Jocelyn Alo closes her celebrated NCAA softball career with a repeat national championship

It would take quite an imagination to predict Jocelyn Alo contributing more putouts than total bases to Oklahoma’s national championship victory Thursday.

But there she was, the greatest slugger in college softball history, in left field snagging fly balls as the Sooners wrapped up their 10-5 win over Texas, capturing their second-consecutive Women’s College World Series title. They finished 59-3.

“There’s no better feeling,” Alo said in a postgame interview with ESPN. “This is everything we worked for.”

Alo was usually Oklahoma’s designated player, softball’s version of the designated hitter. That’s where she started this game, in her customary No. 2 spot, the centerpiece of the most dangerous lineup in college softball — maybe even in its history.

Alo’s only hit in her final game was a single in the sixth inning; there was hope for another chance to add to her all-time Division I record of 122 career home runs in the seventh, but the OU half ended with her in the on-deck circle.

>> PHOTOS: Jocelyn Alo leads Oklahoma to a second straight national championship

Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso made sure Alo got a curtain call anyway.

The crowd at USA Softball Stadium in Oklahoma City roared with approval when she ran out to left for the bottom of the seventh and the Sooners leading 10-2.

Alo received a standing ovation, and caught fly balls from the first two Texas batters. Then the reigning two-time national player of the year jogged off the field in tears, to another huge ovation.

“Everyone was kind of surprised, but I do practice defense,” Alo said. “Just getting the job done.”

But the drama wasn’t quite over. The pesky Longhorns got a three-run homer from Mia Scott.

“First I’m like, ‘What a fool. I just blew it. Here comes Texas coming back, and I’m trying to give Joce a hurrah,’ ” Gasso told reporters. “I was like, ‘I shouldn’t have listened to (son JT Gasso) who told me to do that.”

The final out came two batters later and unseeded Texas had finally lost a postseason elimination game after six wins. The Longhorns (47-22-1) were one of the three teams to beat Oklahoma this year, but as Alo said when OU beat their rivals earlier in the series, no one gets to do that twice.

Even on a night when her bat was relatively quiet, the crowd was there for Alo, who went 1-for-3 with a walk.

Her teammates had her back, too.

Early on, it looked like the Sooners might have to wait to think about curtain calls and celebrations until a final game today in the best-of-three series.

The Longhorns led 2-0 from the first inning until the fourth. But Kinzie Hansen and Grace Lyons belted three-run home runs and Alyssa Brito hit two doubles as OU lived up to its .370 team batting average in the late innings.

Alo, who finished with a season batting average over .500, came in having hit four homers in her last two games while reaching base in all nine plate appearances. She and teammate Tiare Jennings set the WCWS record at five home runs with two each in Oklahoma’s 16-1 win over Texas in the first game of the series Wednesday.

On Thursday, Alo struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch in the first. She walked on four pitches to lead off the third inning, but Jennings then grounded into a double play.

In her final plate appearance after a deep fly out to center in the fifth, Alo singled in the sixth and scored on Lyons’ home run.

“I’m sad to be walking away from it but I’m glad to finish on top,” Alo said.

No one can replace her, but sophomore Jennings is a slugging star in her own right; her 15 RBIs are a new WCWS record.

As a team, Oklahoma broke its own WCWS record of 49 runs set last year with 64 in its six games this year.

The Sooners outscored their opponents 579-65 this season. This is Oklahoma’s sixth national championship.

“I would say with me being a senior, I think this is the best team,” Alo said in an Oklahoma press release. “But one thing about Sooner softball, and I’ve seen it year in and year out, is they just continue to get better. I don’t know what holds next year, but I know that they could be a run for the best team too and years to come. I just think Sooner softball will continually climb and keep climbing the ladder.”