'It’s surreal': Grace Lyons caps off OU softball career with solo homer, third NCAA title
Grace Lyons’ final hit as an OU softball player could hardly have been any bigger.
Lyons blasted a solo home run in the fifth inning Thursday night in Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series finals.
A home run that put the Sooners ahead, catapulting them to a 3-1 win over Florida State to win a third consecutive national title, to run their winning streak to an NCAA-record 53 and solidify their place among the greatest teams in college softball history.
But after the game, when OU coach Patty Gasso brought up Lyons’ contributions, it wasn’t the home run that Gasso spoke about.
Instead, it was the early season rollercoaster where Gasso — among the most legendary coaches in the sport’s history, who won her seventh national title Thursday — ceded some of her control.
“I go to Grace Lyons and I say, ‘What do you want to do here? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?’” Gasso said. “Where normally as a coach, ‘This is what we’re doing, then we’re doing this, going there, then we’re doing this.’”
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It was only right for the 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 🥹 @grace_lyons5
T5 | OU 2, FSU 1 | 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/gsLMibc2hr— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 9, 2023
OU softball sweeps Florida State in WCWS finals for seventh NCAA title
Lyons set the tone for this Sooners team long before her fifth-inning blast ignited the crowd at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
To know about Lyons’ impact on OU softball, ask her teammates.
“She’s been my go-to and my rock here,” Tiare Jennings said.
Virtually all of the Sooners’ share similar sentiments.
“Grace Lyons is one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life,” Jayda Coleman said. “She helped me in my faith and on the field she’s helped me in every aspect of life.”
Even the Sooners’ woman of the hour — well, of all of the hours of the WCWS — heaped praise Lyons’ way.
“I think Grace Lyons came to college softball wanting to leave a more different impact than what players usually want to leave on their programs,” OU ace Jordy Bahl said. “She’s done just that. … It’s just been a complete honor to be on the field with her.”
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That sentiment added an element to what was already an emotional moment.
Heading into Thursday, Lyons’ WCWS was largely forgettable on the field.
She was just 1 for 6 at the plate without an RBI.
But Lyons is no stranger to rising to moments.
She belted a homer in last season’s WCWS clincher vs. Texas, had stolen bases in three consecutive WCWS games in 2021, and her sterling defense has become a WCWS staple since her freshman season in 2019.
So it was no surprise that she rose up when the Sooners (61-1) needed it most.
She nearly did it in the third inning, narrowly missing what would’ve been a two-run home run that instead wound up as a long single.
Just before Lyons stepped to the plate in the fifth, Cydney Sanders jolted energy into the crowd with a game-tying solo shot to right.
Lyons took the first pitch for a ball, then fouled off two straight before belting Kathryn Sandercock’s offering over the left-field wall to put the Sooners ahead — for good.
Before Thursday’s game, Lyons took time to reflect on the impending end of her career.
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“It’s surreal,” Lyons said shortly after walking into the postgame press conference as Bahl started speaking of Lyons’ impact. “Today I definitely was thinking of the possibility that it was my last game, playing in this uniform — just the emotions that come with that.
“It’s so cool to know that these players saw that my legacy, my intention and my legacy, was going to be different. That means so much to me, more than any softball hit, home run, play. Like that speaks volumes.”
As Lyons floated around the bases, the anticipation for the reunion at home plate grew.
“Man, the Lord is good,” she said. “I mean, the home run was awesome, but just the feelings of coming home to my team and just the joy that a home run can’t bring. It’s all from the Lord. I think it was just a genuine joy as I rounded just knowing that it was a total team effort, and that team is something special.”
Bahl said it was hard not to make an already big moment even bigger.
“Just seeing her round the base, seeing the look on her face, it was just emotional,” Bahl said. “Like I said, that was still middle of the game. You’re trying not to be emotional at that point, but it was just hard.”
Next year, another shortstop will roam the middle of the infield for the Sooners. Maybe it’ll be Jennings, her double-play partner at second for the last three years, or Alyssa Brito. Maybe it’ll be someone new.
But Lyons’ impact on OU’s program will be lasting, Gasso said.
As the celebration swirled around her on the outfield grass of the stadium — after Bahl closed it out with a dominant three innings in relief of Alex Storako — Lyons pulled out her phone and FaceTimed her fiancé, former Sooners’ punter Michael Turk, who is in NFL training camp with the Miami Dolphins.
Then, for the last time as a Sooner, Lyons walked off the field.
“You have not heard the last of her,” Gasso said. “She is going to be changing lives.”
Lyons already has.
2023 WCWS all-tournament team
NiJaree Canady, P, Stanford
Taylor Gindlesperger, OF, Stanford
Kiki Milloy, OF, Tennessee
Zaida Puni, INF, Tennessee
Michaela Edenfield, C, Florida State
Kaley Mudge, OF, Florida State
Kathryn Sandercock, P, Florida State
Jordy Bahl, P, Oklahoma
Rylie Boone, OF, Oklahoma
Jayda Coleman, OF, Oklahoma
Kinzie Hansen, C, Oklahoma
Tiare Jennings, INF, Oklahoma
Most Outstanding Player: Jordy Bahl, P, Oklahoma
OU fan celebration
WHAT: Free public celebration of OU's seventh NCAA softball championship. The first 1,000 fans will receive a championship poster.
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Saturday (Gates open at 5:30 p.m.)
WHERE: Marita Hynes Field in Norman
STREAMING: SoonerSports.tv
NOTE: OU's clear-bag policy is in effect for this event. Fans can bring one clear, empty plastic water bottle (17 oz. or less).
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU softball sweeps Florida State in WCWS finals for seventh NCAA title
