What a great run and season

         The 2025 College World Series of Softball has come to an end, at least for Debbie and me.
         Our beloved OU Sooners ended their championship run on Monday in a 3-2 loss to Texas Tech in the semi-final round.
       And in an odd twist of fate, before the game was over, Chris Plank, the voice of Sooner softball, announced that the Texas Tech bus had pulled around to load the team.
        At that point, Oklahoma was still down 2-0.
       That quickly changed in the top of the seventh inning with one on base and two strikes and two outs, when Sooner ace Abby Dayton hit a two-run homerun to tie the game up.
         The homerun seemed to breathe new life into the team.
         However, the Sooners couldn’t hold on as Texas Tech scored in the bottom of the seventh  which led to a Texas verses Texas Tech championship series that started on Wednesday, June 5.
        Having lost in the double elimination softball game to Texas, 4-2, a couple days earlier, the Sooner’s backs were against the wall.
     They had previously beat Tennessee in the seventh inning in the first game of the championship series, 4-3, on Ella Parker three-run homerun.
      They needed to beat Texas Tech twice Monday night to advance to the championship series.
        They finished the regular season as SEC champs and made it to the championship game against Texas A&M, only to have the game canceled due to weather.
       Games often get delayed due to weather, but that is the first time I’ve heard of game being completely canceled, especially a championship game.
       “Just extremely proud of this team, who they are, first, and what they do second,” OU Coach Patty Gasso told Sports Illustrated after the game. “One of my favorite years of all time, I must say.”
       No other college softball team, even UCLA, has won four straight championships. The Sooners have won six championships in eight years and eight championships overall – 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. They also finished runners-up in 2019.
         The Sooners were the reigning national champions for 1,453 days.
         The team is young and if they stay together, I predict they will back next year.
       It’s been a bucket-list goal of ours to attend the world series or even watch a game in Norman.
          Tickets are hard to come by of late, and for good reason.
       We saw the Sooners during four different series over several years at Iowa State University a few years back and in March 2024, we traveled to Lawrence, Kan. to watch them take on the Jawhawks.
        We met Iowa’s Paige Lowary, a Dallas Center Grimes alumni, at an ISU game. Lowary started her college career at Missouri before transferring to OU her junior and senior years.
           We got to see her 2017 championship ring and have our photo taken together.
           We’ve met families of several OU Sooner players through the years.
           As part of his announcing duties, Plank has a third-inning shoutout to all the Sooner fans around the nation and even the world.
           Debbie turns our names in before each game through social media and most times, he will say, “J.O. and Debbie in Iowa” or sometimes “J.O. and Debbie in Montezuma.”
       I’ve had friends in Oklahoma send me a message after hearing our names on the broadcast.
            When I was in the hospital in late March, Debbie turned our names during a game only to have Plank pause a moment to recognized me and wish me well.
            “In the hospital in Des Moines,” he said. “I hope he is alright.”
            That was thoughtful and nice to be recognized in that way.
            Of course, I would have preferred to be somewhere else beside the hospital.
            Before long, it will be time for Sooner football and I hope they have a better 2025 than the last few years. In the meantime, Debbie and I will try and watch some of the professional softball games. There are several Sooner alumni on various teams.
           And OU Softball Coach Gasso is the head coach of the USA Olympic Softball team. It will fun to watch that team play and develop.
          Softball on any level is a family and Debbie and I are excited to keep our radar tuned to OU, but also pro players and our local teams.
          Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.