{"id":36551,"date":"2022-06-04T15:49:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T15:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/2022-wcws-can-texas-softball-find-upset-formula-once-more-against-overpowering-oklahoma\/"},"modified":"2022-06-04T15:49:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T15:49:50","slug":"2022-wcws-can-texas-softball-find-upset-formula-once-more-against-overpowering-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/2022-wcws-can-texas-softball-find-upset-formula-once-more-against-overpowering-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 WCWS &#8211; Can Texas softball find upset formula once more against overpowering Oklahoma?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.  &#8211; There are two ways to look at Saturday&#8217;s first game of the Women&#8217;s College World Series slate.  One is that the No. 1 seed, a historic dynasty, is playing a scrappy unseeded underdog that has gotten hot at the right time.<\/p>\n<p>Or more simply: It&#8217;s Oklahoma vs.  Texas (3 pm ET, ABC and ESPN App).<\/p>\n<p>The 55-2 Sooners certainly could&#8217;ve expected to be here, putting together one of the most dominant seasons in the history of the sport.  Meanwhile, in February, the Longhorns went 0-5 in the St. Pete \/ Clearwater Elite Invitational and fans weren&#8217;t exactly booking hotel rooms in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But fast-forward to June, and the Longhorns are facing the Sooners in the winners bracket in OKC after a 7-2 win over No. 5 UCLA.<\/p>\n<p>In between, the unthinkable happened: On April 16, behind the arm of Hailey Dolcini, Texas beat Oklahoma, snapping the Sooners&#8217; 40-game winning streak overall and a 23-game winning streak against the Longhorns.  It wasn&#8217;t a cure-all for Texas&#8217; season;  the Longhorns still dropped all three games in a series against Oklahoma State about a week later, and they lost again to the Cowgirls in the Big 12 tournament.  But in the Seattle Regional and the Fayetteville Super Regional, the Longhorns went on a tear, going 5-2 with series wins over No. 11 Washington and No. 5 Arkansas, the latter a confidence-building victory before a decidedly home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>The Longhorns will get a heavy dose of crimson and cream on Saturday, playing the defending champ Sooners just 20 miles from their Norman campus.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0528%2Fr1018467_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0528%2Fr1018467_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0528%2Fr1018467_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0528%2Fr1018467_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">When Texas stunned Oklahoma earlier this season, it was behind the arm of Hailey Dolcini. <cite>AP Photo \/ Sue Ogrocki<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Before the Horns&#8217; first-round game against UCLA, Texas star Janae Jefferson, a four-time All-American, knew what was in store for her team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not expecting us to get much support from the OU fans out here,&#8221; she said, before saying the Longhorns&#8217; faithful were still rowdy in Arkansas.  &#8220;We&#8217;re going to need that support for sure. We&#8217;re ready.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>History is not on the Longhorns&#8217; side, either.  The Sooners have won five national championships, including last season&#8217;s.  Texas, meanwhile, has made just six appearances overall in the WCWS, with this being its first since 2013. That was the year of the only previous Texas-OU matchup in Oklahoma City, where the Sooners run-ruled the Longhorns 10-2.<\/p>\n<p>But Dolcini is the reason for Texas&#8217; long-shot hopes at a second win over OU this year.  In two starts against the Sooners this season, she has allowed just five total runs, giving up three in a 3-0 loss on April 14, then two more in a 4-2 win two days later.<\/p>\n<p>Two of Oklahoma&#8217;s biggest threats, Tiare Jennings and Jocelyn Alo, are hitless in 13 at-bats against Dolcini this year, according to ESPN Stats &#038; Info. And while the Sooners were held to three hits or fewer just three times all season, two were against Dolcini.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was truly attacking them with no fear,&#8221; Dolcini said.  &#8220;You&#8217;ve got to trust that your best stuff will beat their best swings and keep the ball down for a team that hits a lot of long balls.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was a remarkable initiation into the Red River Rivalry for Dolcini, a super senior transfer from Fresno State who was facing the Sooners for the first time in burnt orange in that series.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not always the best team that wins,&#8221; Texas coach Mike White said on Wednesday.  &#8220;It&#8217;s the team that plays the best, and on that particular day, we played better than they did. They had their No. 1 pitcher [Jordy Bahl] throwing against us.  It was a 0-0 game for a while, and we were able to score a big hit at the right time, and Hailey pitched one heck of a game, and that&#8217;s what you have to do.<\/p>\n<p>The Sooners don&#8217;t need any miracles with the machine that coach Patty Gasso has built.  But they&#8217;re also coming off a Game 1 showing that included the return of Bahl, who had been out with arm soreness since May 6.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0603%2Fr1020753_714x402_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0603%2Fr1020753_714x402_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0603%2Fr1020753_714x402_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a2.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2022%2F0603%2Fr1020753_714x402_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Oklahoma&#8217;s high-powered offense was led by Jana Johns &#8216;grand slam in the Sooners&#8217; WCWS-opening win over Northwestern. <cite>Brett Rojo \/ USA TODAY Sports<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;We need her, but these two pitchers (Hope Trautwein, 19-1, 0.51 ERA; and Nicole May, 15-0, 0.99) have been crushing it,&#8221; Gasso said on Thursday.  &#8220;So adding Jordy (21-1, 0.95, 199 strikeouts in 132\u2154 innings) to the mix and making you now train for three different pitchers instead of two is difficult for teams.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma great Alo, the sport&#8217;s all-time home run leader, says the Texas loss earlier in the season was a big factor in the Sooners&#8217; run to this point, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve played with a lot of really special teams,&#8221; Alo said on Wednesday.  &#8220;Been here for five years, so I&#8217;ve had my fair share. I think this is the best team I&#8217;ve been on just because of how complete we are and how tight-knit we are. Again, I&#8217;ve never seen a pitching staff like this, and they just love to dice us up at practice, so I feel like that&#8217;s what makes us good. Just iron sharpening iron every day. I think I saw this team really start trending in the right direction, I think , after we lost to Texas, and I&#8217;ve just seen us come out of some really tough spots and handle it with grace and passion. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>A peaking Texas team and an Oklahoma squad on the cusp of historical greatness.  Two weeks ago, the No. 4 Texas women&#8217;s tennis team upset No. 2 Oklahoma, which was 32-2 and set a program record for wins, for the national title.<\/p>\n<p>Can Texas softball find the formula for one more upset of its own?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve always said good pitching beats good hitting, especially in pressure situations, and Hailey was able to put together one of the best games of her career, and that&#8217;s the way to do it,&#8221; White said earlier this week.  &#8220;Hopefully, we can repeat it sometime.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now they get their chance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. &#8211; There are two ways to look at Saturday&#8217;s first game of the Women&#8217;s College World Series slate. One is that the No. 1 seed, a historic dynasty, is playing a scrappy unseeded underdog that has gotten hot at the right time. Or more simply: It&#8217;s Oklahoma vs. Texas (3 pm ET, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/2022-wcws-can-texas-softball-find-upset-formula-once-more-against-overpowering-oklahoma\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">2022 WCWS &#8211; Can Texas softball find upset formula once more against overpowering Oklahoma?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[1752,17211,2468,1768],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a3.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=\/photo\/2022\/0528\/r1018467_1296x729_16-9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}