Venables in awe of Alo, OU softball
OKLAHOMA CITY – Brent Venables was like every other Sooners fan at Hall of Fame Stadium on Wednesday night. He was in awe of Jocelyn Alo. The Oklahoma football coach came to the Women’s College World Series with his daughters, softball players themselves, and even though Venables has already seen the Hawaiian Punch in person, watching Alo on softball’s biggest stage was different.
“The whole stadium’s buzzing when she steps up,” Venables said. “She commands just amazing respect. She’s just electric. So powerful. So athletic.” He smiled a bit.
“It’s like a nuclear bomb going off when she makes contact.”
She and the Sooners detonated on the Longhorns.
OU 16, Texas 1.
On a night the Sooners moved within one win of their sixth national championship, Alo led the hit parade as she often does. She deposited two more home runs into the outfield bleachers. But while she is clearly the leader of the band, the rest of the ensemble can wail, too.
“They’re really freakin’ good,” Texas catcher Mary Iakopo said. “Hats off to their one through nine.”
No doubt about that. The Sooners blasted a WCWS-record six homers Wednesday, and while Alo and her smash sister Tiare Jennings each had a pair, the other two came from Taylon Snow and Jana Johns. They hit in the seven and eight holes in the lineup.
Most teams don’t get five hits and five RBI from the bottom three hitters in their lineup, but that’s what Snow, Johns and Rylie Boone produced.
That top-to-bottom power sets the Sooners apart.
It’s the reason words like dynasty and greatest ever are being thrown around about this team.
It’s the reason OU softball is drawing comparisons to UConn women’s basketball and Alabama football.
“Having that power, I feel like it makes our lineup dangerous,” said Snow, who hadn’t hit a homer since March 19 against San Diego. “It’s comforting to know that we can go out there and just have each other’s back.” Well, comforting to the Sooners. To opponents?
Not so much.
Oklahoma put so much pressure on Texas it was almost uncomfortable to watch. I’m sure there were plenty of Sooners fans who relished the Red River bloodbath, but before the first inning was over, it sure looked like Texas was waving the white flag.
The Sooners chased Longhorns starter Hailey Dolcini after only seven batters. By the end of the first inning, Texas was on its third pitcher.
“It was like an avalanche,” Texas coach Mike White said. “Once it starts going, it starts gathering steam, and it’s harder to get it to stop.”
And the Longhorns didn’t stop it. The Sooners scored runs in every inning. Five in the first, one in the second, four in the third, then two in the last three innings. Because the best-ofthree championship series doesn’t use the run rule, the Horns had to endure the onslaught for an entire game.
“They punched first,” Sooners coach Patty Gasso said, referring to the run the Longhorns posted in the top of the first inning, “but we punched back. “And we punched harder.”
And no one punches harder than Alo. She rocketed a couple of balls into the left field bleachers, pushing her career total to 122 and her season total to 34. She has hit five homers in this WCWS alone.
Her home runs have become so routine Gasso admits she occasionally has to remind herself that what Alo is doing is special.
Yet, in Gasso’s eyes, it is normal. “I guess I know her so well that I just think that’s who she is,” Gasso said. “When she comes up, I’m expecting her to hit a home run, probably like anybody else.”
She smirked.
“It’s ridiculous that I’m thinking that way, but I see her at practice every day. I see what she’s capable of. It’s just so tough to beat her.
“I’m spoiled, but I am not wowed by it because I see it on a daily basis.”
Still, to see what Alo and these Sooners are doing on this stage is remarkable. It kept a WCWS championshiprecord crowd of 12,234 fans largely in their seats until the end even though the score was so lopsided. They stayed because of what the Sooners hitters might do. They stayed because they didn’t want to miss something amazing.
Among those who stayed was Venables.
“What Patty and her staff have done for so long have been the example of dominance, the example of what a dynasty looks like,” he said. “It is a really cool thing to organically get close to.
“A lot of people talk about their culture or their environment or their locker room, but you can genuinely feel it. You can smell it. You can taste it.”
Now, the Sooners can taste another national championship because Alo and Co. are eating.