Sooners put Longhorns on the brink
Texas managed to weather the first storm Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Thing is, there's always another squall lurking just beyond the horizon whenever Oklahoma's on the diamond.
The Longhorns had kept the top-seeded Sooners' potent offense in check for the better part of four innings in their Women's College World Series winners' bracket matchup. But it all unraveled in the top of fifth as Oklahoma scored four runs, two off the moonshot second baseman Tiare Jennings blasted into the left-field bleachers, to build a lead that Texas just couldn't surmount.
Oklahoma (56-2), 7-2 winners over its Red River rival, is moving on to the WCWS semifinals needing just three more wins to polish off perhaps the greatest collegiate softball season in hisory. Texas (44-20-1), now on the brink in this double-elimination tournament, will face Arizona at 6 p.m. Sunday.
What made the day even sweeter for Oklahoma was how it avenged one of its two losses on the season.
“I think for sure it was on our mind,” Jennings said of Texas' 4-2 regularseason win over Oklahoma. “Like Jocelyn (Alo) said earlier, we had something to prove. No team beat us twice. And I think we proved that here.”
Oklahoma got to work early with designated player Jocelyn Alo's tworun homer in the top of the first, and for a moment it seemed the Sooners might just cruise to their 40th run-rule win of the season. But Texas starter Hailey Dolcini (23-11) composed herself, memoryholed the mistake and proceeded to record nine straight outs.
It helped that the Longhorns' offense came out hot, too.
Freshman third baseman Mia Scott got aboard on a bunt single, her fifth straight hit at the WCWS after Thursday's 4-for-4 outing against fifth-seeded UCLA, then stole second. That aggressive baserunning paid off immediately when shortstop Alyssa Washington drove Scott in with a sizzling RBI double down the leftfield line, making it a onerun game through the first inning.
Dolcini also wiggled out of some trouble later on in the fourth after putting Oklahoma's first two hitters on. But Texas escaped without incident, leaving two Sooners stranded in scoring position as pinch hitter Grace Green flied out to end the inning and the threat.
And like Dolcini, Oklahoma starter Hope Trautwein made the necessary adjustments after a bumpy start. Trautwein's fine-tuning was just more effective, allowing her to throw a complete game six-hitter despite recording only one strikeout.
“It's encouraging to get a run back straightaway,” Texas coach Mike White said. “So it kind of gave us some brief confidence. Obviously, it was brief. We just started to chase. I think we try we're trying too hard and pushing ourselves too instead of letting the ball come to us. But good pitchers like Hope Trautwein make you do that. She throws with velocity and she's effectively wild at times and moves the ball through the zone.”
The aforementioned fifth inning is when Texas finally succumbed to the Sooners' abundance of talent.
Center fielder Jayda Coleman drove in Oklahoma's third run with an RBI double, then Alo slapped a run-scoring single through the middle of the infield to end Dolcini's day after 41⁄3 innings.
The switch to freshman Sophia Simpson, who pitched so well in Texas' super regionals Game 3 win over Arkansas, wasn't enough to stop Oklahoma. Jennings drove Simpson's second pitch into the seats for a two-run homer, giving the Sooners a 6-1 lead.
Oklahoma tacked on another run in the final frame. And while AllAmerican second baseman Janae Jefferson's seventh-inning solo home run offered a brief ray of hope, Texas wasn't able to generate any more hits off Trautwein.
“I've told them that the most important game we're gonna play all year is this next one,” White said of Sunday's elimination game against Arizona. “We can't hang our heads about what happened today. We've got to bounce back strong.”