Oklahoma Softball - Storako wins NCAA final
Grad student and Michigan transfer Alex Storako will get her national championship ring in the end. She was the starter and winner of tonight's NCAA final - a 3-1 Oklahoma victory over Florida State.
Storako has been Oklahoma's 2nd or 3rd pitcher this season and was undefeated. So was just about everyone else on the team. The Sooners ended up 61-1 and on a 53-game winning streak - an NCAA record.
Even against top competition in the playoffs, Oklahoma was rarely tested and won yesterday's first game of the best-of-three final 5-0.
With Michigan in desperate need of pitching for next season, you have to wonder if they can get one back from Oklahoma (of course, you can't induce transfers). Oklahoma gets anyone their coach wants. This year, the number-one recruit in the country barely played - fourth in the rotation behind sophomore playoff MVP and likely Player of the Year Jordy Bahl, a junior and Storako, who is the only one out of eligibility. There's another freshman pitcher who was in the top ten who never saw the field. But I'm sure those two could go anywhere they wanted if they were inclined to leave.
Oklahoma has won 3 straight National Championships with win tonight, AND 6 in the last 10 years and this is their coach's 7th. Wow!
And they're on a 53 game winning streak. Wow indeed!
This Oklahoma team was truly unreal, Storaka was 17-0 with a 1.12 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 99⅔ innings coming into tonight & was 3rd on her TEAM in ERA & K's. I was worried she would leave Michigan & sit more than start at Oklahoma but she was an important piece on this incredible team.
An absolute masterpiece of a season by the Sooners & most importantly congrats to Alex Storako on getting that Natty
I hate the word "natty"... but good for her!! Let's just agree to not use "natty" anymore......
Agree . "Natty" is one of the worst phrases in sports. Gives me douche chills win I hear it
If you win your league you "win your league" or "win the league tourney title," but if you a national championship you're "going to the ship"
Time to lay off the Natty Lights and go to bed
I wouldn't really say she was an important piece. This team was so dominant in the circle (and on defense/offense), that if it wasn't her, it was going to be their stud freshman Kierston Deal eating up those innings. She gave them an incredible luxury and I'm glad she got to play and win a national title on a team after four years of Michigan's offense not letting her advance past regionals though.
This is Mgoblog
And Storako played for Michigan. Calm down.
They weren't quite untested - that Stanford pitcher had two damn solid outings against them in the CWS. I know Clemson took them to the ropes in game 2 of the super regional, but Stanford looked toe to toe with them twice in the CWS.
But it just goes to show how good they were that I'm giving Stanford props for getting close twice.
That's why OU is the national champions - they win the close ones. Like the 70's Bud commercial says, "Is is no other one, there's only second best".
Im not as impressed with Oklahoma as anyone else..They NEVER have to leave the state of Oklahoma for NCAAs so its a perpetual Home field advantage for them
I'm happy for Storako getting a ring, she's had a good career. I have nothing against her transferring to OU, she got her degree here, wanted to maximize her earning potential, and Hutchins had one foot out the door.
Congrats to Alex Storako. She lived her dream. If only we all could do that...........
I’m happy for Storako finding a greener pasture and getting a ring. I can’t blame her for looking elsewhere that might provide a little run support or for ring chasing to fulfill a dream.
Though you can’t deny their on field excellence, which is an incredible thing, I struggle to really enjoy a juggernaut like Oklahoma softball. You have a disgustingly loaded team that is a few standard deviations about the norm. Certainly they have a lot of pressure to NEVER lose because of it. It does take the enjoyment out of it when deck is so stacked on one side. In college sports, when it’s that stark, I tend to wonder if this is all above board. It’s one thing to be great program, but to basically be untouchable tells me there’s more than meets the eye.
Georgia football right now is the same way. Kirby Smart can coach ball, but they’ve obviously cheated over years and stacked the deck. It’s hard for me to look at his accomplishments with the same respect and reverence as a relatively clean program winning it. How good of a coach are you really if you always have an incredibly stacked deck? Sad thing is ESPN and the media reveres them anyway when a little digging and research might tell some other stories.
My daughter played varsity basketball for a small Div 4 team in SW MI. They played a number of Div 2 teams with Miss Basketball candidates and NCAA Div 1 players (Benton Harbor, Buchanan, Brandywine among others). These were games that nearly had a running clock by half time. They're just not fun to play. That's the feeling I got when reading about Oklahoma. Who wants to watch a game where one team dominates so completely every time? Why even bother playing the game? The mismatch is so outrageous and discouraging.
Break up the Sooners!
Yeah, congrats to her on getting a ring, but I hate superteams in sports. If you are a top player that just wants a ring, you can go and join a team that was probably going to win with or without you there.
If everyone can name the eventual champion with a high degree of certainty before the season even begins, then why are we playing the games? It takes a lot of the fun and excitement out of sports.
Until not that long ago, Michigan had that role in the Big Ten.
At least with softball and baseball, not being contact sports, games are usually a lot more competitive. Right now, Oklahoma has broken through and enjoys an advantage. But you look at the ranking of recruits elsewhere, including Michigan, and that advantage isn't that large. Gasso's doing more with them or perhaps identifying recruits other schools are missing.
I think we should appreciate it when a school breaks through and ups the bar for everyone. Auriemma with UConn women's basketball more recently, other schools in other sports as they developed. Since these aren't revenue sports, I don't see why we'd think it isn't above board in any way.
This puts pressure on other coaches to figure out how to get better. We enjoyed it when Hutch had that figured out, but other programs caught up. I'd rather focus on what Tholl can do to coach up these top players she and Hutch attracted to Michigan - the talent should be here.
As for Storako's choice to go to grad school there, why not? It had to be exciting to get innings with the best. Of course, that meant their freshmen played less, so the downside is that future recruiting battles could come down to "look at Kierston Deal - best high school player in the country last year and she barely saw the field during the playoffs."
I have a hard time criticizing Storako. Players got an extra year because of COVID. She graduated in four years, which means she took her educational opportunity at Michigan seriously. It's a one-time free-agency thing.
61-1 and a 53 game win streak has to put them in discussions for one of the greatest college sports teams period. That's absurd
Still wish Michigan would have gone after Gasso's son for their HC position. He is Oklahoma's hitting coach. Saw him at a clinic a couple of years ago and their scientific approach to hitting is unrivaled. It's one area that has just killed the program the last several years.
I'm going to guess he's taking over for mom in 5-10 years and is happy collecting 225K+ yearly in the meantime to coach a wagon. Perhaps assistant DJ Gasso would've been the one to go after at Utah who helped them become a nice hitting team out of nowhere. No clue if he actually would've wanted to come (probably not and waiting for better?), but think it'd be very slightly more likely than JT.
In further news - the Michigan softball program is a shell of its former self.. Hutchins was great recruiting pitchers and defense. She seemed allergic to recruiting big bats however. They came up short often because of that when playing the better teams in the country.
Michigan made the wrong choice to take over the program. They stayed in their comfort zone and promoted from within. Michigan softball deserves a TOP TIER Coach. They under hired.
Now they not only have weak offensive production but the pitching and defense went backwards under the new leadership.
It’s a mess.
It's not a mess. Hutch had some great hitting teams, most recently with the 2015-16 teams that went 112-15 and came extremely close to a second national championship.
In more recent years, the great hitting prospects haven't done as well. It's certainly valid to question development methods or modern recruiting. But Hutch wasn't allergic to good hitters at all.
Tholl was a continuation. No question she would have been hired elsewhere long ago if there weren't a plan in place. Given Hutch's extraordinary record, why wouldn't we take her word for it about Tholl?
So, yes, the program is in a difficult place now. Good recruits coming in, but another year like this one and there could be issues. But the notion that Michigan is going to magically draw great coaches to an area where you can't even have home games until there's a month left in the season is a non-starter. The best plan is to give Tholl a couple more years to work this out, get some pitching into the program, teach up the hitters. Not sure what happened with the fielding.