Tag: Nicole May

10 Oklahoma Sooners named to Softball America’s Preseason All-American teams

Led by five first-team selections, 10 Oklahoma Sooners were named to Softball America’s preseason All-American teams.

The Oklahoma Sooners begin their quest for a third-straight national championship at the Mark Campbell Invitational on Thursday, February 9, against Duke.

The unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the country, and back-to-back national champions, the Sooners, are expected to make another run despite the loss of Jocelyn Alo and Hope Trautwein. Patty Gasso has assembled another talented group to take on all comers in the 2023 season.

It won’t be easy, it never is, but the Oklahoma Sooners will be the team to beat for the 2023 national title. With the season under two weeks away, Softball America released their preseason All-American teams. 10 Sooners were selected, including five to the first team. UCLA was the only other team with multiple first-team selections with three and they had just five total selections to the three All-American squads.

Here’s a look at the Sooners’ selections.

Projected lineup for the Oklahoma Sooners as they prepare for national title defense

What could the Oklahoma Sooners lineup look like when they begin their 2023 NCAA title defense?

The Oklahoma Sooners will begin their quest for three-straight national championships in 16 days when they face off with the No. 19 Duke Blue Devils for the first of five games in the opener of the Mark Campbell Invitational in Irvine, California.

The Sooners lost key pieces to their 2022 squad, like [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag], [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag], [autotag]Lynnsie Elam[/autotag], and [autotag]Taylon Snow[/autotag], but they looked locked and loaded for 2023. With transfer additions like [autotag]Alex Storako[/autotag], Cydney Sanders, [autotag]Alynah Torres[/autotag], and [autotag]Haley Lee[/autotag], the Sooners could be as good or better than they were a year ago.

They have a deep lineup that features seven players with a season of 14 home runs or more and four players with a 20-home run season in their careers. You can’t replace a Jocelyn Alo, but the Sooners lineup looks incredibly deep heading into 2023. Are there enough at-bats for the talented hitters that Patty Gasso has assembled?

Are the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners the greatest softball team ever? ESPN analysts think so

5 of 7 ESPN Analysts say the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners are the greatest softball team of all time.

Closing out the 2022 college softball season, ESPN gathered their group of analysts to discuss a host of things from 2022 and provide a look ahead to the 2023 season.

The first question they asked their panel of experts was, “Where does this year’s Oklahoma team rank among the best ever?”

Five of the seven analysts on the panel answered with a pretty emphatic yes. “First. The best team of all time. No. 1,” Kayla Braud said on the panel. “They probably overtake … the team from last year. I think that there are some incredible teams who have played, but I don’t remember a time when we’ve seen 1-9 be as good offensively. We’ve seen pitchers that are better and have better performances, but not a whole team like this one. I think you can go back to some of the UCLA and Arizona greats, but in this era of competition, to have somebody come through and dominate this much is pretty rare.”

And she wasn’t alone in saying the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners were the greatest of all-time. Jess Mendoza, Madison Shipman, Amanda Scarborough, and Michele Smith agreed that the Sooners 2022 run was the greatest.

Beth Mowins, who said Tiare Jennings is the frontrunner for 2023 collegiate player of the year, and Jenny Dalton-Hill hedged a little, including former UCLA and Arizona teams from the 90s alongside the Sooners.

Mowins argued, “I think this year’s team and last year’s team are very comparable. You have to go back to those ’90s Arizona teams that could have won five championships in a row — and that lineup was just a monster. I think those two belong with the ’92 UCLA team that lost only twice all year.”

The “greatest of all-time discussions” are always a difficult one, but what feels different about the 2022 Oklahoma Sooners and the great teams of the 90s is the parity in the sport of college softball in today’s game. While Oklahoma has been dominant for the last couple of seasons, the game has a much better depth of teams and talent today as the game has grown over the last thirty years, thanks in large part to the UCLA and Arizona teams of the past.

Not only were they dominant offensively, but the Sooners led the nation in ERA and won 67% of their games in run-rule fashion. [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] was the headliner, but as Shipman put it, “It’s amazing how many times, when they swing, they are perfectly on time and they hit the ball so solid, at such a consistent clip 1-9 throughout their offense.” And it’s the 1-9 aspect of the Oklahoma Sooners that has made them so good the last several seasons.

As much as the top of the order can hurt you, even when they’re not on (which is rare) the bottom half of the lineup can win Oklahoma a lot of games.

The depth in the lineup, the pitching rotation of [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag], [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag], and [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] held sub-1.00 ERA’s for much of the 2022 season and made shutouts the norm.

While winning has become the norm for Oklahoma Softball, how they won in 2022 was a sight to behold. They were dominant at just about every turn on their way to back-to-back national championships. The No. 1 team in the country during the preseason, carried that title through Oklahoma City and went the distance as the No. 1 team in the country. Patty Gasso and Oklahoma have set the standard that everyone’s chasing and there’s no reason to believe they’re going to slow down anytime soon.

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By the Numbers: A look at the Oklahoma Sooners’ addition of Michigan transfer P Alex Storako

Not slowing down after a national title, the Oklahoma Sooners added grad transfer Alex Storako, let’s by the numbers look at her career.

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.

Former Michigan Pitcher Alex Storako announces transfer to OU

Oklahoma Softball lands Michigan transfer Alex Storako. Storako was the unanimous Big Ten Pitcher of the Year in 2021.

The best pitching staff in the nation may be losing Hope Trautwein, but they’ll be gaining yet another star.

Former Michigan Wolverines ace pitcher Alex Storako will be transferring to the University of Oklahoma for her Master’s Degree and final year of NCAA eligibility.

The righty went 25-8 with a 1.71 ERA in 2022. She also struck out 300 batters in 200.l innings of work.

She doesn’t have the numbers of Hope Trautwein, but in her defense, not many pitchers do. She will fit right in with Nicole May and Jordy Bahl.

While at Michigan, she was a unanimous Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and second team All-American in 2021.

Storako announced her transfer on her twitter account on Monday afternoon. Needless to say, the crimson and cream suits her very well.

The OU rotation is suddenly looking very crowded with the additions of Storako and no.1 recruit Kierston Deal.

OU pitching’s dominance is a big reason why they just finished the greatest season in college softball history. While the bats were excellent, the pitching did need to bail them out a few times during the season.

Jordy Bahl’s health will also be a massive boost for the rotation come next season.

Too bad Oklahoma fans will have to wait until next year to see Storako pitch at Marita Hynes field.

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Relive the magic of the Sooners 10-5 over Texas to win their 6th national title

Take a look back at the Oklahoma Sooners’ 10-5 win over the Texas Longhorns to claim their 6th national title in these stunning photos.

It was a season for the ages as the Oklahoma Sooners went coast-to-coast as the No. 1 team in the nation, all culminating with their 2022 national championship.

To win the WCWS championship over the first team to beat them during the season, the Texas Longhorns and a rival, made the win all the sweeter.

Oklahoma has now gone back-to-back for the second time in program history as they claimed their sixth title. They’re third all-time behind UCLA (12) and Arizona (8) and it doesn’t seem like a stretch that they’ll pass Arizona in the next five years for second place.

In the series-clinching win, the Sooners showed off their depth as Jocelyn Alo, one of the all-time greats, went just 1-for-3 with a walk on the evening. Everyone else had to step up.

Jayda Coleman stole the show defensively and had Twitter buzzing.

Oklahoma took advantage of a Texas error to get their first couple of runs across in the fourth and Kinze Hansen delivered the knockout blow with her three-run home run in the fifth inning. Grace Lyons followed that up with a three-run home run in the sixth to put the game out of reach and begin the seventh-inning ceremony.

Patty Gasso orchestrated an emotional exit for Jocelyn Alo, who started the seventh inning in left field and registered two putouts. After the second out, she lifted Alo to a roar from the crowd. And even though Texas got a three-run home run of their own to cut the deficit late, the coronation was just beginning.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the 2022 national champions.

Relive the Sooners’ 10-5 win over Texas to win the WCWS Championship in these incredible still photos.

Oklahoma Sooners capture 6th national title with 10-5 win over the Texas Longhorns

The Oklahoma Sooners erupted for four runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings to beat the Longhorns 10-5 for their 6th national title.

The Texas Longhorns came to play in game two of the Women’s College World Series championship series. An excellent start by Estelle Czech kept the Sooners’ bats off balance for the first three innings, keeping Oklahoma scoreless. But just like death and taxes, the Oklahoma offense is inevitable.

The defense carried Oklahoma in the early frames, keeping the Longhorns from putting together far bigger innings than the two runs they got in the first inning.

Jayda Coleman came through with arguably the defensive play of the Women’s College World Series, when she skied above the fence to rob Courtney Day of what would have been a two-run home run to end the first inning for the Longhorns.

Jordy Bahl, getting the start settled in after that, limiting Texas to just three base runners over the next three innings.

Oklahoma rewarded Bahl’s bounce-back effort after a rough first inning by tying the game in the fourth before the Sooners erupted for four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

In the four-run fifth, the Sooners put on a clinic on how to hit with two outs. Jayda Coleman and Jocelyn Alo were retired on long fly balls, but it was evidence that the Sooners were beginning to get a bead on what Czech was throwing. Tiare Jennings then kicked off a rally with a two-out single. Grace Lyons moved her to second after getting hit by a pitch. Then Alyssa Brito followed that with a double to score Jennings and put two on with two outs for Kinzie Hansen. Hansen, who hadn’t hit a home run since mid-April turned on an inside pitch to launch a three-run home run into the left field stands.

That made the game 6-2 and the Sooners were in complete control and didn’t stop there. Nicole May continued her strong relief efforts for the Sooners by retiring the Longhorns in order in the top of the fifth.

In the top of the sixth, the Sooners put four more runs on the board in a sixth inning kickstarted by Rylie Boone from the No. 9 hole. Boone singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jayda Coleman walked to put two on for Jocelyn Alo who followed with a single to load the bases for Tiare Jennings. Jennings drove Boone in with a sacrifice fly and then Grace Lyons cleared the bases with a three-run home run to give the Sooners a 10-2 lead.

May threw another strong sixth inning, allowing just a hit before retiring the side.

In the seventh, the Sooners’ bats went quietly, but in the bottom half of the inning was electric.

Jocelyn Alo entered the game for a rare appearance in left field and got the first two put outs before Patty Gasso lifted her for the curtain call to end her Oklahoma Sooners career.

Texas didn’t go quietly into the night as Hope Trautwein struggled with her command in her final appearance for the Oklahoma Sooners. Texas’ Mia Scott came in and hit a three-run home run to cut the lead to 10-5 with two outs remaining. After another walk, Trautwein settled in and threw strikes, getting Alyssa Washington to ground out to Tiare Jennings.

Patty Gasso and the Oklahoma Sooners now have six national championships in program history and five in the last nine seasons.

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No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns: How to watch, stream, listen, and key players for game 2 of WCWS championship

After Oklahoma’s 16-1 win over Texas, the Sooners are one win away from their second straight national championship and here’s how to tune in.

The Oklahoma Sooners roared out of the gate in game one of the Women’s College World Series championship. Their 16-1 win tied an all-time record for most runs scored in a game, while their six home runs set a new record for a championship series game.

Jocelyn Alo, Tiare Jennings, Taylon Snow, and Jana Johns each hit home runs.

The Sooners chased Texas ace Hailey Dolcini after just 0.2 innings pitched making it likely that she’ll get the start again in game two. In her last two appearances against Oklahoma, the Sooners have tagged her for 10 runs, seven earned, in just five innings of work.

After Hope Trautwein threw 90 pitches to pick up her fourth win of the Women’s College World Series and sixth of the NCAA tournament, Jordy Bahl may get the start for the Sooners on Thursday night, which would be her first since a complete game, 7-1 win over Oklahoma State back on May 2, more than a month ago. She’s been solid in relief appearances in the the last week.

The Sooners look to finish off their back-to-back pursuit of the national championship and here’s how you can tune in to game two of the [autotag]Women’s College World Series[/autotag] championship.

  • Date: Thursday, June 9, 2022
  • Time: 6:30 p.m. CDT
  • TV Channel: ESPN2
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)
  • Radio Broadcast: The game can be heard on 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and nationwide on The Varsity app.

It’s a matchup that has everyone pumped, including a couple of legends in the Red River Rivalry.

No. 1 Oklahoma vs Texas Longhorns

Players to watch:

No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners

[autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag]: .527 batting average with 34 home runs, 85 RBIs, 53 walks.

[autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag]: .391 batting average with 29 home runs and 86 RBIs, 39 walks.

[autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag]: .397 batting average with 22 home runs and 67 RBIs, 22 walks.

[autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag]: .424 batting average with 8 home runs, 40 RBIs, 51 walks, and 13 stolen bases.

[autotag]Rylie Boone[/autotag]: .419 batting average with 2 home runs, 27 RBIs

[autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag]: 22-1 with a 0.64 ERA, 157 strikeouts in 126 innings pitched.

[autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag]: 21-1 with a 1.02 ERA, 203 strikeouts in 137.1 innings pitched.

[autotag]Nicole May[/autotag]: 15-1 with a 1.30 ERA, 97 strikeouts in 89.1 innings pitched.

Texas Longhorns

Janae Jefferson: .401 batting average with 7 home runs, 34 RBIs, 31 walks, and 16 stolen bases.

Mia Scott: .368 batting average with 3 home runs, 35 RBIs, 25 walks, and 26 stolen bases.

Mary Iakopo: .332 batting average with 11 home runs, 57 RBIs, and 27 walks.

Courtney Day: .312 batting average with 12 home runs, 34 RBIs, and 14 walks.

Hailey Dolcini: 24-12 with a 2.46 ERA, 217 strikeouts in 215.1 innings pitched.

Estelle Czech: 13-1 with a 3.11 ERA, 81 strikeouts in 99 innings pitched.

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Sooners dominate Texas in WCWS Championship Series game 1 behind 6 Oklahoma home runs

The Oklahoma Sooners responded to a first-inning run by Texas with a 16-run onslaught to take game one of the WCWS Championship.

The Texas Longhorns jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game one of the [autotag]Women’s College World Series[/autotag] championship. And that was all they could muster. Oklahoma would then go on to score 16 runs to tie a Women’s College World Series Championship record to beat Texas 16-1.

Though the Texas Longhorns would get runners on base against [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] in the early going, even loading the bases in the first, they couldn’t push runners across.

Trautwein walked four batters, allowed two hits, and hit a batter but was able to work through it all to limit the Longhorns. Texas was 0-for-9 with runners on base and 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

And after that first-inning run that Texas pushed across, it was all Oklahoma Sooners.

In the bottom of the first inning, with the Sooners trailing, [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] doubled on an 0-2 count. Wasting little time, [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] launched the first of her two home runs in the game to give the Oklahoma Sooners a 2-1 lead. After a [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] single, Texas let the game get away from them a bit with some poor fielding that set up [autotag]Taylon Snow[/autotag]’s three-run home run to give Oklahoma the 5-1 lead after one inning.

Trautwein threw a clean second inning, retiring the Texas side in order. The Sooners rewarded her ability to work around some Texas base runners with a run in every inning. Trautwein earned her sixth win of the NCAA tournament and now is 4-0 in the Women’s College World Series.

Alo and [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] each hit two home runs and combined to go 7-for-8 with eight runs scored, four home runs, and eight RBIs.

The Longhorns didn’t have an answer for the Sooners’ offensive onslaught that left Oklahoma Football head coach Brent Venables awe-inspired.

Patty Gasso’s crew is now one win away from claiming their sixth national title in program history and second straight. After Trautwein threw 90 pitches and [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] came in to finish the game, [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] may get the ball for game two to try and close out her incredible freshman year on a high note.

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No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns: How to watch, stream, listen, and key players for WCWS championship

As the Oklahoma Sooners look to complete their run at back-to-back national championships against the Texas Longhorns, here’s how you can tune into the action.

The stage is set and the Oklahoma Sooners will take on the Texas Longhorns in the championship series of the Women’s College World Series. Both teams were forced to play two games on Monday to advance.

The Sooners lost their first game to UCLA, forcing a winner-take-all matchup and Oklahoma responded with a 15-0 win to make their third-straight WCWS championship.

Playing out of the loser’s bracket, the Longhorns had to beat the Oklahoma State Cowgirls on Monday and did just that. They got a 5-0 win in the first game of the day and then paired a couple of three-run innings together late in the game to overcome a 5-0 deficit to move on to face the defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners.

Here’s how you can tune in the [autotag]Women’s College World Series[/autotag] contest.

  • Date: Wednesday, June 8, 2022
  • Time: 7:30 p.m. CDT
  • TV Channel: ESPN
  • Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)
  • Radio Broadcast: The game can be heard on 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and nationwide on The Varsity app.

No. 1 Oklahoma vs Texas Longhorns

Players to watch:

No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners

[autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag]: .509 batting average with 32 home runs, 82 RBIs, 52 walks.

[autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag]: .391 batting average with 27 home runs and 81 RBIs, 39 walks.

[autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag]: .408 batting average with 22 home runs and 66  RBIs, 22 walks.

[autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag]: .434 batting average with 8 home runs, 40 RBIs, 51 walks, and 13 stolen bases.

[autotag]Rylie Boone[/autotag]: .400 batting average with 2 home runs, 27 RBIs

[autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag]: 21-1 with a 0.51 ERA, 155 strikeouts in 121 innings pitched.

[autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag]: 21-1 with a 1.02 ERA, 203 strikeouts in 137.1 innings pitched.

[autotag]Nicole May[/autotag]: 15-1 with a 1.36 ERA, 93 strikeouts in 87.1 innings pitched.

Texas Longhorns

Janae Jefferson: .416 batting average with 7 home runs, 34 RBIs, 31 walks, and 16 stolen bases.

Mia Scott: .383 batting average with 3 home runs, 35 RBIs, 25 walks, and 26 stolen bases.

Mary Iakopo: .335 batting average with 11 home runs, 57 RBIs, and 26 walks.

Courtney Day: .312 batting average with 12 home runs, 33 RBIs, and 14 walks.

Hailey Dolcini: 24-11 with a 2.35 ERA, 217 strikeouts in 214.2 innings pitched.

Estelle Czech: 13-1 with a 3.11 ERA, 81 strikeouts in 99 innings pitched.

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