Alyssa Brito – Page 11 – Syndication Server

Oklahoma Sooners top Big 12 softball preseason poll

Oklahoma pulled six of seven first places to land atop the Big 12 preseason poll for the 11th straight season.

The Oklahoma Sooners softball team is gearing up to defend their national championship and work toward a three-peat. The 2021 and 2022 national champs look to be the favorite yet again with the 2023 season just a few weeks away.

For the 11th straight season and the 14th time in the last 15 seasons, the Sooners landed atop the preseason Big 12 poll. Oklahoma received six of the seven first-place votes given out by the coaches, with Oklahoma State garnering the remaining first-place vote. The Cowgirls, who won the Big 12 tournament title in 2022, are second in the preseason poll. They’re followed by Texas, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and finally the Kansas Jayhawks.

While there’s no replacement for home run queen Jocelyn Alo, Patty Gasso and her staff have done a tremendous job in the transfer portal to mitigate the loss. This offseason, Oklahoma welcomed Cydney Sanders and Alynah Torres from Arizona State and Hayley Lee from Texas A&M. To mitigate the loss of Hope Trautwien, Oklahoma added [autotag]Alex Storako[/autotag] from Michigan.

Even without those additions, the Sooners would have been the prohibitive favorites in the Big 12 and in the national title conversation with [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag], [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag], [autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag], [autotag]Kinzie Hansen[/autotag], [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag], and [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag]. But those portal reinforcements put Oklahoma in a position to replicate their offensive production over the last two seasons and match their pitching prowess from the circle.

The Sooners will open the season February 9 in Irvine, Calif. for the Mark Campbell Invitational. They’ll face four teams that made the NCAA tournament in 2022, starting with Duke. They’ll open the season at home on March 3 vs. Incarnate Word and Kentucky.

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10 Oklahoma Sooners named to D1 Softball’s top 100 for 2023

10 Sooners land inside D1 Softball’s top 100 players as Oklahoma prepares for their NCAA title defense.

One would think that losing the best player in the history of college softball would create a huge hole in the Oklahoma Sooners’ lineup. Yet, the two-time defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners are looking fully loaded and ready for the three-peat.

Jocelyn Alo will be missed, but OU has more than enough firepower to make up for her absence. Since departing after the 2022 season, Alo signed with the OKC Spark of the WPF and was named Sports Illustrated’s 2022 Athlete of the Year.

Oklahoma recently broke ground on Love’s Field, the future home of Sooners Softball. According to the Sooner Club website, the ballpark will be ready for the 2024 season, which could be the Sooners’ first in the SEC.

With so many stars on the roster, the new ballpark will be a fitting home for the back-to-back (to-back?) defending national champions. Here’s a look at the 10 Sooners in D1 Softball’s top 100 (subscription required).

Despite the loss of Jocelyn Alo, Oklahoma Softball will remain offensive

Jocelyn Alo’s departure from the Oklahoma Sooners is one that will be felt, however, they have the talent and the depth to remain great at the plate in 2023.

You can’t lose a player like [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] and not feel it in your lineup. The NCAA all-time home run leader carried that much of a presence. And while she’ll be missed for the bombs she launched and the joy in which she played, the Sooners’ offense will still be really, really good.

Will they be 40 run-rule wins good in 2023? Maybe not. However, [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] will be the sparks that make that lineup special as well.

Tiare Jennings has been the protection for Alo’s career home run chase for the last two seasons and has been nearly as productive as the two-time Collegiate Player of the Year.

She’s hit over .400 for her career and has 56 home runs and 179 RBIs in her two seasons in Norman. She was absolutely incredible during the Women’s College World Series. She hit .523 with five home runs and 15 RBIs. If it weren’t for Alo’s historic season and postseason, all of the accolades that the super senior won would have gone to Jennings. She was that good.

At the top of the order, Jayda Coleman became the table-setter for the Oklahoma Sooners. Her .584 on-base percentage was second only to Alo’s and her 52 walks were just two fewer than Alo had in 2022. And not only did she get on base, but she was second on the team in batting average, hitting .424 as a sophomore.

And Coleman provided a bit of pop from the top of the lineup as well. She launched eight home runs and drove in 40 RBIs while finishing second on the team with nine doubles as well.

Of course, having Jocelyn Alo hit behind you helps, at the same time, teams wouldn’t want a runner on base for when the living legend stepped up to the plate. Coleman became as important a part of the Sooners lineup as Jennings and Alo in their back-to-back national title run.

And then there’s Grace Lyons who was one of the breakout stars for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2022. Her power behind Jennings helped the Sooners offense reach new heights as she hit over .400 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs in 2022. One of the best defensive players coming into the season, Lyons turned herself into a feared hitter that will be a force again in 2023.

The Sooners will also return Alyssa Brito and Rylie Boone who came up huge at the plate throughout the season, and in the NCAA tournament in particular. Their timely hitting in the back half of the order kept the pressure on opposing pitching staffs and helped give the Sooners a dangerous lineup from top to bottom.

Again, you can’t replace Jocelyn Alo and you can’t pretend she won’t be a loss, but the Oklahoma Sooners will still be great at the plate in 2023 as they look for a three-peat as national champions.

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Oklahoma Sooners dominate UCLA 15-0, advance to WCWS Championship

Jocelyn Alo went 4-for-4 with 2 home runs and 7 RBIs and Hope Trautwein allowed just two hits as the Oklahoma Sooners dominated UCLA 15-0 to roar into the WCWS championship series.

After falling to the UCLA Bruins 7-3 in the first game of the day, the Oklahoma Sooners responded to their first loss of the NCAA tournament in a resounding fashion. They beat the 12-time national champions 15-0 to advance to the Women’s College World Series championship and continue their quest to go back-to-back and win their sixth national championship.

As they’ve done in each of the last two seasons following a loss, the Oklahoma Sooners left no doubt in this one, jumping on UCLA from the get-go.

The top of the order came out hot as [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] opened the game with a lead-off walk. [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] moved Coleman on a double to right-center and [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] crushed a three-run home run for her 27th of the season to left.

After the three-run shot from Jennings, Alo had a feeling about how game two was going to go against UCLA. And both the offense and the defense proved her right. The ESPN broadcast caught video of Alo telling her teammates that they’d only need five innings in the second game.

Jocy wants to end this one in 5! Sooners are on the way! @OU_Softball pic.twitter.com/hLZIM6b14i

— Coach Edwards (@JesseEd14977048) June 6, 2022

The Sooners added three more runs in the top of the second, this time off the bat of the NCAA all-time home run leader, who launched her own three-run home run of the season. Alo provided the action to go with her words. She ended the day going 4-for-4 with two home runs and seven RBIs to lead the Sooners in their 15-0 win. But she didn’t do it alone, [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] was fantastic as well.

Trautwein allowed just two hits, no walks, and struck out six Bruins to dominate the Bruins. She allowed a double in the bottom of the first and then would go on to retire 12 straight Bruins before allowing her second hit of the afternoon.

And if the Bruins were hoping they’d have a shot to extend the game to seven innings, the Oklahoma Sooners left no doubt that the game would end in five.

In the top of the fifth, the Oklahoma Sooners sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs on six hits, with a walk and a hit by pitch.

[autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag] led off with a hit by pitch and [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] followed that up with a single. Another single by [autotag]Kinzie Hansen[/autotag] loaded the bases for [autotag]Grace Green[/autotag] who ripped a single of her own scoring Lyons to make it 8-0. [autotag]Rylie Boone[/autotag] continued her hot Women’s College World Series with a two-RBI single to score Brito and Hansen. After [autotag]Jana Johns[/autotag] singled to left to load the bases, Jayda Coleman picked up her second walk of the game, this time pushing home Green to make it 11-0 and load the bases for “Home Run Queen” Jocelyn Alo.

In fitting fashion, Alo worked the count to her favor and blasted her second homer of the day for a grand slam to make it 15-0 to put the game far out of reach of any type of comeback from the highly-ranked Bruins.

The Oklahoma Sooners picked up their 40th run-rule win of the season and Jocelyn Alo now has 32 home runs and 82 RBIs on the season.

After a letdown in the first game of the day, the Oklahoma Sooners left no doubt as to their status as the favorites to win it all. Now they await the winner of the other semifinal this evening between the Oklahoma State Cowgirls and the Texas Longhorns. Either way, the Sooners will face a team that has a win over them.

They avenged their April loss to Texas in the winner’s bracket of the Women’s College World Series. Prior to their loss to UCLA, the Cowgirls were the last team to beat the Sooners, picking up a win in the Big 12 championship game.

No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners beat the Texas Longhorns 7-2 advance to WCWS semifinals

Hope Trautwein pitched seven strong innings and Jocelyn Alo and Tiare Jennings hit home runs to lead Oklahoma in their 7-2 win over the Texas Longhorns on Saturday.

For the sixth straight season, the Oklahoma Sooners are moving on to the Women’s College World Series semifinals after a 7-2 win over the Texas Longhorns.

[autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] pitched a complete game and the Sooners used a fifth-inning explosion to distance themselves from their Red River rivals.

Oklahoma didn’t waste any time getting out in front of Texas on Saturday. [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] jumped all over [autotag]Hailey Dolcini[/autotag] for a lead off double and [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] brought her in with her 30th home run of the season to make it a 2-0 game. Alo is the only player in NCAA history with three seasons of 30 home runs.

Trautwein would allow a run in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1 and then both Trautwein and Dolcini would settle in for a pitcher’s duel for the next several innings.

And then the inevitable Oklahoma offensive onslaught came.

With the Sooners ahead 2-1 heading into the top of the fifth, [autotag]Rylie Boone[/autotag] got things started for Oklahoma as she did on Thursday against Northwestern. Boone’s bunt single got the Sooners going and then Jana Johns joined in on the small ball fun with a sacrifice bunt of her own to put Boone in scoring position.

Jayda Coleman came through with a one-out double to continue her incredible NCAA tournament showing to make it 3-1. Jocelyn Alo drove in Coleman with a hit up the middle to make it 4-1.

After a pitching change, [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] welcomed Sophia Simpson to the circle by blasting the first pitch into the stands for her second home run in the Women’s College World Series. That made it a 6-1 game and with the way Trautwein’s pitched this year, it was all but academic.

[autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] finished off the scoring with an RBI to make it 7-1 before Texas added a final run in the seventh off of Janae Jefferson’s solo shot for the final score of 7-2.

Though she allowed two runs in the game, Trautwein was much more in control in this game. She only allowed two walks on Saturday after giving Northwestern five free passes on Thursday.

At 2-0 in the Women’s College World Series, the Oklahoma Sooners are one win away from advancing to the championship series for the third straight season. They’ll play the winner of Sunday’s matchup between UCLA and Florida, who will have the unenviable task of having to beat the Sooners twice to advance to the series championship.

Oklahoma Sooners advance to Super Regionals with 20-0 win over Texas A&M

After the largest win in NCAA Softball Tournament history, the Sooners will move on to Super Regionals for the 12th straight-year with their 20-0 win over Texas A&M.

For the 15th time in program history and for the 12th year in a row, the Oklahoma Sooners are going to the Super Regionals after beating Texas A&M 20-0. This was the largest win in NCAA Softball Tournament history.

On Saturday, the Aggie pitching did enough to keep the Sooners’ bats uncomfortable and A&M made the game close on a late two-run home run. On Sunday, it was a completely different story in the Sooners dominating win over the Aggies.

The Sooners scored 20 runs on 12 hits, and four walks and were aided by four errors from the Aggie defense. After an emotional win Saturday evening over Minnesota, it seemed like the Aggies were just out of gas in the regional final.

[autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] was nearly unhittable as she struck out seven Aggies and allowed just two hits through 4.1 innings. [autotag]Macy McAdoo[/autotag] came in to finish the job in the fifth inning to claim yet another run-rule victory for the Sooners.

Oklahoma got it going with a nine-run first inning where the Sooners sent 14 batters to the plate. Texas A&M had three errors in the inning, but Oklahoma had five hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch to reach base. The frame included a [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] home run and doubles by [autotag]Lynnsie Elam[/autotag] and [autotag]Jana Johns[/autotag] to put the game out of reach before the Aggies ever stepped into the batters box.

The Sooners scored every time they took their turn to bat and scored at least three runs in each inning except the second.

Alo was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs. [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] and [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] added home runs of their own as the Sooners. Seven Sooners notched RBIs led by Britto’s four runs batted in.

OU’s opponent in Super Regionals will be Central Florida after the Knights defeated the Michigan Wolverines in their regional final. UCF was the host as the No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Super Regionals will run from May 26-29. The Sooners will host UCF for a best-of-three series. The winner will go to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series.

Oklahoma Sooners softball dominates Big 12 awards

The Oklahoma Sooners pull in six first-team awards and dominate the individual All-Big 12 honors.

After an incredible 45-1 season that culminated in their 10th straight regular season title, the Oklahoma Sooners dominated the Big 12’s all-conference awards.

Oklahoma had six first-team and one second-team selections to lead the conference and swept the individual awards as well.

Though the Sooners played to a litany of run-rule victories, they did face their fair share of adversity on their way to an incredible season. Like Saturday in the Bedlam and Big 12 regular season finale, the Sooners faced a one-run deficit in the fifth inning before Jocelyn Alo came through in the clutch with her second grand slam of the season.

As the Sooners get set for Big 12 tournament play, let’s take a look at each of the awards handed out to Oklahoma Sooners.

Oklahoma Sooners beat Oklahoma State 6-0 to clinch 10th consecutive Big 12 regular season title

The Oklahoma Sooners beat Oklahoma State 6-0 to clinch the Big 12 regular season title with another standout performance from Hope Trautwein

The road to the Big 12 Conference trophy will yet again run through Norman as the unanimous No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners clinched the regular-season title with a win over the No. 7 Oklahoma State Cowgirls 6-0.

Since losing to the Texas Longhorns, OU has won nine straight games and allowed only six runs in that same span.

With head football coach Brent Venables in attendance to throw out the first pitch, the best softball team in the world put on an absolute show once again.

[autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] picked up her 14th win of the season in 5.1 shutout innings with four strikeouts. Freshman phenom [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] came in to finish the job in the sixth.

Bahl struck out two batters in the remaining 1.2 innings of the game. Pitching once again revealed it’s a strength for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Oklahoma State threatened early with two hits in the first inning, but Bahl ended up stranding both baserunners.

The Cowgirls only managed one hit after the early start as Trautwein buckled down and controlled the game.

Since losing to Texas, the Sooners have thrown five shutouts.

The game was tied at zero through the top of the third, then the Sooners’ offense made some noise.

Alyssa Brito singled home a run, Jana Johns walked with the bases loaded and then Kinzie Hansen hit a three run double to clear the bases.

With two wins against the Cowgirls, OU has now won 28 of their last 29 against their Bedlam rivals. Their only loss since 2011 was last year in Stillwater. Oklahoma has won 10 straight Big 12 regular-season titles and this is their 14th overall.

The regular season finale is tomorrow in Norman at 4 p.m. CST.

Oklahoma Softball sweeps double-header against Iowa State 6-4, 9-0

Oklahoma Softball improved to 41-1 with a pair of wins on Friday night against Iowa State.

The Oklahoma Sooners (41-1) claimed a pair of wins on Friday night to start their three-game series against the Iowa State Cyclones. In their 6-4 and 9-0 wins, the Sooners moved to 41-1 on the season and have a three-game winning streak going since last weekend’s loss to the Texas Longhorns.

The Cyclones came out swinging in game one, jumping out to an early lead in the top of the third. [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag], in her first start since losing to the Texas Longhorns in Austin, allowed four runs through 5.1 innings of work while striking out seven batters. Bahl earned her 18th win of the year, moving her record to 18-1.

The Sooners would not trail again on Friday after the top of the third in game one.

OU came alive in the bottom of the third, rattling off a pair of RBI singles. The final exclamation point in the inning was a two-run homer run by Jana Johns. Johns became the sixth OU hitter to reach double-figures in home runs for 2022.

The Cyclones would do some damage in the top of the sixth, but OU would stay ahead to win game one 6-4.

Game two wasn’t as close.

The Sooners’ bats came alive for three home runs in the second game, courtesy of Alyssa Brito, Lynnsie Elam, and Rylie Boone. Brito and Elam now have 12 home runs on the season and the homer was Boone’s second of the season.

Hope Trautwein was nearly untouchable as she allowed only one hit through in another complete-game victory. Trautwein struck out three batters while walking none. She’s now 12-0 on the season. In the shutout win, she lowered her NCAA-leading ERA to 0.10 on the season.

As usual Marita Hynes Field was filled to capacity, but there was some extra buzz in the air for this doubleheader.

Home Run Village returned.

A free section sitting in the outfield, Home Run Village allows more fans to have a game-day experience at OU Softball games.

The experience will return for tomorrow’s finale against Iowa State and when Oklahoma State comes to Norman for the second series of Bedlam softball.

Their 9-0 win in the second leg of the double-header was their 33rd run-rule win of the season and their 24th shutout through 42 games this season. They had 24 shutouts and 35 run-rule wins in 60 games in their national championship run in 2021.

Oklahoma Sooners take game 2 vs. Texas 9-1 for 31st run-rule win of the season

Led by Alyssa Brito’s two home runs, the Oklahoma Sooners beat Texas 9-1 to improve to 38-0 on the season.

The Oklahoma Sooners took game two of their Red River series in Austin against the Texas Longhorns in run-rule fashion on Friday night. Oklahoma, who won 3-0 on Thursday, were challenged early by the Horns who plated their first run of the series in the second inning to tie the game 1-1.

After Texas tied the game in the bottom of the second, the Sooners outscored the Longhorns 8-0 from the third inning on to move to 38-0.

Nicole May and Hope Trautwein combined to allow just one run on four hits.

[autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] stole the show at the plate from the No. 9 spot, going 3 for 3 with two home runs and three RBIs on the evening. Those two give her 10 home runs on the season and she’s fifth on the team in home runs behind [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag], [autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag], [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag], and [autotag]Lynnsie Elam[/autotag]. Oklahoma now has five players with double-digit home runs on the season.

Up 3-1 heading into the top of the fifth, Brito sparked a six-run inning with her second home run of the night. [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] walked and Jocelyn Alo moved her around to third on a liner off the outfield wall. Grace Lyons brought Jennings home on a squeeze play to make it 5-1. After Jana Johns’ bases-loaded walk made it 6-1, Rylie Boone brought in a couple more with a two-run single to right to make it 8-1. Brito would bookend the scoring run with her third RBI of the evening to make it 9-1 for the Sooners.

Hope Trautwein battled out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth inning to send the Longhorns home early and the Sooners to their 40th consecutive win dating back to last season.

Trautwein’s now lowered her NCAA-leading ERA to 0.11 on the season with another 2.2 scoreless work. The Sooners pitching staff hasn’t allowed more than one run in a game since their March 10 matchup with Baylor in Hawaii, when they allowed three. That’s 21 games in a row with one or fewer runs allowed.

Oklahoma and Texas will close out the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. C.T. The game will be broadcast on the Longhorn Network and can be heard on 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and on the Varsity App.