven innings. However, if there’s an area where she can improve, it’s in home runs allowed and walks allowed. Her strikeout to walk ratio of 4.69 was 49th in the country in 2022.
In 2022, she allowed 22 home runs. By comparison, the Oklahoma Sooners allowed just 15 as a staff last season.
As the Oklahoma Sooners transition into the post-Jocelyn Alo era, it’ll be important not to allow free base runners or many home runs. The Sooners’ offense will still be dynamic, but one can’t deny that the loss of the NCAA all-time home run leader will impact the Oklahoma Sooners’ run production.
However, with Jordy Bahl leading the way, Oklahoma won’t need Storako to be the ace in the rotation. And like Tratuwein experienced, perhaps a lighter workload will allow her to be an even more efficient and dynamic pitcher for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2023.
Let’s take a by-the-numbers look at Alex Storako’s career thus far with the Michigan Wolverines.