‘Even If’: OU Softball’s spiritual message anchors team through pressure cooker

As OU’s Ella Parker rounded the bases after her walk-off home run against Tennessee, a subtle but powerful gesture followed. Players held up four fingers. It’s become a viral image, and many fans are asking: why four?

A Viral Gesture With Deeper Meaning

The answer, says OU softball team chaplain Sarah Roberts, is rooted in Scripture — and in faith over fear.

“This is my 20th season to be with them,” Roberts said. “And so, yeah, we keep on playing on.”

The Story Behind the “Fourth Man”

Roberts said the team’s symbolic “four” originates from the Old Testament story in Daniel, chapter 3, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar’s idol and were thrown into a fiery furnace.

“They said, ‘We believe our God can rescue us from this fire. But even if He doesn’t, we will not bow down to the statue,” Roberts explained.

The pressure of performance, especially for a team chasing a legacy of five straight national titles, weighed heavily on this year’s squad.

“These girls are under so much pressure from the world, from social media, to perform. And they were really being driven by fear,” Roberts said. “So we just, after so much prayer, and I asked the Lord, what do they need? And He said, they need faith, not fear.”

From “What If” to “Even If”

From there, the team embraced a new mindset: exchanging “what if” for “even if.”

“Even if I don’t get a hit, God is still good. Even if we don’t win, God is still with me,” she said. “Sometimes God doesn’t rescue us from the fire. He walks with us in it.”

She said when King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the flames, he saw not three men, but four — and the fourth, Scripture says, “looked like a god.”

“We know that the fourth man in the fire with them was the Lord,” Roberts said. “And we believe that our strength comes from our fourth man in the fire. Good or bad, win or loss, it comes from the Lord.”

Releasing the Pressure of Performance

Roberts has seen the message help players detach their identity from their stat lines.

“It has really given up the pressure of performance, that if they do well, the world loves them,” she said. “But we are showing them that no matter what they do on the field, there’s nothing they can do that God can love them any less. And there’s nothing they can do to make God love them any more.”

She said that reassurance has been critical for a roster full of newcomers stepping into the shoes of stars like Jada Coleman, Kinzie Hansen, and Tiare Jennings.

Faith Over Fame

“At the beginning of the season, I sat down and asked, What do you need? A lot of them were saying, ‘How do we live up to the names that came before us?’” Roberts said.

In response, she led the team in a season-long Bible study of unnamed but faithful figures in Scripture, including the Shunammite woman and the Samaritan woman.

“Maybe, just maybe, our name isn’t what’s supposed to be remembered, but our faith,” Roberts said. “So we kind of put that behind, trying to build a name for ourselves, and said, we’re going to be known by our faith, not our name.”

A Timely Message for a Tired Team

As the Sooners face elimination Monday night and must win two straight against Texas Tech, Roberts will hold one more chapel at 2 p.m.

“I feel like the Lord is leading, I’ve got to meet them where they are,” she said. “And they’re tired. Every person right now is tired, no matter what team, Oklahoma or [Texas Tech]. So we’re going to meet them right there.”

She said today’s study will come from the book of Acts, the story of Eutychus.

“He was in the right place at the right time. And he just got tired. And God met him there too.”