Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Sooners storm back to win championship of NCAA Softball Norman Regional

By Chip Rouse

Oct 10, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners cheerleader performs during a timeout from the game against the Texas Longhorns during Red River rivalry at Cotton Bowl Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 10, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners cheerleader performs during a timeout from the game against the Texas Longhorns during Red River rivalry at Cotton Bowl Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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With its Player of the Year candidate on the hill for what was the most important game of the season so far, Oklahoma rode the clutch pitching of staff ace Paige Parker and the timely hitting of freshman Nicole Mendes to a 3-0 victory and the championship of the NCAA Norman Softball Regional on Monday.

It was a championship made all the more meaningful by the fact that Oklahoma had to come storming all the way back from an opening-game loss and survive four consecutive elimination games in order to capture its eighth NCAA regional championship in the last 10 seasons.

Mendes set the tone on how Monday’s championship final would go, hammering the very first pitch of the game out of the yard to give the Sooners a 1-0 lead.

Tulsa put runners on base in each of the first five innings against Parker and left two runners stranded in the fifth, but was not able to get any runners past third base. Parker gave up eight hits to the Golden Hurricane in going the distance for the Sooners, but she was able to get timely strikeouts, 10 in all, to snuff out all the Tulsa scoring opportunities.

OU left fielder Macey Hatfield homered to left field in the fifth inning, and Mendes led off the sixth with a single and later scored on a single by Sydney Romero. That completed the scoring for the afternoon at Marita Hynes Field in Norman.

The Sooners managed only six hits in the game off of Tulsa starter Emily Watson, but it took only four of those to produce Oklahoma’s winning margin.

To be perfectly candid, things looked pretty dim on Saturday following Oklahoma’s opening-game loss to North Dakota State in its own home regional. The Sooners were definitely down but far from out. They still were alive, although with little margin for error moving forward.

Oklahoma was the No. 10 national seed, but had only played one game in this year’s NCAA Regionals. They would have to win four more games without a loss to survive to the next round.

The Sooners followed up their loss on Saturday with a hard-fought win over Arkansas later that same day, which knocked the Razorbacks out of the tournament. Tulsa handed North Dakota State its first regional loss on Saturday, which set up a rematch between OU and the Bison of NDSU.

Oklahoma (54-9) finished the Norman Regional with a 4-1 record and now moves on to play in its eighth consecutive NCAA Super Regional.

Next: Sooners to play Tulsa one more time, in deciding game, for Norman Regional title

The Sooners won’t have much time to celebrate, though, and can’t afford to breathe too easily going forward. The defending national champions will play at Auburn next weekend. The two teams are very familiar with one another, having played for the championship in last season’s Women’s College World Series.

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