Jordy Bahl's historic pitching performance powers Oklahoma to third softball title
Hall of Fame Stadium is bigger. than in the old days. Much bigger; 12,195 fans crammed into the softball cathedral, most of them to cheer on their beloved Sooners. “We May Never Lose Again” screamed one sign, and nobody much was in the mood to argue Thursday night.
The stage is bigger. These days, ESPN treats the Women’s College World Series like its male counterpart in Omaha. Softball is a SportsCenter staple the first week of June.
The players are bigger. Broader-shouldered. Thicker-legged. More powerful than a locomotive. If universities ever start women’s football, I know where to get the linebackers.
Yep, softball has changed in the 21st century. Profoundly changed. Forever changed.
Except someone please explain Jordy Bahl.
The Sooners beat Florida State 3-1 Thursday night to win their 53rd consecutive game and its third NCAA championship in a row. And the Sooners won it Old School.
The Gasso Gang is known for its Wonder Women, the big-hitting, hard-charging, slick-fielding ballplayers who have forged a dynasty.
Jordy Bahl delivers OU softball third straight NCAA title
But Okalahoma won this title like it was 1993, all over again.
The Sooners didn’t win every game 1-0, but they could have, so long as Bahl was in the circle.
Bahl pitched 24⅔ World Series innings. She allowed no runs. The Seminoles on Thursday night took a 1-0 lead on Mack Leonard’s solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Cydney Sanders and Grace Lyons hit back-to-back homers in the top of the fifth, and Patty Gasso decided to declare checkmate.
Gasso inserted Bahl, and Florida State’s hopes were doomed. Nine up, nine down for the Seminoles the rest of the game.
“You hear that the sport had changed, and she just told you different,” said OU’s longtime executive deputy athletic director, Larry Naifeh, standing amid the confetti-covered Sooners.
This was the ultimate throwback, back to softball’s scratch-out-a-run days of 30 years ago, when sometimes more than half the World Series games would finish 1-0.
How phenomenal was Bahl in the WCWS? Bahl is the 17th pitcher to throw at least 15 innings in the Series without giving up a run, and off that list, only OSU’s Amy Day (27 ⅔ innings in 1994) and UCLA legend Lisa Fernandez (26 innings in 1992) had pitched more innings than Bahl’s 24 ⅔.
Of those 17, only Bahl has pitched in the 21st century.
Centerfielder Jayda Coleman kept scaling the wall for homer-robbing catches, and Sooners kept delivering clutch hits, and Nicole May and Alex Storako produced quality pitching starts.
But Oklahoma won this World Series mostly because it has a pitcher straight out of 1991 who won all five games it played in Oklahoma City.
“Jordy Bahl is just an absolute complete athlete,” said Gasso. “My challenge for Jordy is to try to make practice as competitive as I can constantly, because she thrives.
“So I'm always giving her, ‘OK, bases are loaded, one out, you're up by two.’ I'm always giving situations because I think she just really loves to simulate that.”
And loves it more when it’s a game, not a practice.
“When she's here, this is her playground,” Gasso said. “This is her heaven right here, at the World Series, where it's real and it's someone else that we're competing against.”
More: How much does OU softball coach Patty Gasso stand to make in bonuses with WCWS run?
Alex Storako, Nicole May also shine for Sooners
It’s not like May and Storako weren’t effective, too. The Sooners played 33 innings in the WCWS and allowed three runs. The last time we saw team pitching this dominant was 2008, when Arizona State won the championship with shutouts in both championship series games and two runs allowed total in the Series.
That’s what Bahl looked like. In two championship series games, Bahl pitched 10 innings, allowing two hits and one walk, with 13 strikeouts.
“Whenever there's pressure and there's something on the line, I do a couple things,” Bahl said. “One is just tell myself, ‘70 percent, 70 percent,’ so I don't get too sped up and start overthrowing.
“Also, I have (shortstop) Grace Lyons, (third base) Alyssa Brito in my ear, and they're saying, ‘Eyes up, eyes up. Give it over to God in that situation.’”
The Seminoles could only wish that Bahl had handed the ball to Jehovah. Anything was better than trying to hit Bahl.
The sophomore from the Omaha suburbs is a throwback pitcher in more ways than one. She stands 5-foot-8, far below the industry standard for ace aces, and when she turns to football, she won’t be a linebacker, she’ll be running from them.
But she mowed down Stanford (twice), Tennessee and Florida State (twice), getting four of OU’s five Series wins, plus a save (in the clincher).
OU popped the Volunteers 9-0, but the other games were more normal scores: 2-0, 4-2, 5-0, 3-1. Not that the Sooners needed even those nominal totals. Not with Bahl in the circle.
Jordy Bahl meets country music star Toby Keith
After the game, with the celebrations bubbling, Bahl and her parents approached Oklahoma superfan Toby Keith, who was standing quietly, enjoying the party.
“I’m Jordy,” Bahl said as she stuck out her hand. “It’s really nice to meet you.”
Keith seemed thrilled himself. He posed for a picture with Bahl and used one hand to raise his index finger, symbolic of No. 1, and used his other hand to point straight at the pitcher whose popularity might now supersede the country music star.
Fitting for the pitcher who was the No. 1 reason the Sooners are champs again.