All Sooners

OU Softball: How Oklahoma's Jordy Bahl Embraces Big Moments and Thrives Under Pressure

The Sooners' ace — starter or reliever — dominates as she tries to simplify things but seems to pitch even better in stressful moments, as she showed against Stanford.

John E. Hoover

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jordy Bahl swears she doesn’t try to overthink things. She doesn’t give in to the gravity of the situation.

“Really for me it's just be present, stay simple,” Bahl said Monday after her relief pitching helped send Oklahoma to the Women’s College World Series finale with a 4-2 victory over Stanford. “The second I try to do too much with any one of my pitches, I start overthrowing, and then things really go downhill from there.”

You could say Bahl delivered again — her season earned run average dropped for the 27th time in her last 29 appearances and now has dipped to 0.97 for the year (from a high of 2.66 back in late February) — but OU coach Patty Gasso took it a step further.

“I think she's been delivering since she was delivered from the womb, really,” Gasso said. “She is just made just tough as nails like that, just good, down-home, Midwestern kid that has a work ethic beyond anything I've seen, that has a passion and fearlessness about her and just absolutely embraces the biggest moments you could ever imagine.

“When a lot of pitchers would go, ‘No, thank you. Don't call me.’ She's like, ‘Give me the ball. Give me the ball right now. Give it to me at the start of the game, give it to me in the middle, give it to me at the end, it doesn't matter, I'll be ready.’ ”

Jordy Bahl
Jordy Bahl :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

That was Bahl again on Monday against the Cardinal, tough as nails, fearless and wanting the softball, coming on with a runner on base and nobody out in the sixth inning and finishing four more scoreless innings as the Sooners won it in the ninth.

Bahl ran her record to 21-1 this season by facing 16 Stanford hitters and scattering just four hits with no walks and no hit batters. She struck out six.

Bahl has now pitched 14 2/3 scoreless innings at Hall of Fame Stadium this year — a seven-inning start against Stanford last Thursday, a 3 2/3-inning start in a run-rule over Tennessee on Saturday, and four more in relief Monday. Her scoreless streak this postseason has now reached 18 1/3 innings after allowing two runs in the opener against Clemson.

And Gasso underscored it: it doesn’t matter if it’s a start or a relief appearance, Bahl is rolling.

Monday it was picking up Nicole May, who gave up a two-run home run in the first inning and then retired 13 in a row before a leadoff single in the sixth.

“Nicole was throwing a great game,” Bahl said. “The game plan going in was I was supposed to be hot, ready to go by the fifth. And so by that point I'm just staying loose until then. Then when I got in, it was just be present, make effective pitches, let the defense work, and just stay simple with everything and not let any moment get too big.”

Jordy Bahl replaces Nicole May.
Jordy Bahl replaces Nicole May :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

Bahl immediately yielded a single to put runners at first and second, but the next batter grounded back to Bahl, who threw to Alyssa Brito to gun down the lead runner at third. She then got a great catch at shortstop by Grace Lyons, then struck out Erin Schultz to end the rally.

Bahl induced another ball to Lyons to start the seventh, then gave up a single to right. She then struck out Ellee Eck and threw out River Mahler’s grounder to finish the inning.

In the eighth, Bahl allowed two more singles to give Stanford a spark, but induced a popup on the infield to Brito and struck out Kylie Chung and Schultz — both swinging — to send the game to the ninth.

Perhaps fueled by Bahl’s flame throwing, the Sooners scored two runs in the ninth, keyed by Lyons’ slump-busting double, an intentional walk to Jayda Coleman and Tiare Jennings’ two-run double.

With the lead, Bahl was better than ever, striking out Kaitlyn Lim and Sydney Steele swinging and finishing it off with another fly ball by Eck.

Somehow, Bahl almost seems to flip a switch when she gets into trouble. She focuses better, throws harder, remembers the scouting report clearer — whatever it is, she thrives with runners on base.

“It's really just, ‘Let's go to work,’ ” Bahl said. “Turn around, look at the defense, and it's like, ‘All right, let's go to work. We're going to get out of this.’ I mean, it's just as simple as that.”

Bahl’s success as this WCWS feels almost inevitable after she was limited by injury in last year’s event. But a full two years into her college career, she still kicks her leg and pumps her fists and shouts at catcher Kinzie Hansen after every strikeout, still nods her head emphatically to her infielders before stepping back into the circle before each pitch, still operates with supreme confidence and swagger that reminds a lot of Sooner fans of Baker Mayfield.

“I feel like it's progressed,” Bahl said. “I think every single time you're tested, you either come out on top or you don't. There's been several times where it hasn't gone the way that you would want it to go. Then after that, you just want to be tested again.”

OK, so maybe sometimes she doesn’t try to just simplify everything. Maybe sometimes she really wants to cut through the opposition like some terrifying lumberjack cutting through a helpless forest.

“Honestly,” she insists, “just trying to keep everything simple. … Just trying to stay where I know I can have success.”

“It's really inspired a lot of our players to have that kind of mentality,” Gasso said. “I think they say it very well. We're not super results oriented. It's not, ‘OK, if we don't win this game’ — we don't talk like that. We don't talk about any of those games. It's just allowing their mentality and love for the game and each other to take place without a lot of pushing and prodding from the coaching staff.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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