Tiare Jennings readied for the pitch. The ball skied into right field off the bat, and Jennings read it like a book. Jennings backpedaled into deep right field and secured the catch, although she wasn’t playing right field.

Jennings had run from second base into the outfield to make the grab.

“I knew what good players were,” said Mike Stith, the head of the Orange County Batbusters travel ball organization and longtime coach of Jennings as he watched the then-11-year-old in the Premier Girls Fastpitch Tournament in Orange County, California in 2014. “And when I watched her make that play, I knew that, OK, now this is a special player.”

Eight years later, on a bigger stage, she did it again and her old coach was not surprised. Racing back from second base to shallow right field, the Sooner freshman made the second out of the 2021 Women’s College World Series against James Madison on Thursday. The Sooners will need her best, as they’re tasked with winning four games in two days to advance to the national championship series Monday after becoming the third No. 1 seed to ever lose the first game of the WCWS.

There's your 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 making plays early 💥@_tiarejennings | 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/w06PvHjGHj

— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 3, 2021

She was the lone bright spot on perhaps the potent offense’s worst game to date this season, as OU scored just three runs — its lowest this season — with two hits and all three RBIs on a third inning home run. 

💥 𝐓𝐈𝐄 𝐔𝐒 𝐔𝐏 𝐓𝐈𝐀 💥@_tiarejennings launches the first pitch she sees for her 2️⃣6️⃣th homer of the year!B3 | OU 3, JMU 3 | 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/ZuuyEyuHmP

— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) June 3, 2021

Now, Jennings was unanimously named an NFCA First-Team All-American and tabbed with NFCA Freshman of the Year, leading off for perhaps the best offense in college softball history. Jennings boasts a .486 batting average, 26 home runs, 87 RBIs and 22 doubles, each of which rank top five in the nation among Division I players. 

Jennings carries herself with a calm demeanor. Despite the production, her parents, Ignacio and Maria, described her with a competitive mindset that doesn’t get portrayed on the outside. 

It’s why, despite being a freshman and joining a team that went 20-4 during the shortened 2020 season due to COVID-19, she had an instant impact. Jennings debuted her Sooners career with a blistering 12-for-13 start, including five home runs in four games.

“She just kinda went about her business and you felt that,” OU coach Patty Gasso said after Jennings’ first weekend of the season at the Miner Invitational in El Paso, Texas. “That was the beauty of it. … She just went out and felt confident and she gets it. She’s a pretty mature freshman.”

Jennings doesn’t fold under the pressure. Her “concern for the greater good,” as Stith describes it, allows her to provide the offensive firepower that OU needs for its fifth national championship. 

Her tranquility was displayed postgame after the Sooners’ 4-3 upset loss against James Madison in the first game of the Women’s College World Series. Jennings was focused on moving past it and learning from the mistakes when JMU pitcher and NFCA Second Team All-American Odicci Alexander struck out OU nine times. 

“Whether you’re a banker or a bricklayer, the hardest working person is going to win,” Stith said. “And that’s what Tiare has grown with. She has gone above and beyond what it takes to be good.

“She’s become great.”

'She was very gifted'

Maria remembers taking 4-year-old Jennings to their local park, in their Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro. 

Maria and Ignacio would set up the tee, placing the small wiffle ball right where she could attack it. Jennings was then handed the plastic bat.

The rest was history for her.

“She would just smack the crap out of the ball,” Maria said. “We always knew that at a very young age she was very gifted.” 

However, half a year later, in her first soccer game of her life, Jennings scored six goals. Ignacio thought she would’ve been a Division I athlete in any sport she chose.

Although the softball talent was already there, it wasn’t until fifth grade that Jennings chose softball over soccer. Ignacio and Maria made her choose between the two, as she was already playing travel ball for both sports and the time commitment was too large. 

Ignacio credited her love for the game as what drove her to choose softball.

Jennings’ hard work started to show after shifting all her focus to softball as she got older. Jennings would travel 45 minutes to Santa Ana on Mondays for fielding clinics, followed by more fielding practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with coaches closer to home that she’d follow up with hitting afterward. Then, on Thursdays, batting practice continued before her only day off on Friday before weekend games on Saturday and Sunday. 

Jennings started to get recruited by colleges in eighth grade. She always thought UCLA would be her future school; it was her parents’ favorite team and the local school, and Jennings, Maria and Ignacio had already built relationships with the coaching staff. 

Although hesitant at first because she thought she’d be a Bruin, Jennings attended her first camp at OU in the fall. She met Sooners head coach Patty Gasso for the first time, toured the facilities and participated in her first practices in front of the coaching staff. 

“'I want to go to Oklahoma,'” Maria and Ignacio recalled Jennings telling them after the camp. “'There are no other options.'”

Despite keeping her options open and attending an Arizona camp shortly after, Jennings’ choice was still Norman. She re-visited Norman on Mother’s Day 2016 and later decided to commit. 

“I was sending her YouTube videos of tornadoes,” Ignacio said about convincing her to stay home. “I tried everything in my power to make her not come here.”

Like typical parents would, Maria and Ignacio didn’t want to miss any of her future collegiate games. But when Jennings had a conversation with her parents, saying she’d attend UCLA if they wanted, but stated she’d be successful wherever she decided to go to school, again, her maturity flashed, pushing Maria and Ignacio’s opinion.

“When she said that, I was like, ‘You know what kid? You’re absolutely right,'” Ignacio said. “That’s how she’s always been.”

'She never missed an opportunity to work'

Jennings spent seven years in the famous Batbusters program before arriving at OU.

The program has produced some of the most talented players to play college softball. Current Sooners Taylon Snow, Jocelyn Alo, Kinzie Hansen, Alanna Thiede, Olivia Rains, Zaida Puni and Nicole May each graduated from Stith’s prestigious organization. Even former Sooner great Sydney Romero, who’s currently a student assistant at OU, is a Batbusters graduate.

Jennings even practiced fielding at shortstop with Snow, when Jennings was an eighth grader and Snow a junior in high school.

“I think a big part of this is her training,” Gasso said ahead of OU’s super regionals against Washington. “And how she was trained as a youngster with the Batbusters organization.”

When Jennings would play high school softball at the small-private school of St. Anthony in Long Beach, California, with just over 500 students enrolled according to Niche, it almost was too easy for her. 

Jennings had a .710 batting average in her shortened senior season due to COVID-19, and in just eight games, she hit six home runs. Jennings was an All-Stater as a freshman in high school and was named the 2019-20 Gatorade Player of the Year in California. 

“It was to the point where she was so good, I was almost expecting a home run every at-bat,” Ignacio said.

Stith credited Jennings’ success to her time with the Batbusters. But it wasn’t always easy. 

During her first season with the program, Stith moved Jennings from second base to shortstop. Instead of getting moved up to the better and older 14-and-under team within the organization like fellow Sooner Puni, Jennings stayed on the younger version of the roster. 

Her setback, which was attributed to her being able to develop and receive more playing time, pushed Jennings to work harder. UCLA utility Maya Brady, niece of NFL legend Tom Brady, was also a shortstop, which motivated her. 

“At that moment, Tiare felt slighted,” Ignacio said. “That was one of the things that drove her to get better.”

Which she did, Jennings later was added to the 18-and-under team at just 15 years old. 

“She was always at our facilities,” Stith said. “She never missed a fielding class. She never missed an opportunity to work. She kind of knew how to manage her work. There’s no question she had the mental capacity to handle it.”

Later, Jennings’ maturity manifested in OU’s WCWS game against James Madison, where the Sooners were hitless the first two innings and were down 3-0, and she tied the game with her home run in the third inning. The record WCWS crowd of over 11,000 in Oklahoma City and the run deficit didn’t get to Jennings.

She stepped up when she was needed most.

Stith also coached former NFCA First Team All-American Amanda Lorenz, the all-time batting average leader at Florida. Along with Romero, the two make up some of the best players to ever play for the Batbusters. 

Stith and Gasso remember the conversation they had together when Jennings was going through her recruitment. Gasso, who said she trusts Stith 100 percent, agreed that he was eventually completely right about Jennings’ future. 

“These are generational talents, and Tiare is in that mold,” Stith said when comparing Jennings to Lorenz and Romero. “This girl is going to be like (Lorenz). She’s a transcendent talent. She’s not going to flinch. It didn’t matter how big the stage was, they were going to perform the same. 

“Tiare is the same way.”

'She’s coming out of her shell'

Jennings knew she had to hit to get playing time in Gasso’s loaded offense when she arrived on campus. 

“If you hit, you’ll be on the field,” Ignacio said was Jennings’ mindset entering her freshman year. “Be one of the top nine and you’ll be on the field and that’s what really pushed her to do what she’s done.”

And hit is all she’s done since arriving. Jennings leads Division I with 87 RBIs, five more than Alo, who was the 2021 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, and has tied OU’s single-season home run record twice with 30. 

Jennings was moved to the lead-off spot in the lineup for the first game of the Norman Regional against Morgan State. She responded with a 4-for-4 showing with an NCAA regional record of three doubles. 

Even Jennings couldn’t have predicted her production this early in her career. Ignacio said she just looks for her pitches, and good things happen. 

Jennings’ shy personality, built around Stith’s ideology of “act like you’ve been here before,” has even blossomed into a fiery attitude, that’s displayed after she ropes a double and lets out a scream while floating her arms in the air toward the Sooners’ dugout. 

Her parents described themselves as outgoing personalities, so it was odd growing up for Jennings to be so within herself. They credited OU’s close-knit team and camaraderie to her evolution as a person. 

“She’s just coming out of her shell,” Maria said. “And she’s playing the game like she’s never played the game. I love to see the smile on her and her having this completely different energy and it’s animated.”

Stith said Gasso has allowed Jennings to play that way because of her maturity level.

“What you’re seeing is, (Gasso) has taught her to turn the corner as an adult of what’s acceptable and what’s not,” Stith said. “And she’s growing in that light, that’s all I think it is. It’s fun being one of the best players in the world, so I think she’s just showing it.”

Sometimes Gasso recruits a freshman knowing that it’s going to take development before they progress into the player that their potential shows. But that wasn’t the case for Jennings. 

Her instant impact hitting has contributed to OU’s team batting average of .417 after the James Madison game, which currently stands as the Division I record for a minimum of 1,000 at-bats as a team. As it stands now, OU is averaging 2.77 home runs per game, which would shatter Hawaii’s record of 2.39 set in 2010 and the Sooners have a .799 slugging percentage as a team, over .142 points higher than their record they set in 2015. 

Despite the lofty production, this isn’t a fluke for Jennings to do what she’s done. Jennings has taken her life-long “workman mentality” and used it as fuel to constantly improve. She’s used to exceeding expectations as she’s done her entire life. And for her and her closest peers, the job isn’t over. She still has three seasons left and a chance at a 2021 national championship. 

“She will repeat this performance again, this is not an aberration,” Stith said. “There’s good players all over the place, but there’s not championship players all over the place. And that’s what Tiare is. She walks a good light, and it follows her and she will keep going.

“She’ll keep doing this.”