2022 WCWS -- College softball's rising popularity (and local teams' dominance) on display in OKC

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Two hours before Texas and Oklahoma met in Oklahoma City, Cheryl Judkins and Karen Hendricks walked by the National Softball Hall of Fame next to the stadium that hosts the Women's College World Series, part of a complex known as the Softball Capital of the World.

Judkins, an Oklahoma State fan, was wearing a homemade shirt that she made by cutting two shirts in half then stitching the pieces together to feature an Oklahoma Sooners logo on the front and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on the back. She sees no issue with liking both teams in the heated rivalry. The Sooners, she said, are too good to hate, because of the attention they're driving for a sport she loves.

Hendricks and Judkins are proud lifers at the WCWS. They've had season tickets for decades. But, they say, it's never been as exciting as this year.

«Oh my gosh, we had tickets behind home plate 30 years ago,» Hendricks said. «It was just Pac-10 [schools], that's all there was. Occasionally you'd get Michigan or Wisconsin. Mostly it was Arizona State, Arizona and UCLA. We were coming way back then.»

But now her Cowgirls are here, too, in addition to the Sooners, who are in the midst of a historic run and shattering records along the way.

«It's just the best feeling in the whole world,» she added. «We were talking about that on the drive over here. Not only are we getting to watch great softball, but my team's in it. It's just fantastic.»

The WCWS has been played in Oklahoma City since 1990, and between then and 2011, the now-Pac-12 won 19 championships. But in the past decade, it has won just once and the power has shifted to the South. Oklahoma has claimed four of the past eight titles and is a favorite to do it again this year behind the