A specific rule came into play at the 2022 Women’s College World Series: While most NCAA softball games can be stopped by a rule of mercy (or “running rule”), when a team leads with eight or more runs in fifth inning or later, this option is off when there are only two teams left. When the championship is online, the games must be played to completion. Of course, this scenario does not occur often, as the two teams that have surpassed all others are usually competitive. In the history of the WCWS championship series, more games have gone into extra innings (12) than were solved by eight or more runs (six before this year).
But softball needs mercy to defend itself against Oklahoma, the most dominant team the sport has ever seen. The Souners made 59-3 this season to win their second consecutive national championship. Of those 59 victories, 41 were decided by the rule of mercy and had to be 43. They beat Texas in the championship series and both games were absolute blows: they won Game 1 16-1, breaking a record six home runs and setting the top score -big victory in the championship series and they led match 2 with 10-2 after six innings. Texas made three runs at the end of the seventh to make the final score 10-5.
Things have to get harder for teams the deeper they play in a postseason. It wasn’t like that for Oklahoma. During the regular season and the Big 12 tournament, the Sooners overtook their opponents with a combined score of 463-45 – an average win difference of 8.20. In the NCAA tournament, they increased that gap to 8.73, thanks to a record 20-0 win over Texas A&M and an 8-0 striker against the UCF. They won a trip to the championship series by beating UCLA 15-0, then made 26 runs in two games in the championship series. As it got tough, the Sooners kept hitting dingers.
Most of the Sooners’ noise naturally surrounds Jocelyn Hello, who has undoubtedly solidified her status as the greatest striker in the history of softball college. The all-time leader in Division I home run ended his career by making a 12-for-18 with five home runs in the WCWS, raising his median to 0.515 this season, while setting series records for most home runs (five) and most recorded runs. (12). It is a WCWS tradition for champions to give players’ families homer balls that have been hit; the Alo clan heads back to Hawaii in a suitcase full of heavily jagged softballs.
Of course, teams do not win 41 games as a rule of mercy because of one star player. Oklahoma averaged 9.33 runs per game this season, while no other team averaged more than 8.0. If you take away all of Alo’s 85 RBIs, the Sooners would still have an average of 7.93 runs per game, which would be good enough to rank second in the nation. Behind Alo in the ranks is Tiare Jennings, who led Division I in the RBIs. It was quite common for teams to go with Hello, only for Jennings to win a home run – something that happened against Texas on Wednesday night. (Alo and Jennings continued a series of home runs.)
In addition to having the best softball offense, Oklahoma also had the best targeting staff. He finished the season with 0.97 ERA; Wichita was second with 1.46 ERA. (To be honest, the Oklahoma pitchers didn’t have to pass to the Oklahoma strikers.) The Souners allowed only 65 runs in 61 games, while three Oklahoma strikers scored at least as many. The Souners Pitchers threw eight strikers, two of whom were in the NCAA tournament.
Oklahoma was even amazing in defense. Outfielder Jada Coleman robbed a Texas home run in the championship clinch on Thursday night.
Dominance can be boring at times, but it has never felt like a team that enjoyed kicking opponents’ buttocks in every way possible. I am glad that the championship series do not contain a rule of mercy. Once we have to see what exactly happens when Sooners continue to pile up.
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