WCWS 2022 -- Oklahoma softball's 'avalanche' of a lineup puts Sooners on brink of history

OKLAHOMA CITY — The door opened and a shell-shocked group of players and their head coach walked through the door underneath the site of the Women's College World Series on Wednesday night.

Texas pitcher Hailey Dolcini sat between teammates, leaned toward the microphone and struggled through tears to explain what happened. A warrior in the circle who helped carry her team to softball's biggest stage with a quality fastball and an impressive force of will, she couldn't find the words. There were no answers for how Oklahoma was able to jump out to a four-run lead in the first inning and score every inning thereafter, clubbing a Women's College World Series record six home runs on its way to a 16-1 win in the opening game of the championship series.

Catcher Mary Iakopo thought it was pretty simple actually.

«They're really freakin good,» she deadpanned.

All coach Mike White could do was shake his head as Dolcini, Iakopo and center fielder Bella Dayton finished their time with the media and left. White then stayed behind and did some explaining of his own. It was tough, he said, to go out in front of a 12,234-person crowd of mostly Oklahoma fans and compete against an Oklahoma team that has championship experience, having won it all last season.

To fall behind like that, against a lineup like that ...

«It was like an avalanche,» White said. «Once it starts going, it starts gathering steam, and it's harder to get it to stop.»

They might have survived Jocelyn Alo's two-run homer in the bottom of the first. She's the home run queen with 122 career trips around the bases and counting, after all. It happens. But the chain of events she set off was too much to overcome.

It was reminiscent of something Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso