NCAA softball: No.1 Oklahoma wins WCWS championship

The GIST: For the second straight year (and fifth time in the last nine seasons), the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners are your NCAA softball national champions, the final exclamation point on an incredible record-setting season. Dominant doesn’t even begin to cover it.

How they did it: After throttling Texas 16–1 in Wednesday’s Game 1, Oklahoma had to (briefly) battle for the title last night, rallying from a two-run deficit to take down the Longhorns 10–5 and sweep the Women’s College World Series (WCWS).

• The Sooners got it done with the long ball, as junior catcher Kinzie Hansen blasted a three-run homer in the fifth inning to open up the lead before senior infielder Grace Lyons added a three-run shot of her own in the sixth. Sheesh.

• The Most Outstanding Player? Home run queen Jocelyn Alo, of course. Perhaps the best hitter college softball has ever seen, the two-time Player of the Year graduates with two national titles, an incredible legacy and a bright future ahead — she was the No. 1 pick in last month’s Athletes Unlimited softball draft.

The bigger picture: As thrilling as the on-field action was, the off-field impact was just as exciting. Multiple record-breaking crowds took in the WCWS action, including a record 12,257 fans at last night’s tilt.

• Plus, the WCWS aired on ABC for the first time with Wednesday’s Game 1 pulling in a whopping 1.4 million viewers. Amazing what happens when you put women’s sports on TV.