THIS IS SPORTS SPECTRUM’S WHAT’S UP PODCAST
WITH ANNABELLE HASSELBECK
On today’s episode of Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast, we have Ashton Maloney.
Ashton shares about the new hardware she recently acquired at the Women’s College World Series, what it’s like competing at the highest level, how she stays grounded throughout the season, and what’s next at Texas!
The Oklahoma softball team celebrates its Super Regional victory, May 24, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Twitter/@OU_Softball)
Oklahoma softball head coach Patty Gasso wasn’t quite sure what to expect this season. The team had to replace a legendary senior class that won four straight national championships, while also becoming a new member of the brutal Southeastern Conference.
For the Sooners to have a chance at a five-peat, their newcomers — freshmen as well as transfers — needed to deliver and help the handful of key players who remained from the 2024 team. That is precisely what’s happened.
Freshman shortstop Gabbie Garcia leads the team in home runs (20) and RBIs (58). Louisiana transfer pitcher Sam Landry is 23-4 with a 1.92 ERA. Two other transfers, infielder Ailana Agbayani and catcher Isabela Emerling, have started a combined 109 games.
Oklahoma earned the No. 1 seed for the SEC Tournament with a 17-7 conference record and reached the championship game, but that had to be canceled due to inclement weather. The Sooners then won all three of their NCAA Regional games by mercy rule, which set up a Super Regional against conference-foe Alabama.
They shut out the Crimson Tide on Friday, 3-0, and run-ruled them with a 13-2 victory on Saturday to reach the Women’s College World Series for the ninth year in a row.
THE SOONERS ADVANCE TO THEIR NINTH STRAIGHT COLLEGE WORLD SERIES 🔥
Though the names have changed and this year’s team has forged its own identity, the foundation of the program is the same: a championship culture rooted in faith. New spiritual leaders have emerged to replace the ones who have left.
“This team is so new, but yet it feels like we’ve all known each other for, like, our whole lives, which is really cool,” Kierston Deal, who picked up the win Saturday and was baptized last year, said after the game. “So just creating that culture and just trusting each other and trusting our coaching staff and trusting the Lord, honestly.”
Freshman sensation Garcia has come up huge in her first postseason, starting with a walk-off three-run home run against Arkansas in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
“It was actually very emotional for me just because of the whole situation before that,” Garica said. “It was really emotional. I was praying before my at-bat. I was really just leaning into, ‘No matter what the result, God is with me. My teammates are with me. My family is with me. It does not matter what happens at the end of the day.'”
The Arkansas game was just the beginning, though. She went deep two more times in the Regionals and hit two more home runs in the second win over Alabama in the Super Regionals. A quarter of her home runs have come in the last six games.
Deal and Garcia are just two of the many Oklahoma players who openly share their faith. The team has started a tradition of putting four fingers up to celebrate. It is a reference to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the Book of Daniel, where God protects them in a fiery furnace.
With God as their metaphorical fourth man in the fire, the Sooners play knowing they are not defined by the outcome of a game or the external pressure placed on them because of the program’s success.
“It’s just a joyful feeling,” Garcia said on the podcast. “You’re freeing yourself of all of that burden, and you’re giving it to Him. It’s removing that fear of failure. As soon as you remove that outcome-based thinking, it’s so freeing.”
The path was different, but Oklahoma is peaking at the right time yet again. The Sooners (50-7) face another SEC opponent, Tennessee (45-15), in their first game at the WCWS on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET. They will face either Florida or Texas in their second game.
As Oklahoma goes for an unprecedented fifth national title in a row, Garcia is not worried about what anyone on the outside thinks.
“It’s been a different year than I feel like a lot of people realize,” she said on the podcast. “Everyone keeps talking about how we’re a young team and everything, setting these boundaries on us. I feel like we’ve just gotten to that point where we’re here for ourselves, and we’re playing to serve. And we’re playing for each other.”
Rachel Roupe is congratulated by head coach Dot Richardson, May 18, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Liberty Athletics)
More than one type of history was made in the softball NCAA Tournament on Sunday night. With one dramatic come-from-behind win, Liberty University reached the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in program history, and at the same time eliminated a No. 1 overall seed in the first round for the first time in the Super Regional era (starting in 2005).
After beating Marist University on Friday and top-seeded Texas A&M on Saturday, the Flames needed just one more victory over the Aggies in the double-elimination regional to secure a spot in the Super Regionals. They led 6-0, trailed 10-6 and eventually scored four runs in the seventh to send the game to extra innings, but Texas A&M prevailed, 14-11.
Hours later, the two teams met again. The winner moved on. The loser went home. Liberty fell behind 3-0 and responded with a trio of home runs from Rachel Roupe and Savannah Jessee in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 6-3 lead. With the game tied in the top of the sixth, Roupe went deep for the second time in as many innings, putting the Flames ahead for the first time.
Texas A&M scored twice in the bottom half of the inning but never led again as Liberty held on for a 6-5 victory. It marked the 50th win of the season, a new program record.
As one of the largest Christian universities in the country, faith is at the center of everything Liberty does. The first thing head coach and two-time Olympic gold medalist Dot Richardson did in her postgame press conference was give glory to God.
“First, all praise to the Lord,” she said. “Thank you. God is so faithful. When I say that, I say it because you guys saw a battle out here. … It was amazing to watch, the talent that all the players have. And that’s what the Lord says: When you have your talents, put them out there to show.”
At the Conference USA Tournament earlier this month that Liberty won to reach the NCAA Tournament, Richardson — who has been the team’s head coach since 2013 — shared a brief message before helping baptize 26 players from teams across the conference.
Richardson joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast last year and shared about the powerful series of events that led her to Liberty, as well as serving the Lord through coaching. When Richardson got a call asking her to lead the program, she had never been a head coach and didn’t know where the school was. She knew it was where she was supposed to be, though.
“I’ve been led here at Liberty … where we’re training champions for Christ,” she said on the podcast. “That is what really interests me. I knew as a young girl that God had given me a gift in athletics, and I knew it because I loved it so much, it was so natural.”
Under Richardson’s leadership, the Flames have reached the NCAA Tournament six times, and before setting the program record for wins this season, they won at least 40 games in six consecutive full seasons from 2017 to 2023. They have also won back-to-back Conference USA regular-season and tournament titles, their first two years in the conference.
Sophomore infielder JaMaya Byrum, who was standing on third base when Roupe hit her game-changing home run, was a guest on Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast in April. Byrum discussed the role faith plays in her life and why learning about God not being a one-time Savior has made such an impact on her.
“I want to control everything,” she said on the podcast. “I want to stick to my plan and my timing and all of the things just because our hearts are so selfish. But at the end of the day, I do have to realize that it’s a blessing to be here. I don’t deserve anything. It’s just such a blessing, so I can only be thankful for where my feet are.”
Liberty begins its best-of-three Super Regional series against the University of Oregon at 10 p.m. ET on Friday. Game 2 is at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. If needed, Game 3 will be Sunday.
However long the Flames’ run continues for, they will be giving God the praise every step of the way.
“God has given us amazing gifts and opportunities, and I just want to encourage all of us to get to know Him more,” Richardson said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast. “And the only way to do that is to get into His Word, right? To study, take the time to get closer and understand, to get your questions answered.”
