Women’s College World Series pits Texas against Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY (BVM) – Traditionally, the battle of David and Goliath is overly done and discussed when it comes to a championship game in sports. Hollywood has ridden this underdog against wonderdog narrative more times than anyone can count. However, the impending three-game contest at the Women’s College World Series this week has perfectly filled that same narrative as the Oklahoma Sooners, the No. 1 seed and heavy favorites all season long, go up against the Texas Longhorns, a Big 12 rival and the first unseeded team to ever make it to the tournament’s final round. Indeed this will be a battle of David and Goliath, but don’t let the stats fool the untrained eye as both these teams have what it takes to raise the NCAA title.
Oklahoma has gotten to the WCWS the way many expected them to–sheer domination. Sure there have been some tight situations for the defending champions, including having to beat UCLA in a winner-take-all game on Monday, but they have looked the part of national champions for most of the season.
The Sooners have a 57-3 record on the year and have not lost consecutive games this season. This is thanks to a team that currently leads the country in ERA at only 0.97 and a defense that ranks No. 13 in fielding percentage while having an offense that ranks first in slugging percentage, batting average, scoring and home runs per game.
Led by stars Jordy Bahl, Hope Trautwein and all-time NCAA home run leader Jocelyn Alo, the Sooners have also made their way through the NCAA Tournament field rather easily. After earning the No. 1 overall seed, the Sooners hosted an NCAA regional round and an NCAA Super Regional round, winning games over Prairie View A&M 14-0 in five innings, two games over Texas A&M 3-2 and 20-0 in five innings and two games over UCF 8-0 in five innings and 7-1 to make it to the WCWS in Oklahoma City. There they again did well, though not as dominant, racking up a 13-2 win over Northwestern in five innings on June 2, a 7-2 win over Texas on Saturday and a deciding 15-0 win over UCLA on Monday after dropping the first game to the Bruins 7-3 earlier in the day.
It is fair to say that the Sooners were destined to be here. However, some would argue that Texas wasn’t a team destined to be in this situation, but rather are a team of destiny.
The Longhorns are certainly no slouches coming into the WCWS championship series with a 47-20-1 record. Just barely missing out on being seeded for the tournament at the No. 14 spot in the final poll of the year, the surprise isn’t that a team of Texas’ caliber is here, but rather how they got here.
Unlike their adversaries, the Longhorns had to fight, scratch and claw their way to their spot in the World Series. First, the Longhorns had to travel across the country to the Seattle Regional hosted by Washington. After winning their first game of the regional 6-0 over Weber State, the Longhorns had to take on the host Huskies and won the first game 8-2. As a double-elimination format, they’d have to beat them one more time to advance to the Super Regionals and at first lost to Washington 2-1 in the next game before bouncing back and moving on with a 3-2 win later that day.
For the super regionals, Texas would again have to travel, this time to Fayetteville, Arkansas to take on the host and four-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks in a best-of-three series. After dropping game one 7-1, the Longhorns responded by winning the next two games 3-1 and 3-0 to earn a spot in Oklahoma City.
Once in Oklahoma City, Texas was again facing long odds. The Longhorns came away with a surprising 7-2 victory in the first round over No. 5 UCLA before falling to the Sooners 7-2 to drop into the other side of the bracket. There they handled Arizona 5-2 on Sunday before going up against Oklahoma State, needing to win two consecutive games to advance.
The Longhorns got the job done in game one, winning handily 5-0. Game two is where things got interesting. After the Cowgirls scored five runs in the first three innings, Texas would storm back with a Courtney Day three-run home run in the fourth inning, bringing the score to 5-3. A fielding error by the Cowgirls in the fifth inning scored three Longhorn players and gave the team a 6-5 lead, one they would hold onto to win and advance to the WCWS championship series.
UNBELIEVEABLE 🤯🤯🤯
📺 @espn #WCWS x @TexasSoftball pic.twitter.com/lHNQBbngfl
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) June 7, 2022
While at first glance it may appear that the Sooners should be able to handle the Longhorns, they did just beat them 7-2 earlier in the tournament after all, don’t count out Texas. Of the three losses Oklahoma had all season, the first came against Texas in a 4-2 loss in Arlington that ended the Sooners 40-game winning streak, which was tied for the third longest in Division I history.
Texas also performed well in its previous matchup, having at least one baserunner on in all seven innings against No. 1 Oklahoma, but the Longhorns left seven stranded. They are also a perfect 6-0 in elimination games in this year’s NCAA Tournament, giving them experience for when the pressure is at its highest.
But will that matter to Oklahoma? OU is in its eighth WCWS championship series, its third straight and seventh in the last 10 years. The Sooners are coming off the largest win in WCWS history. They have won an NCAA record 40 games by run rule this season. They are simply one of the best teams to ever grace a college softball diamond.
However, if this WCWS has proven anything it’s that any team can win at any time. While the old David-Goliath trope in sports is overplayed and overdone by the media and Hollywood, in the case of the 2022 Women’s College World Series it’s a perfect mold. Whether Oklahoma maintains its dominance or Texas completes its improbable Cinderella run, the only thing that is certain is that college softball fans will be treated to a great and memorable series.
