We Deserved Jordy v. Patty in the WCWS, But Frahm Gets a Curtain Call Without Oklahoma

COLUMN

The biggest star in softball is back in Oklahoma City.

But the Oklahoma Sooners are not.

In what universe does Jordy Bahl step into the circle at Devon Park and Patty Gasso’s indomitable Sooners are nowhere to be found?

With all due respect to the other six teams at the Women's College World Series this week, that’s the matchup everyone wanted in 2026. If Bahl — now Jordy Frahm, her married name — is going to pitch for a national championship and she’s wearing “Nebraska” across her chest instead of “Oklahoma,” shouldn’t she at least be lining up against her former team?

No such luck. Sports can be cruel like that.

Bahl, now a senior playing her final collegiate games, helped power OU to a national championship as a true freshman in 2022, then was the dominant force in steering the Sooners back to their third of four straight national titles in 2023.

The Omaha kid then shocked the world by leaving OU to return home to Nebraska, where for the last two seasons she has been named Division I Player of the Year, among a closet full of other trophies, plaques and medals.

She even missed almost an entire season redshirting after a knee injury in the 2024 season opener, but fate refused to line up a match with the Sooners.

Softball itself doesn’t exactly need more enticing matchups — how does one top OU-Texas for the championship series, other than maybe Texas against Texas Tech and indefatigable ace NiJaree Canady? — but in Oklahoma, Jordy against Patty might have moved the Richter Scale.

“Jordy is unbelievable, just what she's meant to the sport of softball,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said Wednesday at WCWS media day. “She became a legend at 14-15 in travel ball circuits and then goes to Oklahoma and then goes home. What she brought to the sport on the mound, in the batter's box, her enthusiasm, her hustle and the speed, the way she plays the game is unbelievable.”

In starting all 56 games for the Cornhuskers this season, Frahm has battled a team-high .416 with 19 home runs and 50 RBIs. Her slugging percentage (.827) is second on the team, and her on-base percentage (.511) ranks third.

Then as a pitcher, she leads the Huskers with a microscopic 1.14 earned run average to go with a 20-4 record as well as a team-high 12 saves. In 171 2/3 innings, Frahm has 234 strikeouts and only 30 walks, and opponents have hit a team-low .185 against her.

Jordy Frahm Nebraska Cornhuskers — Nebraska's Jordy Frahm at OSU in February. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Numbers much like the ones last season that earned her first national player of the year accolades.

“She can't do both things at once obviously,” said Texas coach Mike White. “You've got to separate them. It's a great luxury to have, is hitting pitchers.

“ . . . Jordy is not only a great pitcher and a great player, but she's a great baserunner and very smart player of the game, and well-spoken. She won that award last night and was well spoken and addressed a lot of things. Hat's off to her. Hopefully she can continue to have a great career in the sport because she's someone we look up to.”

Said Glasco, “Jordy, she presents as many obstacles as any one player could present. She's just a multi-talented athlete and unbelievably fierce competitor.”

Nebraska takes on Arkansas in the night game Thursday (scheduled for 8:30 p.m.) with either Alabama or UCLA awaiting in the next round.

“I don't think it's difficult to scout. I think it's difficult to compete against her,” said UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “She's an elite athlete. She's a competitor. She can pitch. She can hit. She can do all parts. With that, a lot of respect. For her to overcome the injuries and to move and be back home, she's done some brave things in the sport.

“ … She’s a competitor, and I love that. I love competing against the best. I love competing against people that are tough, and I think that's when you play your best. … Well-deserved Player of the Year. She's been able to take care of it on both sides of the ball as a pitcher and a hitter, and very impactful for Nebraska.”

In her two seasons at OU, Frahm pitched 288 2/3 innings with 397 strikeouts. She went 22-1 in the circle each year with a combined ERA of 0.99. But in Gasso’s system, she was a pitcher only — she never really got to swing the bat, hitting .350 (14-of-40) with two doubles, nine RBIs and 13 runs scored — no home runs.

Tennessee coach Karen Weekly also tried to describe what’s most impressive about Frahm and how rare a talent she is. But eye-popping stats are not where Weekly began.

“The thing that first jumps out at you about Jordy is just the human being she is,” Weekly said. “Like, Karlyn (Pickens) talked about faith — that's very present in everything Jordy talks about. She talks a lot about the love she feels for her teammates and everybody in that program.

“I just feel like you see that influence in Nebraska and in how they play the game. I think it's just so refreshing to have somebody like her that is such a star in our game. Obviously a player who can do the things she does on different sides of the ball. Jordy would win honors hitting if that's all she did. She would win honors pitching if that's all she did.

It's really neat when somebody excels at the level she does and then has that platform to then just talk about what's important, and really what's important is your faith and the kind of human being you are.”

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Nebraska coach Rhonda Revelle said her awareness of Frahm started when she was just 8 years old — probably not long before Gasso’s awareness of her.

“I remember Darren Dubsky (her long-time pitching coach) sending me a picture of Jordy when she was 8,” Revelle said. “She had jeans on, this little crop top, and she was in her basement throwing against a brick wall, and it started there.

“She just kept working, and it just shows you that dreams can and do come true when you just really put your mind to something and really work hard.

“The tenacity of her work, she's just never satisfied. She just does things that are at a different level. I've coached a lot of players, but I don't know that I can say I've coached a player that has just more intention on what the end goal is for her.”

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