OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR) – Enthusiasm, anticipation and maybe even some butterflies filled the thousands of fans who poured into USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium on Wednesday for the Women’s College World Series Finals.
“I can’t tell you how excited and how nervous I am because this is a matchup,” said Denise Downing. “This is a matchup.”
One woman who took two of her granddaughters to their first game Wednesday told KFOR, “It’s special. In fact, I’ve almost got tears in my eyes.”
On Wednesday, the top-ranked Sooners battled the Florida State Seminoles in the first game of the best of three series.
Adam Wisniewski, the VP of sports for Visit OKC said so far, the turnout for the tournament has been a grand slam.
“We’re setting attendance records left and right,” said Wisnieweski. “They’re higher than they’ve ever seen before. Currently, we’ve had about 86,000 people walk through the gates already and we’re just now getting to the big games.”
He said they’re on track to beat last year’s number of attendees, which was 110,000 and could break the all-time record.
“If we have a third and final championship game, we’re going to shatter the all-time attendance record, which would be incredibly exciting for Oklahoma City as a community,” said Wisniewski.
Many of those fans traveled far and wide to catch Wednesday’s game. KFOR talked to people who traveled from Florida, Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky.
Rhonda Hayes, from Florida and Tammy Dickinson, from Louisiana said they’ve been wanting to check coming to OKC for a game off of their bucket list for years.
“Every year we watch it and go ‘Oh, my gosh, the whole thing!’” said Hayes. “But this year we said, ‘You know what? Let’s go.’”
They’re hoping their Seminoles can at least pull off one win.
“They may not win the national championship, but they can beat Oklahoma at least once,” said Hayes. “I didn’t drive all the way from Florida for them not to.”
Meanwhile OU fans are confident in the defending champs.
“Oh, I think they’ll win,” said Lori Blevins.
Game 2 will be played Thursday, and if necessary, game 3 is set for Friday.