Oklahoma softball: Sooners bounce JMU, advance to WCWS final
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball staved off elimination for a fourth straight game and are now headed to the best-of-three championship final in the 2021 Women’s College World Series.
The Sooners fell behind early in their semifinal contest against the pesky Cinderellas from James Madison, but roared back with seven runs over the final three innings for a 7-1 victory.
OU starter senior Giselle Juarez gave up a home run to JMU’s Kate Gordon on the very first pitch of the game to put the Dukes up 1-0 with fans just settling into their seats at ASA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. After that, however, Juarez allowed just four more base runners, and two of those were in the seventh inning.
After Gordon’s blast over the left field fence, Juarez set down 20 of 24 JMU batters, allowing just five base runners the entire game. She struck out 11 and walked just one in seven complete innings. Juarez has been the winning pitcher in three of the Sooner’s four wins in this WCWS, including the huge elimination-game win over reigning national champion and No.-seeded UCLA.
Oklahoma finally got untracked in the fourth inning after being held hitless for the first three innings by JMU’s sensational pitcher Oddici Alexander, who held the Sooners to a season-low three runs in a 4-3 win in eight innings in the opening game of the WCWS.
The Sooners scored two times in the fourth. Fifth-year senior Nicole Mendes led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to the right center field gap. She later scored on a wild pitch, and Jayda Coleman drove in Lynnsie Elam, who had reached base on a fielder’s choice.
Oklahoma sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth and tallied four more times, the big hit being a two-run double by Mackenzie Donihoo, who has been an RBI machine for OU in the WCWS. Coleman drove in two more runs in the inning on another two-base hit.
Jocelyn Alo finished off the scoring for Oklahoma with a towering home run to left field in the sixth. It was her 32nd home run of the season, just five off the all-time NCAA Division I record.
JMU’s Alexander, who has pitched all but 1 1/3 innings in the Dukes’ four World Series games, was removed from the game after giving up four runs in the fifth. As she left the field, the Dukes’ team leader was greeted by a standing ovation from the capacity crowd..
Alexander went 4.2 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits. She struck out two and walked three.
Oklahoma (54-3) now moves on to the championship series for the seventh time in program history. They will play the winner of the semifinal game Monday night between No. 3 Alabama and No. 10 Florida State.
The Sooners are seeking their fifth national championship and are just the third team to lose their opening WCWS game and advance to the championship.