New Queen In Town

Jocelyn Alo is the all-time home run leader in college softball history. The Sooner Super Senior set the record in her home state of Hawaii on a deep shot late into the Hawaiian night. The record-setting blast occurred following an 8-game stretch after tying the record where teams constantly found ways to pitch around the Sooner slugger.

When all was said and done, that magical moment on the field where Alo played her final high school game created an incredible moment for the Sooners, the sport of softball, female athletics and the entire state of Hawaii.

This is the story of home run 96 and the moments leading up to the record and beyond.

A LEGEND IS BORN

Jocelyn Alo burst onto the scene as a freshman at the University of Oklahoma. The buzz had started to build before even playing her first game.

“As a pitcher, she probably hits the ball harder than anyone I’ve ever faced,” said Sooner ace Paige Parker of Alo during the preseason media day in 2018 prior to Alo’s first season with the Sooners.

“It’s scary how strong that girl is,” Shay Knighten added. “I don’t want to throw to her, you guys can,” commented Sooner pitcher Paige Lowery.

Alo followed up the preseason hype hitting her first home run on a blast against Weber State in the fifth inning of her first collegiate game. When the freshman season wrapped, Alo had tied the single-season freshman record for home runs.

“I really did surprise myself,” Alo said this week. “I wasn’t expecting to have the season that I had. It’s a lot to take in sometimes, but you’ve just got to live in the moment.”

But there was a moment early in the 2018 season that caught the eye of Sooner legendary slugger Lauren Chamberlain, the previous holder of the record for most career homeruns at 95. During the Mary Nutter Classic in 2018, Chamberlain met for the first time an admittedly star struck Alo. The comparisons had already started between Chamberlain and Alo, but Jocelyn made it clear she was out to be the best version of herself.

“We talked about how badly she wanted to be the one and only Jocelyn,” Chamberlain recalled. “Not the next Lauren and how important it was for her to write her own story and create her own narrative around this entire thing.

“I knew from the jump that it was going to be her.”

THE EXPERIENCE OF CHASING THE RECORD

Alo followed up her breakthrough freshman season with a frustrating sophomore campaign where she hit just 13 homeruns. After hitting eight in the first 24 games of 2020, the season was shut down due to COVID-19.

But after winning her first World Series ring to cap an incredible run in 2021 where Alo hit a career-high 34 home runs, she quickly made the decision to return to school for her COVID year as a super senior. Entering the 2022 season with 88 career home runs, it was not a question of if she would break the record, but when. It was a much different experience for Sooner head coach Patty Gasso than the one she went through when Lauren Chamberlain was chasing the record eight seasons earlier.

In 2015, Chamberlain was in a two-way race with teammate Shelby Pendley to reach the record of 90 set by UCLA’s Stacey Nuveman in 2002.

“It was awful,” Sooners coach Patty Gasso said looking back. “Because they’re trying to outdo each other a little bit. Parents are involved. It was almost like you had to take sides of who you were rooting for to get it.

“It was a tough road for Lauren. It took a longer time than I anticipated for her to reach that space.”

There would be no internal competition in Alo’s chase of 95, only the question of when the record would fall. Alo did not waste any time in her pursuit of history. She homered in 2 of her first three games then after a 4-game stretch where she went homerless, she truly exploded.

In the second series of the season, Alo hit a career-high four home runs in one day in Houston and tied Chamberlain’s record of 95 career home runs in her first atbat against Texas State on Feb. 20.

The game instantly changed at that point for Alo. On the cusp of history, teams stopped pitching to her.

Prior to the March 11 game against Hawaii, Alo had been walked in 16 of her 30 plate appearances, including a baffling intentional walk against Cal during an 8-0 game. Chamberlain could understand the frustration, she lived it.

“When you get to that point, you’re slumping if you don’t hit a bomb,” Chamberlain said. “When you start to get that outside pressure and you start to see the media follow it, I know back when it happened to me and ESPN crews with their cameras were on the field following me to the plate, ticket prices are going up, you’re starting to see more and more people standing. Everybody knows that something is about to happen when she’s at the plate. It’s a crazy transition when you start to watch it as a fan, but you’re watching almost what you went through but from a different perspective.”

“At times it’s frustrating because I want to go out there and compete and I feel like I was stripped of my competitiveness,” Alo said of teams pitching around her. “At the end of the day, I stuck to my process and stuck to what I do best and that’s not trying to get caught up in things and just try to hit the ball out.”

A TRIP HOME

When the 2022 schedule was released many circled the trip to Hawaii as a potential spot on the schedule where Alo could have a shot at breaking the record.

But when teams stopped pitching to the Sooner slugger, everything was up in the air. A trip back home became more than just an opportunity to set a record, it developed into a chance to learn about her roots and what Jocelyn is all about.

After the team arrived in Honolulu on Tuesday night, a Wednesday promotional event was set up at Alo’s elementary school, Hauula Elementary. The field was 100 yards from her childhood home and the place where her father Levi would practice with Jocelyn every day after elementary school. Hundreds of young Hawaiian girls waited outside the gates of the field for a chance to see the hometown hero.

Signs adorned the fencing around the field, “Home Sweet Home” one said with the words “We Love You” across the bottom. One read “Mahalo for Inspiring Our Girls,” while another proclaimed, “Kukuna Rd Finest.” It was a show of support that left Alo emotional and appreciative.

“It’s surreal being back here… really a full-circle moment,” Alo paused and teared up as her voice cracked with the emotion of the moment. “I grew up 4 years old just hitting balls with my dad on this field and now I get to give back to you guys. I’m so grateful to be here and to inspire Hawaii kids too. I want you to dream this big too and I want you to go farther than I have.”

It was truly a full-circle moment, one that Alo had been preparing for her whole college career.

“It’s been a role that I have kind of learned to take on as I’ve grown up,” Alo said of being a leader and a role model. “As a freshman until now, there is no way

freshman Jocelyn could have taken on a role model type thing vs me now. I’m such a different player and person now. It’s huge to inspire the girls and I feel like this is going to continue to have the Hawaii girls to continue to elevate their game.”

THE MOMENT

After hitting her 95th homerun, Alo went nine games and three calendar weeks without a homerun, one of the longest droughts in her career. It was frustrating but she was still hitting the ball hard. Despite the 16 walks in 30 plate appearances since tying the mark, Alo was hitting .428 during that stretch and had several balls that looked like the record breaker off the bat.

But then, late in the game against Hawaii the moment came. In the 6th inning with Grace Lyons standing on 3rd, one out and the Sooners on top 7-0, Jocelyn Alo hit number 96.

“I knew what I wanted for the most part,” Alo said of her 5th at-bat of the game. “It was 2-0. I was looking for something hard and got it over the plate. I knew the adjustments I had to make from my previous at-bats, so I went in and made the adjustments and the ball happened to go over the wall.”

It was a prodigious blast that bounced midway up the netting in right center field. The stadium exploded in cheers and flat-out pandemonium. The hometown girl did it. Jocelyn Alo was the new home run queen in college softball. Fans who had waited in line all day for a chance to see this moment were rewarded.

“I didn’t hear anyone in the moment... but I listened back to it on video, and it was an explosion,” Alo said of the trip around the bases after 96. “Rounding the bases, I saw a whole bunch of family that had been there since day one. I couldn’t even find my dad because he was rounding everyone up to come to the field. We got to hug, and he was telling me how proud he was of me. That’s my best friend, there is not much more to say. He’s been there since day one. He believed in me before I believe in myself.”

Alo had only one hope or even desire in the countdown to the record-breaking moment… she wanted her dad to be at the game. On March 11, 2022, at close to midnight central time, not only was her dad there but her entire family was as well to celebrate history. Hawaii coach Bob Coolen presented a lei to Jocelyn and the crowd gave a standing ovation to the pitcher Ashley Murphy as she exited the game.

“I will remember and cherish this forever. God had his hands on how this all played out,” Head coach Patty Gasso said. “The fact that it all played out on this field and that she had won state championships here. Friends and her family can be here. Everything about it was storybook and it was very special.”

“It’s home run U baby. That’s it,” Lauren Chamberlain said of the mark. “Thinking about Tiare (Jennings) coming up right behind Jocelyn and just the potential of it. When you rewrite the record books and it looks like all OU at the top, that’s something to say. Shout out to Coach Gasso.”

After a frustrating three weeks, it all paid off in the most storybook way possible. Jocelyn Aloha Pumehana Alo is the new home run queen in college softball, and she did it in her home state in front of all her family, friends and fans.

“What hit me was that it’s another bookmark in history for women sports in general. This is a win for all of us,” Alo said after breaking the record. “People are going to have to pay attention because look at the things we can do. That has definitely hit me... It’s a win for softball and for women’s sports.”-BSM