Submitted Photo Pictured above is Mary Ann Herrington, left, with her daughter, Roxie, at the college softball World Series in Oklahoma City.

We came. We saw. We loved it!

That about sums up the “Oklahoma City Experience” my daughter Roxie Herrington Polichetti and I thoroughly enjoyed during the first week of June. When I would mention to friends and relatives that we were going to Oklahoma City, the response was always “Why?” But diehard college softball fans know better.

It’s the NCAA Division I Women’s College World Series and before we even left for the Cleveland airport, I had already made three wishes.

The first was for a smooth, uneventful flight so my fear of flying wouldn’t kick in. Not to be taken lightly since we were flying Southwest not so long after the most tragic flight in that airline’s history. Wish granted.

Having watched these games on ESPN for years, my second wish was for good weather. Oklahoma City is notorious for tornadoes, violent thunderstorms and torrential downpours this time of year, and in particular, during the annual World Series event. In 2013, a monster tornado interrupted the games as the players sought shelter. A fan we met said he had been coming to the games for four years and the city had been hit with some sort of wild weather each time.

Another wish granted. The worst Roxie and I experienced was oppressive heat and humidity during a string of sunny days. Our first afternoon there, the “feel-like” temperature was a sweltering 106 degrees. We both breathed a sigh of relief three days later when the shuttle bus driver informed us that “today is going to be really hot instead of insanely hot.”

My third wish was one I kept repeating: “I just want to see a team win the championship that has never won it before.”

Of the eight teams that continued on the road to Oklahoma City in 2018, three had never felt the thrill of victory there – Georgia, Oregon and Florida State. The double elimination continued as we took in eight games in three days with the locals hoping for a three-peat by the Oklahoma Sooners. Georgia was the first team eliminated. Oregon was the No. 1 seed going in, but couldn’t hang on.

Thankfully, the No. 2-seeded Florida Gators, the team we love to hate, was shown the door, as was Oklahoma. The last thing I wanted as I checked this off my bucket list was to see Oklahoma win it a third time in a row or the Gators win it for the third time in six years. Bring on the underdog.

And then there were two.

The Washington Huskies and the Florida State Seminoles would square off for the bragging rights as the best college softball team in 2018. What a thrill it was for me and Roxie to get a close-up view of the two super-elite pitchers warming up in the bullpen. Roxie had been a softball pitcher herself for 13 years which only added to the excitement.

I happened to catch on television an emotion-filled speech by the coach of the Florida State Seminoles baseball team whose quest for the championship was ended by a walk-off home run by their opponent after a lengthy rain delay.

“This hurts. This really hurts,” he lamented. My thought: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the girls could bring home a championship to that university!

Bring it home they did – and in convincing fashion.

The Seminoles had lost their first game on Thursday and ESPN commentators were quick to point out that in the 36-year history of the Women’s College World Series, only two teams who lost on opening day battled back to win it all. In order to accomplish this feat, the losing team first has to win doubleheaders on both Saturday and Sunday – a grueling task similar in difficulty, I’m sure, to a horse winning the Triple Crown.

Kudos to Florida State. They knocked off Washington 1-0 in a pitcher’s duel Monday, then swept the series with an 8-3 slugfest Tuesday, winning six games in a row and leaving us with a free day to explore Oklahoma on Wednesday. My final wish became a reality.

While in Oklahoma, we found time to take in the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, which contains every last thing connected to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the federal building. A must-see for people from Western New York since the bomber, Tim McVeigh, hailed from Pendleton.

Other points of interest included the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and Gabriella’s Restaurant, an authentic Italian restaurant the likes of which I had not experienced since visiting Little Italy in New York City in 1986. Also, a quick snapshot of this Baby Boomer “getting her kicks on Route 66” was in order as I gleefully posed next to that famous highway sign.

While standing in line at the stadium for the last game, I was mesmerized by a young girl’s t-shirt with the saying, “Well, I’ve never been to heaven, but I’ve been to Oklahoma,” on the back. Shades of longtime Dunkirk resident and Three Dog Night lead singer, the late Cory Wells, came roaring back. I instantly recognized the line from Cory’s smash ’70s hit, “Never Been to Spain.”

And yes, I bought one.