Should the WCWS rotate? Is OU's advantage unfair? That and more in my Eight in OKC
Mike White making waves, Kenny Gajewski shedding tears and Patty Gasso thanking the Pac-12.
All eight teams in the Women’s College World Series practiced Wednesday on the main field at Devon Park. (Jenni Carlson)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Mike White didn’t wait to get to Oklahoma City to say something controversial.
The Texas softball coach has never been shy about speaking his mind, so we shouldn’t be surprised. But earlier this week, he told reporters in Austin that the three-time defending national champ OU has an edge with the Women’s College World Series being in Oklahoma City, less than 30 minutes from the OU campus and deep in the heart of Sooner Nation.
No kidding, right?
But White took it further.
“I’d love to see it rotate eventually,” he said of the WCWS, “but probably not in my tenure as a coach.”
White is 56, and with the NCAA contract with OKC running through 2035, he’d have to coach until almost 70 to even have a chance at seeing the WCWS anywhere else.
“We get it,” he said, “but it is a huge advantage obviously for Oklahoma.”
Eight teams have come to OKC for the WCWS — this is our last Eight for OKC, but we’ll get to it in a minute — and five other coaches are facing a similar issue as White. (Can’t include OSU and Kenny Gajewski in this equation; the Cowgirl fans might not be as numerous as the Sooner faithful, but OSU has way more fans than other teams in OKC, too.) So, during Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conferences, we dove into what those other seemingly disadvantaged coaches thought about moving around the WCWS.
“There’s not a comparable space,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “We don't have Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.
“We have this place.”
And this place is pretty phenomenal.
Devon Park, formerly known as USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, is in a class all its own. On-campus softball facilities have improved dramatically, led by Love’s Field at OU and Davis Diamond at Texas A&M. They have expanded dramatically, too, led again by Love’s Field (4,200) as well as Rhoads Stadium at Alabama (3,940) and Bogle Park at Arkansas (3,200).
But Devon Park has 9,000 permanent seats, and with temporary bleachers, the capacity expands to over 13,000 for the WCWS.
And it has all the bells and whistles. Locker rooms for the teams. Abundant concessions and restrooms for the fans. Press box for ESPN’s massive broadcast. Press conference room and work space for those of us not on ESPN’s payroll.
No other softball facility, on a campus or in a city, comes anywhere close.
The complex in Plant City, Florida, that some people talk about as an alternative? It looks nice, but it’s a 6,000-seat baseball stadium that can be converted for softball.
Nowhere else has a softball-specific venue like OKC.
“I don't see anybody else going to pony up now probably $60 million, $70 million to build a facility like this, press room like this, locker rooms we have, the field behind where we practice,” Murphy said.
The Crimson Tide coach wasn’t the only one who seemed content for the WCWS to stay in OKC.
“We know it gets loud,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “We know there could be more bodies wearing a certain color.”
But she knows firsthand how the venue has grown, having played for the Bruins in the stadium in the early years of the WCWS being in OKC. She has seen the stadium expand and the crowds explode.
The venue has not only matched the growth of the game but also propelled it.
And now …
“This is the headquarters of the College World Series,” Inouye-Perez said.
Not that everything in OKC is perfect.
Florida coach Tim Walton wishes Devon Park had been built where Bricktown Ballpark sits. That would’ve made things similar to Omaha, which hosts the Men’s College World Series in a downtown ballpark.
“Not to say that this stadium isn't a great stadium,” Walton said. “It is. Just the atmosphere they have (in Omaha) and some of that stuff is different.”
Walton recounted what has been an ongoing conversation with his wife since the Gators punched their WCWS ticket.
“How do we get a parking pass?” she asked him. “How am I going to get there? It’s packed.”
“Get on the bus,” he said.
He shrugged.
“Long story short, it would be nice to walk to your hotel after the game from Bricktown,” he said. “But it's here. It needs to stay here. It's been here 40 years. This is the place where it needs to be.”
Stanford coach Jessica Allister said, “There's not going to be any such thing as equal and fair no matter where you're at. That's just not the way the world works. I think what we've built here in Oklahoma City for the sport of softball is really, really, really special.
“Do I think there's some advantages built in there? I do. Do I think that they outweigh what this event does for the sport? That's a hard jump for me to make.”
For her part, OU coach Patty Gasso acknowledged the Sooner fans who turn out in droves.
“As long as it’s here, we’re going to take advantage of it,” she said, “just like anybody would.”
Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski and Cowgirls Lexi Kilfoyl, Jilyen Poullard and Caroline Wang met with reporters Wednesday afternoon. (Jenni Carlson)
Eight for OKC
Or should it be Eight in OKC?
Heading into super regionals, I made my predictions about what eight teams would advance to the Women’s College World Series. I went 7-of-8, picking Duke to go on the road and upset Missouri but failing to predict Alabama would go to Tennessee and upend the Vols.
Not that I mind the Crimson Tide being in town. Alabama coach Patrick Murphy is my favorite coach who I don’t cover on a regular basis.
Getting a chance to watch coaches and teams who I’ve seen many times over the past 25 years of Women’s College World Series coverage is a thrill. I hope to bring all sorts of great stories from Devon Park to you over the next week-plus.
But let’s start with these Eight in OKC.
1. Kenny Gajewski spoke glowingly of his Cowgirls to open his press conference Wednesday. Said how much he loved the group of players. Called this perhaps the most amazing journey he’d been on since his first season at OSU. Talked about how this has been the most fun he’s ever had as a coach.
The OSU coach admitted he is excited about getting to see these Cowgirls on the WCWS stage Thursday night.
“Just wish it wasn’t against my best friend,” he said.
Gajewski and Florida coach Tim Walton have been buddies since they were teenagers playing baseball in California. Then they came to OU to keep playing baseball together and won a national title in 1994.
When Patty Gasso hired Walton as OU’s hitting coach in 1999, one of his first calls was to Gajewski, who was then the Sooners’ turf and maintenance director.
“My wife and I lived with him when I got the job at Oklahoma as assistant coach,” Walton said.
Then when Gajewski wanted to get into coaching about a decade ago, Walton was one of the first people he called.
“The one thing I can tell you about T-Dub, he's loyal,” Gajewski said.
He paused for a long time, his emotions welling up.
“I mean, he gave me a shot to get back in,” he said. “He's just a great friend. … He's just a good man. He's always shot me straight.”
Tears spilled down Gajewski’s face.
“Just thankful for the doors that he opened,” he said. “I'm thankful to be part of his tree. I mean, it's really cool. It really makes me proud. I can tell you this — when he texts me, it means a lot; when he calls, it means a lot.
“So it's really cool (to be playing at the WCWS).”
2. The Pac-12 as we know it is in its final days, but the league’s legacy in softball will continue long after it is gone.
What we see now, after all, doesn’t happen without the Pac-12.
“It started on the West Coast,” OU coach Patty Gasso said, a native Californian who got her college coaching start at Long Beach State College. “Then it lended itself over to Texas A&M, Fresno State, different teams across the country. Then it came to Oklahoma. Then to Michigan. You saw it starting to spread itself.
“It wouldn't have happened without elite teams on the West Coast.”
The Pac-12 was the gold standard.
I asked Alabama coach Patrick Murphy, whose team opens with UCLA, one of two Pac teams in this year’s WCWS, to quantify what the Pac-12 has meant to softball
“Shoot, everything,” he said. “The first time I came here, I might have even talked to you and said, ‘I want to be like Mike Candrea.’ That was the goal of every male coach. That was the role model, was Mike Candrea.”
The legendary Arizona coach was the role model for many coaches whether male or female.
Ditto for his program.
Between Arizona and UCLA, the two Pac programs won every national title from 1988-1997.
The season after Candrea and the Wildcats won the 1994 national title, Gasso took over at OU. The coaching staff who’d been ousted had scheduled several games for the 1995 season against Arizona.
“I think my first year, we played them eight times,” Gasso said.
Close.
Six.
“We got our tails kicked,” Gasso said.
True.
Arizona’s average margin of victory in the six wins against OU: 9.7 runs.
“But I sat there and I watched and said, ‘How are we going to get athletes that look like them?’” Gasso said. “One of the best things that happened to me was getting my rear-end kicked by the Pac-12 to learn what elite softball looks like. I appreciate them for helping me understand what it looks like.”
3. The quality of softball players coming out of Oklahoma high schools continues to rise.
Lillie Walker is the latest example of that.
The lanky lefty played her high school ball in Inola, and now as a Duke senior, she is the third arm on the Blue Devils’ talented pitching staff. She has largely been used in relief and brings a 1.70 earned run average and a 12-1 record into the WCWS.
Being at the event is nothing new.
“I’ve grown up coming to watch the Women's College World Series with my family,” Walker said. “It's pretty surreal to come and practice on the field, actually be in it this year.”
Walker’s family even has a photo of her on the field when she was little.
“It’s me, 10 or 12, my chubby little fat stage type of thing,” she said with a laugh. “Now being an adult playing on this field, it's amazing.”
4. Watch any of UCLA’s games on TV this week, and you’re sure to hear about how Bruin shortstop Maya Brady is Tom Brady’s niece.
But asked Wednesday about her athletic family’s impact on her career, she pointed to someone other than the legendary quarterback.
“I think the person I learned from the most in my family would probably be my mom,” Brady said.
Maureen Brady pitched at Fresno State in the early 1990s, and twice, she and the Bulldogs made the WCWS.
Three decades later, Maya Brady made her first WCWS in 2021.
“I will never forget driving to our first game, she had written me a letter,” Brady said of her mom. “She literally told me to just soak in the moment, enjoy this time with my sisters, just never take a moment for granted because you never know.”
Last year, Brady and the Bruins didn’t make the WCWS. The program had made the tournament seven consecutive times, and Brady admits to having a fear that she might never play in the WCWS again.
“I think just being here,” Brady said, “I’m just trying to take in those lessons from my mom of appreciation and gratitude, just enjoying the moment with my sisters, the coaching staff, the university that I love.”
5. Other than Jordy Bahl, no player was a bigger sensation in last year’s WCWS than NiJaree Canady.
Stanford’s hard-throwing righty put fear into OU hearts as a freshman, taking the Sooners to the brink twice. Ultimately, OU triumphed and handed Canady two of her three losses in a 17-3 campaign last season.
“When we were here last year, NiJaree appeared as if she had been here a million times,” Stanford catcher Aly Kaneshiro said. “You would have thought she was a senior playing her fourth year in a row. I was absolutely blown away by her.”
After that, a sophomore slump by Canady could be expected. Understood even.
That didn’t happen. Canady was named USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year on Tuesday, leading the nation with a 0.65 earned run average and 310 strikeouts.
So I asked her what she built on, changed and improved this season.
“Actually, that was one thing I was honestly really concerned about just coming into my sophomore year,” Canady said. “I had a lot of conversations with (Stanford pitching) Coach (Tori) Nyberg on how to grow and how to improve. Together we just came up with a list of things that we could improve on in the fall.
“We just worked a lot on location, just putting each pitch where we wanted it, throwing each pitch off the last.”
Safe to say, it worked.
6. Every team at the WCWS has transfers. It’s the way of the portal world these days.
But no team has less of them than top-seeded Texas. The Longhorns have only four transfers. By comparison, OU has seven and OSU has eight.
How has Texas built a top-ranked team without leaning on transfers?
“We've really got a heavy emphasis on recruiting and bringing in young players,” Longhorn coach Mike White said, “showing them that we can help them become better players, better people, provide a great education at the University of Texas for future years.
“Of course, it's all about the experience for the student-athlete. We're open, too. We give them real-time feedback on their playing future, whether they're going to see some playing time or not see playing time, where they're ranked.
“It's up to them to make the decision.”
7. Lexi Kilfoyl is OSU’s ace.
Just don’t call her that.
“I don’t like the term ‘ace’ because I know a pitching staff, it takes every single one of us,” the Cowgirl righty said. “That was one of our things this year — we were going to use all of us.”
But whether you call Kilfoyl the ace, that’s what she is. The top option. The head honcho. And that was something OSU coach Kenny Gajewski impressed upon Kilfoyl last summer after Kelly Maxwell transferred to OU.
“Hey, you’re going to be our ace this year,” Gajewski told Kilfoyl. “I know you don’t want to be called that. You don’t have to be called that to be an ace.
“You just have to go out there and do your job.”
Kilfoyl has done that, being named Big 12 pitcher of the year and one of three finalists for USA Softball’s national player of the year. Her steadiness has been crucial to getting the Cowgirls to this point. Even when they had a lot of new players in a lot of new positions to start the season, they knew they always had Kilfoyl in the circle.
If that isn’t an ace, I don’t know what is.
“I think if you put that term aside,” she said, “you naturally fall into that place.
8. OU is going after an unprecedented four-peat, and while the Sooners have only six losses this season, four of them have come against two of the teams in the WCWS.
Texas and OSU.
Two of the last three seasons, the Sooners found themselves in the WCWS with two teams that had beaten them. In 2021, it was Georgia and OSU. In 2022, Texas and OSU.
Three years ago, OU crossed paths with Georgia and beat the Bulldogs while two years ago, the Sooners played Texas three times in the WCWS, including the championship series, and beat the Longhorns all three times.
Not too surprisingly, the Sooners seemed unconcerned about the possibility of playing either the Longhorns or the Cowgirls in this WCWS.
“They've been chasing us for a long, long time,” Sooner catcher Kinzie Hansen said. “They're really good teams. They have some aggressive players. I have a lot of respect for a lot of the athletes on both teams.
But …
“Hopefully we get to step on the field with them coming this week.”