Oklahoma softball: Sooners go extras to sweep into WCWS championship series

Oklahoma softball is now just two wins away from a record-tying third consecutive national championship.

The Sooners (59-1) found themselves in a dogfight with No. 9-seeded Stanford and two of the country’s best pitchers. It took extra innings, but Oklahoma outlasted the Cardinal, claiming a 4-2 victory in nine innings in the Women’s College World Series, and now advances to the championship series for the fourth straight season and sixth in the last seven.

Deuces were wild with Tiare Jennings at the plate in the top of the ninth against Stanford ace NiJaree Canady and the score tied 2-2. With two on, two out and two strikes on Jennings, OU’s First-Team All-America stroked a double to right-center field, scoring Grace Lyons and Jayda Coleman with what proved to be the winning runs.

It was another perfect ending to what has been a near-perfect season for the 2023 Sooner softball team. And the setting for the winning runs couldn’t have been scripted any better.

Jennings had been 0 for 5 against Stanford’s Canady with four strikeouts when she came to bat for OU in the ninth with the game on the line, and two of those strikeouts had come against Canady in Monday’s national semifinal contest. In fact, Stanford had intentionally walked Jayda Coleman, who had hit a home run to center field leading off the third inning to tie the game at 2-2.

OU loaded the bases in the second inning on a hit and two walks. Alynah Torres drove in the first Sooner run with a sacrifice fly. Coleman’s home run the next inning brought the Sooners back even with the Cardinal.

You could just feel the drama building when Jennings came to bat in the ninth with runners on first and third. Besides, Jennings was celebrating her birthday on this day, and having gone 0 for 4 in her previous four at bats in the game, the Sooners’ top hitter was overdue to make something happen. She took a called strike on Canady’s initial offering, then fouled off two pitches before taking Canady’s fourth pitch of the at bat into right-center field.

The birthday girl gets the game-winning hit. It doesn’t get much better than that for a birthday gift, and one she was able to share with the entire Oklahoma team.

Canady, who entered the game with one on and no outs in the top of the fifth, pitched masterfully as she did in both games facing Oklahoma in the WCWS. Alana Vawter, who won 21 games for the Cardinal this season, started the game and worked the first four innings before Stanford head coach Jessica Allister inserted Canady to give Oklahoma’s lethal lineup a different look from the pitching circle and also to try to stave off elimination. The strategy worked perfectly Jennings’ game-changing at bat.

Nicole May started the game for the Sooners and ran into trouble right away. OU’s best pitcher all season from an ERA perspective, gave up three of Stanford’s eight total hits in the opening inning, including a two-run home run to No. 4 hitter Kylie Chung. Right off the bat (no pun intended) OU found itself trailing 2-0 against a Stanford team that hat not allowed a run in the WCWS in 16 consecutive innings.

May worked 5.0 innings, allowing just the two runs and just one more hit after the first inning. She struck out three and walked none. She retired 12 Stanford hitters in a row from the second through the fifth inning.

Bahl came on in sixth after the first two Stanford batters reached base with singles. Bahl was able to shut down the threat and finished the game for the Sooners, picking up her third straight WCWS win, allowing no runs and four hits and striking out six.

Kinzie Hansen and Ryle Boone both had two hits for OU.

Stanford’s season comes to an end, having gone 2-2 in the WCWS with both losses coming against Oklahoma. The Cardinal will finish the 2023 season with an overall record of 47-15. The Sooners, who extended their NCAA record consecutive games win streak to 51 games with the semifinal victory, will get a day off before beginning the WCWS championship series against either No. 4 Tennessee, who OU beat 9-0 in the second round, or No. 3 Florida State.