How Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo, Facing Elimination, Found Another Gear

OKLAHOMA CITY — Monday might have been Jocelyn Alo’s final as a collegiate softball participant.

The highest-seeded Oklahoma Sooners dropped Sport 1 towards the UCLA Bruins, placing the nation’s wire-to-wire No. 1-ranked staff on the point of elimination.

Unbothered by the stakes, Alo ensured her staff’s keep in Oklahoma Metropolis was not going to be reduce quick.

Probably the most explosive hitter within the historical past of school softball delivered along with her again towards the wall, hitting 4-for-4 and driving in seven RBIs by means of a three-run bomb and a soul-crushing grand slam within the Sooners’ 15-0 victory over UCLA.

Clearly, the stress of the second by no means fazed Alo.

Headed into the competition, the Sooner slugger mentioned she was solely targeted on the scouting report and recreation plan to assault UCLA’s pitching workers.

“Simply controlling the strike zone and simply type of not attempting to be a giant hero in these moments (was the plan),” Alo mentioned after the second contest. “Particularly when your backs are towards the wall.

“Simply going on the market and simply persevering with to play our recreation.”

Gasso mentioned she didn’t discover something totally different about her star within the dugout both. All Alo dropped at the desk was the identical burning ardour she takes into each single contest.

“She will get so fired up for her household, for our staff,” Gasso mentioned. “She’s essentially the most assured younger woman I’ve ever met in my life, to the purpose the place you might be, like, ‘OK, do not say that, Jocy.’ However that is her. She wears it.

“… It’s to not type of stick it in anyone’s face, it is extra about her pleasure. She’s simply actually uncooked with pleasure and love for the sport, and her exuberance simply is enjoyable to observe.”

UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez had a front-row seat to Alo’s dominant efficiency, and all she might do was tip her visor to the OU star.

“It is simply spectacular,” Inouye-Perez mentioned after the doubleheader. “The energy issue is one factor. There’s several types of hitters which have nice arms and so they have some which are actually sturdy. I feel she has each. She has the power.

“I bought a straight view of her house run, and I am, like, ‘Oh, that is going to — please let it tail foul.’ And, sadly, it did not.

“Simply loads of respect for her. She’s a high quality hitter. She’s a powerful woman. She’s bought nice arms. She’s a tricky out, and he or she performs on the stage in a giant means and he or she bought us as we speak. … Clearly, there is a cause why she’s the Participant of the 12 months.”

Alo’s seven RBIs tied the Ladies’s School World Collection single-game document set by Washington’s Niki Williams again in 2009.

With 10 RBIs whole on the WCWS, Alo sits only one behind the all-time document set by UCLA’s Andrea Harrison again in 2010.

However in Patty Gasso’s summation, Alo’s affect on the game goes properly past serving to the Sooners attain their third straight WCWS championship collection.

“I feel Jocelyn Alo is a giant cause why this sport has gone to a different degree,” Gasso mentioned. “Individuals come right here to observe her like she’s Babe Ruth. They pay to see Jocelyn Alo, and … I hope we see one other Jocelyn Alo.

“I hope she’s a Sooner after we see her, however that is how she — she has a love for the sport, a confidence. … If you’re round it, it is simply to see that and to be round it, it simply bleeds throughout our staff. All of them need just a little piece of what Jocy has.”

Alo’s profession will finish a technique or one other by the point the mud settles on Thursday or Friday night time.

And no matter if she goes out a two-time Nationwide Champion or not, Alo’s title shall be remembered for years to come back.

“It has been such an honor (to educate her),” Gasso mentioned. “(Alo) desires to exit her means and simply depart her mark. She retains saying, ‘I need to depart my mark.’

“She’s left her mark. She’s achieved it. Proper now it is simply icing on the cake for her.”

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