The Stanford softball team forged a new identity in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It was early March and the Cardinal had just lost an extra-inning game to DePaul. Looking to re-energize her team, junior pitcher Tatum Boyd introduced a cheer that she remembered from her travel ball days.

We got a rally going, Ooshka, Ooskha. Nothing you can do about it, Ooshka, Ooshka.

With that chant filling the dugout, the Cardinal won their next two games, run-ruling Minnesota to cap the road trip. They felt different.

"We've never really been a cheering team," said junior pitcher Alana Vawter. "But we were doing good and we had the energy, and then it just kind of stuck."

First it was Ooshka Energy, then came the Ooshka Hat.

When the Cardinal returned to California, Boyd grabbed a pink cowgirl hat from Gabi Peters' locker and slapped an Ooshka label on it.

Had a big game? You get the Ooshka Hat.

Eventually, more and more cowgirl hats popped up in the dugout. Their version of a rally cap.

"One cowgirl hat turned into about 700 cowgirl hats," Vawter said.

"Now we're the Ooshka Team."

It may sound like a silly superstition but second baseman Sydnee Huff said it’s made a “huge difference.”

Hard to argue when the Cardinal are now two wins away from the Women's College World Series.

"One, it just makes it so much more fun," Huff said. "We feel more connected with each other when we're in the dugout and we're doing our synchronized cheering and it just brings so much energy and it brings a lot of confidence to our team. I think those two things are super important for our team, so we're just really enjoying it."

The nation is, too. Stanford has been one of the feel-good stories of this NCAA Tournament.

The Cardinal beat No. 6 Alabama in Tuscaloosa last weekend to reach Super Regionals for the first time since 2011.

They are one of two unseeded teams hosting this round, and they can thank Oregon State for that.

The Beavers won two elimination games to beat No. 11 Tennessee in the Knoxville Regional, setting up an all-Pac-12 Super Regional at Stanford this weekend.

Cardinal players and coaches watched the end of Oregon State's win from their hotel's restaurant in Alabama. There was a deafening cheer when the Beavers recorded the final out.

"We're like, this is what we were working towards. Like, it's all falling into place now," Huff said. "We're just so happy about that."

Stanford loves playing at home, where pink is aplenty. The Cardinal are 19-6 at Smith Family Stadium, with series wins over Arizona State and UCLA, the top two teams in the Pac-12.

It's a cavernous ballpark with tall walls and Stanford knows how to take advantage of it, leaning on its speed, defense and pitching to win low-scoring games.

Vawter (25-12, 1.88 ERA), Regan Krause (11-4, 1.74 ERA) and Molly Millar (1.99 ERA) proved once again in Alabama that they can go pitch for pitch with anyone.

And behind them is a defense that is so dazzling that even opposing fans have come to appreciate it.

Earlier in the season, Huff, who head coach Jessica Allister claims is the best defender in the country, received a standing ovation in Washington after making a diving stop.

.@sydneehuff with the standing ovation from the Washington crowd 👏👏

We know who deserves the #RawlingsGoldGloveAward!@NFCAorg | @RawlingsSB pic.twitter.com/MF9VnCS6zr

— Stanford Softball (@StanfordSball) May 1, 2022

It's plays like that that allow Vawter and company to pitch with ultimate freedom.

They know that if the ball gets put in play, their defense will pick them up.

"Everybody in the crowd is like, 'oh my gosh,' and [I'm] just like, 'they make those every day in practice,'" Vawter said.

Even Vawter flashes the leather now and then, snaring comebackers with a cat-like reflex.

Some pitchers loathe defensive drills. Stanford's love them.

"You're telling me it's not fun? You should see our pitchers field ground balls (at practice)," Vawter laughed. "We literally all run out to the field...and we just start screaming from the very beginning and we never stop."

While Stanford takes obvious joy in preventing runs, scoring them has been a challenge at times.

The Cardinal are last in the Pac-12 in scoring and homers. (Partly because of their ballpark.)

They know they need to string together quality at-bats to put up crooked numbers. Singles, walks, sac flies, whatever it takes.

"Offense is a finicky skill set," Allister said. "And when you're talking about trying to avoid the highs and lows, that's where it's at."

Interestingly enough, one of those lows came against the same Oregon State team that Stanford is hosting this weekend.

The Cardinal only scored one run in three games against the Beavers in mid-March, dropping the series in Corvallis.

Huff said her team lacked confidence that weekend.

Vawter thought they were worn out from an arduous road trip. Stanford played in a tournament in Missouri the weekend before and got snowed out in Nebraska a couple days before arriving in Corvallis.

"We definitely didn't have it," Vawter said.

The Cardinal are convinced the rematch will be different.

They have scored 29 runs in their last five games, including 12 against No. 6 Alabama, winning a pair of 6-0 games that, as Vawter put it, "put Stanford softball in a lot of people's minds."

"We are a completely different team than we were in that first series against (Oregon State)," Huff said. "I see all the girls around me and we have the confidence to swing hard at any pitch. And regardless of the outcome, we're not afraid to do that. So I think everyone's getting into their stride now at the perfect time. Something flipped in us."

Vawter knows what it was.

"I don't think we had cowgirl hats then," she said. "It's a different vibe now, so we're really excited to be able to play them at our home field this time around."