Tag: 2023 College Softball Season

Oklahoma leads the way with seven D1Softball All-American selections

The Oklahoma Sooners led the way with seven selections, including five on the first-team, in @D1Softball’s All-America teams.

The Oklahoma Sooners dominated the All-American selections from D1Softball, with seven selections, including five first-team selections. Tennessee is the only other team with two first-team selections.

[autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag], [autotag]Kinzie Hansen[/autotag], [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag], [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag], and [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] were voted to the first team. [autotag]Haley Lee[/autotag] and [autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag] were second-team selections.

[autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] has been the Sooners’ go-to in tough spots this season. Bahl is 18-1 in 2023 with a 1.08 ERA and is allowing opponents to hit just .164 on the season.

Bahl was joined on the first team by Alabama’s [autotag]Montana Fouts[/autotag], Florida State’s [autotag]Kathryn Sandercock[/autotag], and Tennessee’s [autotag]Ashley Jones[/autotag].

Kinzie Hansen earned her first-team selection after hitting .415 with 12 home runs and 53 RBIs on the season. She’s been fantastic in the postseason for the Sooners, going 9-for-16 (.562) with two home runs and nine RBIs. Hansen’s heroics in game two gave Oklahoma a chance to win the game, break the record for consecutive wins in a row, and advance to the Women’s College World Series for the seventh consecutive season.

Tiare Jennings leads the Sooners with a .436 batting average and 60 RBIs. She’s second on the team with 16 home runs on the season, behind third baseman Alyssa Brito.

Brito is hitting .411 with her team-leading 17 home runs and is just an RBI behind Jennings with 59 RBIs.

Rounding out the first-team selections for the Sooners is center fielder Jayda Coleman. The Sooners’ leadoff hitter is batting .417 and has career highs in home runs. (16) and RBIs (46) while still getting on base at a .500 clip.

Haley Lee earned second-team utility honors by hitting .399 with 14 home runs and 51 RBIs. She’s come through for the Sooners in clutch moments all year. Her grand slam against Clemson on Friday helped break open a 4-2 contest to give the Sooners the win in game one.

Grace Lyons has an argument to be made to be a first-team player as the best shortstop in softball. The Big 12 defensive player of the year didn’t have the numbers she had a year ago at the plate but has still been fantastic, hitting .331 with eight home runs and 31 RBIs.

The Oklahoma Sooners open Women’s College World Series play against No. 9 seed Stanford on Thursday at 1:30 pm CT on ESPN.

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ESPN’s Beth Mowins says Tiare Jennings the ‘frontrunner’ for Collegiate Player of the Year in 2023

ESPN softball analyst Beth Mowins puts Oklahoma Sooners’ Tiare Jennings out front in 2023 Collegiate Player of the Year discussions for 2023.

It was a tremendous year for Oklahoma Sooners softball as they complete their quest for back-to-back national championships, sweeping Texas in the championship series. It’s their sixth national championship in program history. It was a record-setting season that had the nation marveling at the offensive output and the pitching carried its weight throughout 2022 as well.

With the season now over, the Sooners say goodbye to several super seniors, most notably the NCAA’s all-time home run queen, [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag]. But that doesn’t mean they’re slowing down by any stretch of the imagination.

While Jocelyn Alo deserves all the recognition for what she’s done at the plate, the woman hitting right behind her is a dominant offensive force in her own right; Tiare Jennings.

Jennings, who just completed her sophomore season hit 29 home runs and drove in 87 RBIs. This a year after hitting 27 home runs with 92 RBIs as a freshman. Yes, that’s 56 home runs and 179 RBIs in two seasons with the Oklahoma Sooners. While her “Bash Sister” has gobbled up the national player of the year awards, Tiare Jennings was a worthwhile option in her own right.

According to Beth Mowins, who took part in ESPN’s college softball roundtable to conclude the 2022 season, Tiare Jennings is the frontrunner for collegiate player of the year in 2023, saying, “I’m going to go way out on a limb and say that Tiare Jennings has put herself as the front-runner for national player of the year.”

Mowins was being a bit facetious, but her bold prediction certainly isn’t that bold. Jennings, the 2021 national freshman of the year, and a two-time first-team All-American has a chance to be the best hitter in softball over the next couple of years with Alo now playing professionally.

She finished the 2022 season first in RBIs (again), and third in home runs. While her batting average was lower than the .462 she hit as a freshman, she still hit an incredible .401 and went on a tear in the NCAA tournament.

In the postseason, Jennings hit .486 with seven home runs and 19 RBIs. She also added four doubles and 14 runs scored to win her second national championship in as many years with the Oklahoma Sooners.

With 56 home runs in two years, she has a great chance to pass former Sooners great Lauren Chamberlain for No. 2 all-time during her senior season. Jennings could also end up as the second player in NCAA history to surpass the 100 home run mark.

She’s off to an incredible start to her Sooners career and she’s just getting started. While there are concerns about who’s hitting behind her to provide the protection that she provided Jocelyn Alo, Jennings has proven that she’s one of the best players in college softball and will only get better.

Tiare Jennings Photo Gallery