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Fort Myers High’s Riley Ludlam ends softball career with victory in the Oklahoma World Series

VaselineJune 19, 2024

0 6 minutes read

Fort Myers High’s Riley Ludlam ends softball career with victory in the Oklahoma World Series

When Riley Ludlam won a state championship in Fort Myers in 2017, she felt like she had reached the top of the mountain.

If you had told the then high school sophomore that she was just getting started, she would never have believed you.

But in her final year of collegiate softball, Ludlam again reached the pinnacle as Oklahoma won the Women’s College World Series, defeated No. 1 Texas and helped the Sooners win their fourth consecutive title.

“I am filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude,” Ludlam said. “I know very few people even get to experience a high school state championship, let alone the College World Series. So the fact that I had to do both, both ended up working for me. I don’t know how to do that .” explain it differently than happiness. It really shouldn’t be that I ended up doing both things. But I think it comes back to having a genuine love for the sport, and I love the girls that I have. I’ve played with it my whole career.”

But luck had nothing to do with it. After graduating from Fort Myers in 2019 (and winning a few regional titles along the way), the catcher continued her playing career at Furman, where she continued to grow as a player.

In her first year in Greenville, she was an All-Southern Conference First-Teamer and led the Paladins in home runs (7), RBI (35) and doubles (15) with a slugging percentage of .497. In her senior campaign, she was named SoCon Player of the Year while posting a .372 batting average with 10 home runs, 41 RBI and 15 doubles – all with a .988 fielding percentage, while making just two errors in 168 chances behind the plate.

While Ludlam starred for Furman, the Paladins had a 68-112 record in her four years there. Ludlam didn’t expect to end her career at a program as storied as Oklahoma. But the Sooners coaching staff liked what they saw in the graduate transfer and told her they wanted to make the most of her senior year.

“So basically the whole summer I thought I wasn’t going to Oklahoma,” Ludlam said. “So when (head coach Patty Gasso) called, and I arrived and started the season, I thought, ‘Holy crap, we’re going to the World Series. This is going to happen.’ I never in a million years thought I would be lucky enough to end up there.”

It took Ludlam about a month to get used to life in Norman. From the facilities to the program’s regiment and the hype surrounding the softball program, she found herself in a whole new world.

“There were a lot of things I had to get used to,” said Ludlam, who hit .318 with 3 home runs, 23 runs scored and 20 RBI for the Sooners. “More exercises, more weights, more in-depth conversations about sleep and hydration, things like that. Which I really appreciated. At my previous school I didn’t get as much attention for that kind of thing, so that was nice.”

“But I also had to adjust things off the field, even the number of people watching our games,” she continued. “I know it might not sound like a big deal, but I went from having about 50 parents in the stands to Love’s Field, which holds about 4,500. It was a big jump, that’s for sure… In the end, I really all the parents embraced because I know (Gasso) just wants the best for me.”

As Oklahoma advanced through the regular season and the Big 12 Tournament, they collided with Texas for the conference title.

The Sooners earned a 5–1 victory over the top-ranked Longhorns, but entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed behind Texas despite just eliminating them from the Big 12 Championship.

Oklahoma took care of business in the Norman Regional, defeating Cleveland State and Oregon en route to a Super Regional matchup with No. 15 Florida State. Ludlam says playing at Love’s Field all year has helped her prepare for a super-regional atmosphere, which was essentially a home game for the Sooners.

“No other stadium has a capacity of 4,500 people, but we do,” she said. “So our home games would almost be like a super regional environment. That definitely helped us prepare better than other Power-Five teams. But knowing that a trip to the World Series is on the line and that’s the softball dream from every little girl, there were a lot of nerves… We do a lot of preparation work for dealing with that kind of environment, dealing with your inner self for those big moments walk and see almost 5,000 people looking right back at you.”

In the World Series, the Sooners defeated No. 10 Duke and No. 6 UCLA. No. 4 Florida made the elimination bracket and pushed Oklahoma to a second game, but an eighth-inning walk-off home run by Jayda Coleman sent the Sooners to their fourth straight College World Series final.

On the other side of the game awaited Texas, a team that college softball fans believed had the best chance of avoiding an Oklahoma four-peat.

In Game 1, the Sooners put most of these beliefs aside with an 8-3 victory. Ludlam took the field with the victory and said the atmosphere was nothing like anything she had ever experienced.

“It honestly took a whole minute for my eyes to adjust to what I was looking at,” she said. “It was weird, you feel the crowd when you’re in the dugout, but once you get out there it’s just you against the pitcher. You don’t feel the heaviness of everyone around you. But I tried to take the time and just look around and realize that this is what I’ve been working for my entire career. To be here on this stage, to be on a program like this, I just felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I was able to achieve that at all.”

In Game 2, the Longhorns pulled within striking distance. In the top of the sixth inning, Oklahoma held on to a 5-4 lead. That was until the Sooners scored three runs on a pair of singles in the bottom of the sixth. Ludlam said it took all the mental strength available in the Oklahoma dugout not to start celebrating too early.

“You just sit there like a little kid, waiting for the doors to open so you can just sprint out,” she said. “I honestly couldn’t keep my focus very well to be honest. I was helping Coach Rocha with the pitching log, so that helped a little bit. I knew I really had to pay attention because we can’t screw this up.” Now we need to know what we’re throwing at those hitters. I think the girls behind me had made it worse. It all would have gone well, but they were talking about who’s running out and in what order My god, right. The moment I’ve been waiting for my entire career is about to be here. What the hell am I supposed to do?’

Then it happened. Three up, three down for Texas, and Ludlam’s lifelong dream had finally come true. All the extra effort finally paid off in the most storybook ending possible. Ludlam was a World Series champion.

“It’s definitely by far the best moment of my career,” she said. “I’ve been playing since I was 9, so I don’t regret training every day in the summer all those years and sometimes not even being able to go to homecoming because of softball. I’m so grateful that it ended up this way, knowing that I don’t regret it.”

A state title in high school and a World Series ring for Ludlam round out one of the more complete resumes for a Southwest Florida softball player in recent memory.

“If I hadn’t had those Fort Myers Green Wave days or something like that, I don’t think I would have even gotten here,” she said. “I think in those younger years I learned to really love the sport, and that’s why I kept showing up to practice every day, because I just love softball. And I never got on the field and was like, ‘Ugh, let’s get this’.” done with.’ I really love it, and that’s what kept me going and going, and I think that’s one of the main reasons I ended up in Oklahoma and ended up having a great time. Because I just really love being on the field. I’m grateful to be able to say that it ended this way, and I don’t regret anything in my career over the years. That’s a very strange thing to say out loud.”

VaselineJune 19, 2024

0 6 minutes read

Vaseline

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