Oklahoma wins NCAA softball championship

Oklahoma is back on top of the women’s college softball landscape.

The top-seeded Sooners defeated No. 10 Florida State, 5-1, in a winner-take-all showdown Thursday at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City to win the fifth NCAA Division I softball national championship in school history. All five titles have come during coach Patty Gasso’s 27-year tenure at the helm.

The Seminoles nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Women’s College World Series final round, grabbing Game 1 of the three-game set, 8-4, and taking a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning in Game 2. But 2021 USA Softball National Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo's go-ahead two-run homer helped Oklahoma knot up the series.

Alo struck again early in Game 3, ripping a solo homer to left field in the bottom of the first inning to open the scoring.

In the final game of her college career, Giselle “G” Juarez was dominant on the pitching side for Oklahoma, throwing a complete game for the second straight day and holding Florida State to one run on two hits, with seven strikeouts. Fittingly, it was Juarez who recorded the final out, catching a popup on the edge of the pitcher’s circle to end it.

Juarez was named the Women’s College World Series’ Most Outstanding Player.

Jayda Coleman backed Juarez’s effort with three RBIs, hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the second and driving in two with a double in the third.

The title caps a record-breaking season for the Sooners, who set new Division I women's softball marks for homers (161) and runs scored (638) while going 56-4. Their 15 home runs and 49 runs in this WCWS are also records.

It was a redemption tour of sorts that was two years in the making for Oklahoma, which lost to UCLA in the Women’s College World Series final in 2019. The tournament was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It wasn’t an easy road to glory for the No. 1 seed, however. Oklahoma lost its first game of the Women's College World Series to James Madison University, and had to go through the loser’s bracket -- eventually eliminating both UCLA and JMU -- to make it to the final round. Then, they had to win two straight after dropping Game 1 to FSU.

Oklahoma has now won three of the past five NCAA Division I national softball titles. In 2022, the Sooners will try to become the first team to repeat as champions since they did it in '16-17.