The Oklahoma Sooners are your 2021 Women’s College World Series champions. The number 1 seeded Sooners downed a tough Florida State team in a winner take all game 3 on Thursday 5-1. The Seminoles took game 1 of the series 8-4 on Tuesday, with Oklahoma responding in kind 6-2 Wednesday evening to set up the pivotal deciding game.
Oklahoma rode a dominant performance from pitcher Giselle Juarez who scattered 2 hits and 2 walks across 7 frames of 1 run ball. Juarez also struck out 7 batters in the afternoon, and caught the title clinching out on an infield fly to seal the victory.
Center Fielder Jayda Coleman went 2 for 3 on the afternoon with 3RBIs and a homerun to give Juarez all the offense she would need to earn the win. Big 12 player of the year Jocelyn Alo also chipped in with a solo shot to give her a ridiculous 35HRs and 90RBIs on the season.
All of the damage was done in the first three innings of Thursday’s game, as Oklahoma plated a run in the 1st and 2nd innings before scoring three in the 3rd. Kalei Harding scored the lone run for Florida State in the top of the 3rd inning off a Sydney Sherrill double.
The win marks Oklahoma’s 5th National Title in program history and wraps up one of the most dominant seasons in college softball history. The Sooners finish the year with a 56-4 overall record including the playoffs, and their +521 run differential is one of the largest on record. Though their overall win % is just a hair behind the fabled 1992 UCLA Bruins team who went 54-2, it caps off a truly impressive year following the 2020 WCWS which was cancelled due to COVID.
Along the way Oklahoma also managed to break the NCAA Div 1 record for most homeruns on the season eclipsing the mark Hawaii set in 2010. A huge factor in this was the play of all world talent Jocelyn Alo whose 35 home runs helped power the Sooner to the title game, while earning herself USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year honours. Alo also broke the single season homerun record at Oklahoma, though her career total will fall just shy of softball legend (and fellow Sooner) Lauren Chamberlain. One wonders what Alo would have been able to accomplish had there not been a global pandemic in 2020 affecting play across the NCAA.
The Sooners become just the 4th team to win a National Championship after losing Game 1 of the best of 3 series.