By Jimena Robles
As of Friday, February 9th, the NCAA D1 softball season has come back to the screens. After one of the best seasons of NCAA softball history in 2022, college softball has been named the fastest-growing sport in the NCAA. The hot question that lies around the sport is, how is OU going to out beat their last season? Will there be a new champion in the world of softball?
The University of Oklahoma no doubt put on the best season in NCAA softball history. With a record of 59-3, OU was the most feared team in the Pac-12. Having the most All-Americans in a softball team, Tiare Jennings, Grace Lyons, Jordy Bahl, Jayda Coleman, and the homerun queen, Jocelyn Alo.
Breaking the NCAA home run record in her home state, Jocelyn Alo managed to have smashed no.96 on March 11th, 2022. She managed to finish her college career with 122 home runs with a .512 batting average. Altogether, the team managed to put up a slugging percentage of .731.
With a dominant offense, comes a dominant defense. OU’s pitching staff altogether had an ERA of 0.80. The newest addition to OU’s pitching staff in 2022 was the Freshman ace, Jordy Baul. Jordy Baul put up outstanding numbers despite her arm injury that had her out for weeks. Baul ended up being named freshman of the year in D1 softball.
OU ended their season with a national title and a 59-3 record.
Coming into the 2023 season, OU had lost their dominant senior, Jocelyn Alo. A team that would averagely win via the run rule game came into their first two games of the season on February 9th with a 4-0 win over Duke, and a 1-0 walk-off on Liberty.
Within the first week of college softball, UCLA is the new talk.
Right away UCLA grabs the 3 weekly titles. Maya Brady was named player of the week going 10 for 10 at the plate automatically being the new ¨it¨ player at the plate. Megan Faraimo, the pitcher, was named pitcher of the week going 2 for 2 with a no-hitter against San Diego State. Finally comes freshman of the week, Taylor Tinsley. Taylor Tinsley had her pitching debut on February 10th against CSU Bakersfield, throwing a no-hitter.
With both OU and UCLA being undefeated so far this season, there is no doubt that UCLA is creeping its way back to the top. So the question stands, will OU be able to defend their national title three years in a row? Or will there be a new champ in town?
Jimena Robles
Jimena Robles is a ´25 sports journalist for the Redwood Gigantea. Jimena is a softball player who is a part of the varsity team at Redwood High School and Clovis Rockets 18u Gold travel team. Jimena would like to major in Sports Broadcasting later on in college.
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