Softball star Jocelyn Alo makes her pro, WPF debut in Shawnee to much fanfare

Nine-year-old Journi Hill went to Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series to see her favorite player, Oklahoma softball superstar Jocelyn Alo, lead the Sooners to a national championship.

Nine days later, for her first pro softball game ever, Journi and her dad Chris drove two-and-a-half hours to watch Alo’s debut in the Women’s Professional FastPitch league at the Shawnee Mission Softball Complex.

Alo’s journey from her final college game to her first pro softball game was a little more rocky. The Hauula, Hawaii product caught a “bad case” of COVID after celebrating her NCAA title.

“My life just kind of hit a 180,” Alo said. “It’s been kind of hard to adjust, but I’m taking it day by day.”

But she was able to get back onto the field in time for the last of three games played by the WPF in Shawnee to kick off the league’s summer schedule.

At the Shawnee Mission Softball Complex, time seemed to stand still whenever Alo went up to bat on Friday. The packed crowd pulled their phones out to record and seemed to hold their breath as they waited for the all-time NCAA home-run record holder to flash her power.

“(Softball) has always been my outlet,” Alo said. “So just to be back out on the field, I feel like I just forgot about everything I have to worry about outside of this.”

In her first at-bat, Alo dribbled a weak grounder and reached base on an error by the opposing third baseman.

“I was very nervous,” Alo said. “I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s just another game, but I got a little antsy up there.’ But at least I didn’t strike out.”

Alo didn’t even record an out: reaching base on all four of her at-bats including two screaming liners for a double and a single.

The crowd groaned on her fourth at-bat as an opposing pitcher pitched around Alo on a four-pitch walk.

It wasn’t Alo that went deep first on Friday, however. In the first inning, former Texas Longhorns rival and now teammate Mary Iakopo smashed a three-run home run that just glanced off the glove of an opposing left fielder trying to make a grab over the fence.

The long bomb gave the Smash It Vipers a lead they would never relinquish, winning 11-4.

“(Alo) is one of my best friends off the field,” Iakopo said, “so it’s good to finally see her and now not ever have to pitch to her again. I’m glad she’s on our team, and we get to score runs for the same team.”

Alo joined the Vipers and the newly established WPF to much fanfare on Monday. While she wasn’t at the league’s inaugural opening day on Tuesday due to COVID, a contingent of faithful Sooner fans were still in attendance to support her, as well as another former Oklahoma softball star: Lauren Chamberlain.

The WPF commissioner, Chamberlain ranks second all-time in the NCAA in home runs behind Alo. Her work behind the scenes for the WPF convinced several players and coaches to come play in the league, including former UCLA star and Olympian Delaney Spaulding.

“When Lauren was explaining to me what she wants the WPF to be, I was bought in,” Spaulding said. “Just right after that conversation, I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Alo, the first pick by the Vipers, had her choice between WPF and Athletes Unlimited, another softball league now entering its third season. So did Iakopo.

The two both cited the WPF’s commitment to promoting players and putting players first in their choice to play for the newly-formed softball league.

“The commissioner and the people behind the scenes are always going to make sure that they have our best interests at hand as a person before as a player,” Alo said. “That’s what ultimately sold me to the WPF.”

Much of the crowd on Friday included youth softball league participants who had played earlier in the day at the Shawnee Mission Softball Complex. The WPF is playing a condensed, exhibition summer schedule that follows softball tournaments across the country.

It’s part of Chamberlain’s mission to “protect the dream” of playing professional softball and grow the sport beyond its college fame.

Mississippi State softball assistant coach John Johnson said he thought the “barnstorming, grassroots” style games being played is bringing important exposure to the league.

“I hear recruits talking about it. I hear parents talking about it,”Johnson said. “There’s a lot of interest here, and there’s a large fan base — we saw that with the (Women’s College) World Series. There is a fan base. We just have to tap into it.”

On Friday, most of the interest was geared toward Alo.

Call it the “Jocelyn effect,” as Chris termed it. He and his daughter Journi weren’t the only ones to make the trip to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series and then to Shawnee for Alo’s pro softball debut.

Madison Perez, wearing an Oklahoma shirt with Alo’s No. 78 on the back that had been signed by the former Sooners star, has played softball and been a fan since she was 5 years old. Watching Alo hit two home runs in Game 1 of the WCWS was her favorite softball moment ever.

On the opposite field of the complex Friday, there was another softball legend drawing attention from the crowd: Monica Abbott, one of the best pitchers in softball history who spent many of her professional years playing overseas in the Japan Softball League.

“I saw some really interesting expressions from my girls watching her,” youth softball coach Taylor Bartlett said. “I was like, ‘Wow, they’re really starstruck.’”

Alo is drawing the same reaction as she starts her pro career at 23. But Vipers head coach Gerry Glasco is hopeful that through the WPF, her fans will be able to watch her career here in the United States.

“For me, it was fun to see how much she means to the little girls up there,” Glasco said. “That’s their hero. So to be able to keep watching their hero on the field and watch her as she grows older is really special.”

But Alo isn’t setting any goals or expectations for her pro career.

“I just want to kind of soak it all up,” Alo said. “I feel like a little kid again, like a freshman out on the field again. I just want to enjoy it.”