This time last year, we were basking in the glory of a national title based on four freshmen and four sophomores. When the pre-season polls came out, we were so far above the rest that (was it FloSoftball or ESPN?) they virtually created another board for OU, with the remainder of the field at the bottom as an afterthought. We were young, and we were good. This was to have been a walkover.
Well, we had a couple of injury-related surgeries. Lowary came in as a refugee from Mizzou. We weren't sure who was to replace Miller and Self. We just weren't coming together as a team. We had a lot of balls in the air at the same time.
Then, conference season began. Knighten, who had one home run at the time, went on an epic journey to demonstrate how much better she was than the other power hitters in the conference. If 2016 had been the Iliad, 2017 had become the Odyssey. Now that it is all over, you look at where we ended, and it is a lot closer to where we thought in January than what was apparent on April Fools.
Ultimately, the various elements came together, and we found ourselves, once again, as a group of sophomores and juniors, with a couple of freshmen, who had exceeded expectations. It is as if all of the stuff we learned in between had been nothing more than clutter that distracted us from the reality that this team was, ultimately, the best team in college softball. The concerns over a few one-run losses, an rpi that kept giving us information that made little sense, the general impression that our schedule had not been as strong as those who rose above us. Yet, the Super-Regionals and College World Series tended to render all of that as non-productive chatter.
Now, we are back where we started. Once again, we look at the fact that we lost only one senior (two last year), and everyone projects that we will be right back here as the favorite in 2018. It's almost like 2017 didn't happen.
