Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. — This entire season has been a numbers game for the Oklahoma softball team, and the most impressive numbers continued in a methodical 9-0 win Saturday afternoon over No. 4 ranked Tennessee in the Women’s College World Series.
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The Sooners (58-1) extended their Division I winning streak to 50 straight.
They set a school record with 34y closing the season, surpassing the previous mark of 33 set last year.
They have now won 17 straight games in the last three seasons against Southeastern Conference opponents, which is the league they will join in the 2024-25 academic year.
They became the first team since Florida in 2017 to start the WCWS with back-to-back shutouts. It was only the third time this season that the 50 Volunteers had been eliminated.
OU’s next contest will be Monday at 11 a.m. BST against the winner of the 2 p.m. elimination game on Sunday between Stanford (46-14) and Florida State (56-9) or Washington (44-13).
With one more win, the Sooners will advance to the best-of-three National Championship Series for the fourth straight time and fifth time in the last six (there was no WCWS in 2020 due to COVID-19).
“So proud of this team and the way they played so flawlessly, offense, offense, fieldwork, all of them, at one point,” OU coach Patty Jasso He said then. “Defending the point. I mean, everything was exactly the way we hoped it would be. Very proud of this team. Really moving forward, having the day off (Sunday), recovering is really important.”
Soon to be a two-time First Team All-American righthander Jordi Bahl (20-1) hit the win, working in 3.2 innings and throwing only 54 pitches.
No Tennessee runner reached third base the entire game.
Meanwhile, OU scored all of its runs in the second and third innings, had at least one baserunner in each inning, but left the bases loaded in the first. Seven different sooners scored and eight of the nine starters reached base.
“It’s definitely not the way we wanted to play or expected to play today,” Tennessee coach Karen Weakley said after the game. “We weren’t there. At the same time, you have to give Oklahoma a lot of credit. They’re an exceptional team. We knew that. We knew we had to play a near-flawless game at every stage of the game to have a chance at winning. We didn’t. Do it, and you saw what happened.”
The Volunteers used four pitchers, none of whom was Asley Rogers (19-1; 0.83 ERA), who supposedly pitched against the Cowgirls on Sunday.
“Just exploring them, kind of watching a lot of other games where people were able to check the number as far as it was scored, I felt like Karlyn (Pickens) made a good option to start with,” Weekly explained. “I didn’t plan on having anyone in the whole game or letting them see anyone too many times. I thought that was another important thing in terms of just trying to keep their balance. We planned on throwing different people at them. The people we put there I thought they had pitches in their arsenal that It’s going to be more successful. We didn’t get carried away in a lot of those cases, but in the end that decision is up to me.”
The Sooners also used four pitchers, however Alex StorackoAnd Kierston deal And Nicole May He made appearances in relief just to step onto the field for the first time after Bahl opened with a complete game shutout against Stanford on Thursday afternoon. The foursome combined in a run base, one batter with three strikeouts.
“I really wanted to give everybody a chance to get up the hill. They just ran with it,” Jasso said afterwards.
The beginning of the end for Tennessee with two outs and two in the second came when OU’s second baseman Tiare Jennings He hit a drive over the fence at left center to give the Sooners a 3-0 lead.
“It’s all about fitting in,” Jennings said of her second hit. “I know my first batter got a bit jammed. I wanted to make a good adjustment. Two batters tried, two on, just hit the ball hard, and kept passing the bat. I got a good pitch, drove it, and finished up the business.”
Jennings’ explosion chased Vols’ Carlene Pickens (9-7), who was hitting a fastball at 75 mph, but had already thrown 48 pitches in 1.2 innings. By comparison, the Bahl 48 didn’t throw ity pitch until there was one in the top of the fourth.
In the bottom of the fourth, the senior catcher sooner Kinsey Hansen He hit a line-driven homer to left center that was hit harder and less than Jennings. Hansen’s two-run shot made it 5-0 and, again, promptly chased Tennessee’s second pitcher of the game.
“I think a lot of teams have a lot of different tactics to look at us every game,” Hansen said of Pickens starting in place of Rogers. “It was something that surprised us, but we’re excited about it. It’s a new challenge every day. We weren’t technically expecting it, but when it came in and we found out who started, who was coming in, and just the different strategies that people try to throw at us, we were really excited about this.” challenges, and that makes us progress better.”
Hansen made atonement for grounding with the bases loaded in the first inning.
“One thing about our team is that we don’t focus on results,” Hansen said. “Bat, pitch, pitch, we’re quick to make adjustments.”
Kylie Boone’s triple to left center later in the third brought the score to 7-0 with one out.
OU then scored on a wild home run with Jennings hitting for the second time in the inning. After a third change of field, Coleman scored on another wild pitch to make it 9-0, thus creating the possibility of a base run.
Sooner pinch hitter Sophia Nugent He was robbed of the single’s home run with two outs in the bottom of the fourth when Milloy hit the ball over the fence.
“For us, we replayed against us for this,” Jasso said of routinely facing the nation’s best player, including former World Cup finalist Valerie Cagle of Clemson in the Norman Super Regional. The Stanford Flamethrower Negare Canadie in the opening game to survive Thursday’s 2-0 win against Stanford.
“Those were tough fights for us,” said Jasso. “This group feels that if they can beat these shooters, they can beat everyone. So before we play, the mentality is that kind of wave that says, we’re ready, we’re ready for this. I think that’s really enabled us to have our Confidence to come here.”
Notes and numbers
• Bahl, Storako (0.2 IP), Deal (0.1), and May (0.1) combined to earn an OU program record 34th shutout of the season.
• The Crew surrendered just one hit in a match for the eighth time this season.
• OU scored six runs on four hits in the third inning to break the game open and coast to the team’s 28th base run win of 2023.
• Blast Jennings was fifth in the NCAA postseason play and 17th of the year, while Hansen notched her third in postseason play and 13th of the season.
• Jennings collected 26 runs batted in three WCWS games played (2021-23), just two RBIs shy of a former teammate Jocelyn Hello The all-time record for a WCWS career is 28. Her eight career WCWS sponsors only trail 12 alo.
• After waiving a double lead to start the game, Bahl retired 10 consecutive batters from the first through fourth rounds. • Sooner ace leads all WCWS pitchers in 2023 with 14 strikeouts over two games. Bahl surrendered just one earned run in the NCAA postseason at 23.3 innings, striking out 30 in those five games.
• Oklahoma became the first team since 2017 in Florida to open the World Series with back-to-back shutout victories.
• The lockout was the third time the Volunteers have been eliminated this season, and the first time they have been judged.
• OU has improved its NCAA record winning streak to 50 games.
• The Sooners advance to their seventh consecutive WCWS Semifinal appearance, making the Final Four in every completed season dating back to 2016.
• OU has advanced to the Championship Series in each of the past three seasons, one win away from four consecutive seasons.
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