Oklahoma Signee Jordyn Bahl Wins Gatorade National Player of the Year Award
Yes, Oklahoma softball appears in good hands for 2022 with all but three super seniors returning from a dominant national championship team.
But the Sooners are set well beyond next year thanks to incoming players like Jordyn Bahl.
Bahl, a senior at Papillion-Lavista High School in Papillion, NE, who signed with the Sooners last November, received the 2021 Gatorade National Player of the Year Award on Monday. Aside from her prodigious talent, Bahl seems just the kind of player upon which OU coach Patty Gasso has built a dynasty.
Jordyn Bahl
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“The first thing that stood out to me when I saw her was that she is gritty, focused and has a competitive spirit,” Gasso said in a National Signing Day press release last November. “When you have athletes like that, you win championships, and that's what she's done at the high school level.”
Bahl is a dominant pitcher, but also excels at hitting. She’s athletic, and she doesn’t mind grinding out a win. She’s been known to finish a game covered in dirt head-to-toe — exactly the type of grit Gasso wants in a player.
“I think playing the game of softball, I just like to play it like, take everything you can get,” Bahl told SI Sooners Monday in a Zoom call. “Our team, we just wrapped up a tournament yesterday where we had to win four back-to-back games and it was super hot and every team we were gonna play was at a super-high level. They were gonna be close ballgames. So it was gonna come down to who wanted it more. And I was really proud of my teammates in how we competed and did that. But I think that’s how softball should be played, and I have respect for all the girls that play it that way.”
Jordyn Bahl (left)
Collin Mauro / papiosoftball.com
That’s one thing Bahl likes about being among the next generation of Gasso’s OU softball dynasty. The Sooners lost four games this season on their way to the program’s fifth national championship, but in avenging all four losses, they left no doubt by beating Georgia, Oklahoma State, James Madison and Florida State at least twice. One produced a Big 12 Conference championship, the latter two a national championship.
“It tells me that they’re scrappy, that they play with grit and they love to compete,” Bahl said. “And I think there’s no doubt watching them that they play with such emotion and passion and love for the game and for each other, that those are the type of people you want to go to war with; those are the type of girls that you want to compete with. So, just really excited to play with that scrappy group of girls.”
Bahl said that passion for competing within the OU program jumped out to her at an early age. She first took notice of the Sooners way back in 2016, and she noticed it again last week watching from her couch.
Jordyn Bahl
Collin Mauro / papiosoftball.com
“I was in seventh grade when I really fell in love with the Sooners,” she said. “I just remember watching Sydney Romero her freshman year and I just couldn’t believe she was a freshman. That was the first time I had really seen the emotion that I talked about earlier out of a softball team. I remember the emotion that they played with and I just fell in love with the energy of it.”
Bahl was selected out of nearly half a million student-athletes nationally for the award. She’s also the Sooners’ second straight Gatorade National Player of the Year. Last year, Jayda Coleman won the prestigious honor at The Colony, TX.
Coleman became a Day 1 starter as a freshman for the Sooners during this year’s national championship run. In the middle of a record-setting offense, Coleman ranked third on the team with a .444 batting average, fourth with 76 hits, fourth with 11 doubles and third with 53 RBIs. Coleman also ranked second with 32 walks and led the Sooners with 20 stolen bases. Coleman also hit nine home runs, including one in the decisive game of the WCWS Championship Series against Florida State, and made numerous game-saving defensive plays in center field.
Much the same is expected of Bahl, a two-way player who’s widely regarded as the best high school pitcher in the country. With seniors Giselle Juarez and Shannon Saile graduating, the Sooners have an immediate need for a co-ace in the pitching rotation with rising sophomore Nicole May and North Texas graduate transfer Hope Trautwein.
Jordyn Bahl in the circle
Collin Mauro / papiosoftball.com
Bahl is the No. 1 overall player in the nation, according to Extra Inning Softball, and she’s the two-time Gatorade Nebraska Player of the Year. Over the past two seasons, Bahl compiled a perfect 54-0 pithing record as her team has finished 36-0 in back-to-back seasons and won two Nebraska Class A State Championships.
In 2020, Bahl went 27-0 with a 0.10 earned run average with 316 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 137 innings pitched.
Jordyn Bahl at the plate
Collin Mauro / papiosoftball.com
She was just as devastating at the plate with a .510 batting average, 20 home runs and 55 runs batted in to go with a 1.813 OPS.
“She's a dominant pitcher who also swings the bat very well,” Gasso said last year. “We could definitely see her bat in our offense. She is an outstanding overall athlete.”
Jordyn Bahl
Gatorade POY
“I’m just excited to go down there and do whatever I’m asked to do,” Bahl said. “I’m excited to swing it if they want me to swing it and I’m excited to throw if they want me to throw. … They aren’t losing very many girls in that lineup, so we’ll see what happens. But I’m just excited to be amongst really great athletes.”
Another thing Bahl has that Gasso likes: winning DNA.
“In two seasons they haven't lost a game,” Gasso said, “and that's also a credit to great coaching by Todd Petersen and the Papillion High School staff. It shows you that Jordy is a competitor at one of the best schools in the country and she's one of the best competitors I've seen at her age. I'm excited, as well as Coach (Jen) Rocha, to finally get her on campus. She can be a great leader for our team and brings everything to the table that a coach dreams about.”