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Oklahoma softball: Sooners defeat Clemson, tie NCAA record for consecutive wins

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Haley Lee hits a double in the first inning during a college softball game between the California Golden Bears and the University of Oklahoma Sooners at the Norman Regional of NCAA softball tournament at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., Sunday, May, 21, 2023.
Oklahoma's Haley Lee hits a double in the first inning during a college softball game between the California Golden Bears and the University of Oklahoma Sooners at the Norman Regional of NCAA softball tournament at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., Sunday, May, 21, 2023. /
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Top-seeded Oklahoma softball sailed two balls out of the park in a five-run fifth inning, breaking up a close game and sending the Sooners to a 9-2 win over No. 16 Clemson in the opening game of Norman Super Regional on Friday.

The win was the Sooners’ 47 consecutive victory, which ties the NCAA Division I softball record set by Arizona in 1996-97.

As they have so often this season, Oklahoma (55-1) jumped out in front early, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Jayda Coleman, who led off the game with a double, scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Haley Lee. The Sooners added a second run in the second with OU captain Grace Lyons scoring on a passed ball.

Cydney Sanders blasted a two-run homer, her eighth of the season, in the fourth to put OU up 4-0.

Oklahoma starter Jordy Bahl breezed through the first four innings, allowing no runs on four hits and striking out five, but she encountered some trouble in Clemson half of the fifth inning. Three hits, a hit batter and two highly uncharacteristic Sooner errors resulted in two runs, and all of a sudden we had a game with OU’s lead cut in half and two innings to go.

What momentum Clemson had gained in the top half of the inning quickly evaporated in the bottom of the fifth. The Sooners put their first three batters on base off of Clemson ace pitcher Valerie Cagle. Haley Lee, a Texas A&M transfer stepped to the plate, worked a 3-1 count, and on the fifth pitch from Cagle launched it over the center-field fence for a grand slam home run, widening the Sooner advantage to 8-2.

Alyssa Brito followed Lee with a back-to-back long ball of her own in practically the same spot.

Oklahoma’s five-run explosion seem to take all the wind out of Clemson’s upset hopes. The Tigers went quietly, six up and six down, over the final two innings.

Bahl worked 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and striking out six, and picked up her 17th win of the season with one loss. Alex Storako came on in relief with one out in the sixth and retired all five batters she faced.

The two teams will play again at noon CT on Saturday. If the Sooners win, they will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City with a chance to win a third consecutive national championship.

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