OU softball's 2025 journey will indeed culminate back at the Women's College World Series

All year, the talk has been about the OU softball team being so young. Or if not young, so fresh and new because of all the transfers.

It has rarely mattered. It certainly never ever became an issue during the Norman Regional and Norman Super Regional.

OU cruised, winning the regional 31-3. Facing a tradition-rich program like Alabama didn’t matter, either. The Sooners dominated the Crimson Tide, finishing it off with a 13-2 run-rule (five innings) victory Saturday afternoon at Love’s Field in Game 2 of the Super Regional.

That’s nine straight appearances in the Women’s College World Series. But if you’re an OU softball fan, then you know there’s another tradition. Once that final out is recorded in the Super Regional, it’s time to take that outfield pad to home plate. Time to celebrate.

But this team? Maybe one off the first signs of being young. It took head coach Patty Gasso to remind them to, you know, go get it.

Patty Gasso had to remind ‘em to go get it 🤣.

Tradition lives on at #OU.#Sooners 13, Alabama 2 final, back to #WCWS. pic.twitter.com/j7drrC79jO

— Bob Przybylo (@BPrzybylo) May 24, 2025

“So they put an old rusty one against the wall, and I gave you (Deal) the directions on what to do,” Gasso told SoonerScoop. “And then they all kind of gathered around, they’re looking around, and I’m pointing to it, and they’re looking at me like, what is she pointing at? And then finally, KD, I think, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot.’

“So it’s just, we’ve got to keep that old crusty thing in, so we can keep bringing it out. Because if they tried to pull off, it would not. So the way they figured it out and celebrated, it was just like another Sooner team does.”

However, nobody thought this could be just like another Sooner team. Not after losing some of the best seniors, best players ever in the program.

Little by little, though, it kept coming together. It has been culminating in the last three weeks where it’s hard to find fault about anything right now.

This OU team never talked about winning a fifth straight national championship. But, oh yes, they’re on that door now. They have earned that right to try to make some history of their own.

“I can look back to September and remember what that looked like,” Gasso said. “It was a little bit of hard working, but we’re scattered. We were learning, figuring out positions, figure who is playing next to them? It was really like a new beginning, a complete new beginning. To see them trust us? Means a lot. They trust JT to the end. They trust Jen Rocha to the end.

“I appreciate it. I think that’s where my heart is – just the appreciation for them giving back to this program because I didn’t know what it was going to look like when all of these unbelievable, some of the best softball athletes that have played this sport left this program. And we were just — had kind of a bare cupboard. And worked around Ella, worked around Pick and a few others. And we’re here.”

Back to Devon Park and Oklahoma City because of an all-out assault against the 15^th-seeded Crimson Tide. Alabama took two of three from OU in Tuscaloosa in April. It was time to get ‘em back with Bama’s first trip to Norman.

OU bust the game open with an eight-run top of the third to turn a 1-0 advantage into a 9-0 rout. The celebration was on at Love’s Field.

The Crimson Tide cut the deficit to 9-2 when OU went for four more runs in the fifth to emphatically punch its ticket to the WCWS once again.

Freshman Gabbie Garcia had two two-run home runs. She now has a team-leading 20 homers this season.

Abby Dayton drove in three runs. Ella Parker also had three RBIs, including a monster home run in the fifth. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas pitched in with a bomb of her own.

Pass. The. Bat.

“They felt they had the chance to make it right,” Gasso said. “I know we walked away from Alabama, and they’re a great team, and their fans were phenomenal and we looked a little bit lost at times.

“So to be able to get that opportunity to show it right and play it right meant a lot to us. So it was kind of wonderful to get to the World Series through them because they’re so good, but just make it right. I know that’s something that I feel and they feel as well.”

Kierston Deal earned the win. She threw four innings, allowing two home runs, walking two and striking out four. Freshman Audrey Lowry closed the show in the fifth.

New team, new conference – same Sooners. Another 50-win season in the books. And still that feeling of, yep, the best could still be to come.

“I think coach kind of put it the right way,” Garcia said. “I feel like we don’t really know how to feel about it quite yet. It was an amazing win and now I’m just ready for the next one, the next game. That’s the only way I can do it right now.”

Up next

No. 2-seeded OU (50-7) will play either Tennessee or Nebraska in the first round of the Women’s College World Series on Thursday in OKC. If it’s the Vols, UT took two of three from OU in Norman earlier this season. If it’s the Huskers, well, it’s going to because Jordy Bahl was so dang special. A two-time champion at OU, Bahl has been just as good since moving back home for Nebraska.