Whether it’s Omaha or Oklahoma City, every athlete that competes on the diamond has their sights set on participating in the College World Series.
The historic and prestigious event began on the men’s side in 1947 before softball created its own version for the 1969 season.
Ever since, reaching the picturesque settings that are Charles Schwab Field or Devon Park have been lifelong dreams for athletes across the country, and that was certainly the case for Parklane’s Alana Johnson.
Championship Pedigree
As a former Lady Pioneer, Johnson is accustomed to winning.
Parklane’s softball program is renowned as one of the best in the state when it comes to producing collegiate talent and claiming championships, and to little surprise, Johnson played a role in maintaining that tradition of success.
While in high school she was a 5x All-State performer, 2x MAIS Player of the Year, a 2022 MAIS All-Star, a 2x team captain and a 3x MAIS State Champion, which are just a handful of the many accolades she earned.
Thus, winning came second nature to Johnson, and she believes that the work ethic and values instilled in her from the Lady Pioneer program set her up for success on even bigger stages down the line.
“I feel like our regiment at Parklane was very high-level for a high school team,” Johnson said. “The culture of success that was around the program made it one of the greatest times of my life, because winning championships with some of my best friends I grew up playing with was amazing.”
Johnson also thanks the Parklane coaching staff for allowing her to be herself and flourish as a leader, adding that she’s been able to use many of the lessons she learned while she was with the program during her college years.
Summit to Seattle
After putting together a high school résumé that most athletes could only dream of, Johnson committed to the University of Washington, which is where her cousin played football.
As a Lady Husky, Johnson immediately made an impact as a freshman, appearing in 42 games and ranking fourth on the team in home runs while also earning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors at one point. During that 2023 season, UW qualified for the World Series and finished with a 44-15 overall record, but the team fell short against Stanford in its third WCWS game.
The 2024 campaign saw Johnson start all 47 games as a sophomore, and she was named to the All-Pac-12 Second Team after batting .330 and racking up 13 home runs and 40 RBIs.
But after the Lady Huskies fell in the Columbia regional to close the season, Johnson opted to enter the transfer portal in hopes of teaming up with other stars to make a national-title push.
A year to remember
Lubbock, Texas, isn’t renowned as one of America’s most attractive or entertaining cities, but that was just fine for Johnson and her portal mate NiJaree Canady, who was transferring in from Stanford as one of the most sought-after pitchers available.
Those two joined a handful of transfers from Louisiana-Lafayette, a group of players Johnson was familiar with given the fact that her Huskies had faced the Ragin’ Cajuns in the 2023 Super Regionals.
The newcomers had their sights set on building upon their success at prior stops, and with them joining a strong returning cast, the Lady Red Raiders had a team capable of reaching the program’s first NCAA Tournament since 2019.
Johnson & Co. did just that, as they largely cruised through a challenging non-conference schedule before ripping off a 20-4 record in Big 12 play.
“When I got in the portal, I still wanted to be on a team that was really competitive, and my goal was to compete for a national championship,” Johnson explained. “With the girls we had coming in and what they had returning, I felt like we would have a good shot. Especially with NiJaree [Canady] being there, because pitching is an important piece if you want to make it far in the postseason.”
Following a Big 12 Tournament in which Texas Tech out-scored its three opponents by a combined margin of 26-0 to claim the title, the team then emerged from the Lubbock Regional by beating Brown and Mississippi State (twice).
Making their first-ever Super Regional appearance, the Lady Red Raiders swept Florida State in a gutsy road performance, moving them on to the Women’s College World Series.
And while Texas Tech was a well-balanced team that received plenty of strong contributions, Johnson was its do-it-all star. The utility player appeared in 64 games and batted .318 with 49 hits and 46 RBIs, and she also tied for second on the team with nine home runs and stole 14 bases.
The CWS Experience
At either venue, the College World Series is a spectacle to behold.
Diehard sports spectators from a variety of fan bases flock to the great Midwest in order to celebrate the game they love, and it always creates a memorable scene that is full of passion and intensity.
Johnson, unlike most of her TTU teammates, was actually familiar with the CWS’ unique atmosphere even before she made her first trip as a player in 2023.
When Johnson was 11 years old, the family of a travel-ball teammate invited her to join them in Oklahoma City for the event, and she took them up on the offer.
At a Fan Fest activity, Johnson was compelled to write a sign that she could hold up during the game.
It read: “Hey Mom and Dad, you’ll be watching me play here in a few years.”
Her mother Kosheya secretly kept the sign stashed away, and when her daughter made that claim come true, she surprised her by bringing it to OKC in both ’23 and ’25.
“It was just a reminder to her because I knew that she loved softball but I didn’t know how far that would go,” Kosheya said during a recent TV interview. “So she didn’t even know it was rolled up in her room all those years, but her love and commitment for the sport grew. I know what she’s put into this craft, so to see her get something back that she wanted is special.”
And when Johnson and her teammates achieved that lifelong dream, they made sure their experience lasted as long as possible.
The team started its CWS run by beating Ole Miss 1-0 to stay out of the double-elimination loser’s bracket. A fourth-inning double from Johnson down the left-field line scored the lone run of the game.
Then Texas Tech managed to upend UCLA by a score of 3-1 two days later, putting it in the driver’s seat to qualify for the championship series. With the way the CWS works, a team that won its first two games would have to be defeated twice by a squad that already lost in order to be eliminated.
Texas Tech waited to learn who would take a shot at pulling the two-game upset, and four-time defending champions Oklahoma ended up being the opponent.
Needing just one win in two tries to advance, Johnson & Co. silenced the Sooner dynasty with a narrow 3-2 win in their first meeting, propelling them to an in-state rivalry matchup with Texas for the WCWS Championship. The former Lady Pioneer notably crossed home on a second-inning double to open the game’s scoring.
Facing the Lady Longhorns in a best-of-three series, the Lady Red Raiders held a 1-0 lead in Game One, but a two-run single in the sixth inning allowed Texas to scrape out a 2-1 victory.
Staring at a must-win scenario in Game Two, Texas Tech broke a scoreless draw with a two-run fifth inning, and it tacked on a pair in the sixth before holding on for a 4-3 victory. In this meeting, Johnson earned the opening run for her team the hard way by taking a pitch to the leg with the bases loaded, prompting a boisterous cheer from famous TTU alum Patrick Mahomes.
Thus, everything was on the line Friday night in a winner-take-all Game Three, the first in the WCWS since 2021.
But this time around, Texas used a five-run opening inning to take control of the game, and a final score of 10-4 gave the Lady Longhorns their first World Series title.
Despite falling short in the closing moments, Johnson and Texas Tech have nothing to hang their heads about. They provided a flourishing athletic department with a crown jewel of an achievement, as this campaign will rank among the greatest seasons in the softball program’s history and was capped by a thrilling yet largely dominant postseason run.
“The biggest thing I’ll remember is that Tech softball hasn’t ever really been known as a winning program, and so all of us transfers and the people who stayed wanted to do something that hadn’t been done there before,” Johnson said. “I feel like we were able to set a foundation to be respected across the nation and established ourselves as one of the best softball programs.”
When looking back on the whirlwind that was the CWS, Johnson felt plenty of fulfillment from reaching the sport’s grandest stage again, and she credits her family and community back home for helping get her there.
“First of all Glory to God, because that’s the only way all of these things would come together for us to be able to make it that far,” Johnson said. “It just felt really surreal having been there 10 years prior, writing that sign and then seeing it all come to fruition. Knowing all the hard work I put in to get there and all the support I received from my village as a whole, it was super surreal.”
Johnson’s senior season now awaits, and she will look to continue excelling on the diamond as many of her teammates return to pursue that elusive national title.
But she also acknowledges that she has now joined the ranks of Pike County’s many athletic role models, and she hopes that there will be plenty more Alana Johnsons to come out of Pike County in the future.
“I just want to keep having fun playing the game I’ve always played, continuing to show the little girls and boys from Mississippi that no matter where you’re from and what your background is like, you can dream big,” Johnson said. “You just have to work hard to achieve those dreams.”
In the long-term, Johnson aims to attend medical school once her days in Lubbock come to an end.
