Oklahoma and Texas played in the first ever Women’s College World Series game to be broadcast on ABC and the Sooners dominated their Red River Rivalry opponents to advanced to the semifinal round. Jayda Coleman and Jocelyn Alo made early statements in the game and Tiare Jennings would deliver some late fireworks as the Sooner offense worked its way through three Longhorn pitchers, posting seven runs on 10 hits in a 7-2 win.
Coleman and Alo each recorded two hits and scored twice on an afternoon that saw the duo also produce four RBI. Colman led off the game by ripping a double into right center field. In the very next at bat Alo sent the ball over the wall in left field to put the Sooners on top 2-0.
Texas got one back in the bottom of the first but the Longhorns wouldn’t cross home plate again until the bottom of the seventh when Janae Jefferson would send a solo home run out to right field. Meanwhile OU exploded for four more runs in the top of the fifth to deflate any hopes Texas might have had of pulling a late-inning rally. Rylie Boone started the inning by running out a bunt single. She was able to move to second on a Jana Johns sacrifice bunt and then scored when Coleman hit her second double of the day. Alo became the third Oklahoma player to reach base in the inning with a single up the middle that scored Coleman. That set of events would chase Texas starting pitcher Hailey Dolcini out of the game and unfortunately for relief pitcher Sophia Simpson the first batter waiting on her was Tiare Jennings who took her deep on the second pitch that she saw.
The Sooners added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Alo scored on an Alyssa Brito single to left field. It was the seventh and final run for Oklahoma on the day and while it had little significance on the eventual outcome of the game it did put all three of the Texas pitchers on the hook for at least one run.
Hope Trautwein went the distance for the Sooners, pitching all seven innings, in which she allowed two runs off six hits.
The Sooners will have to wait and see how Sunday’s games play out to discover who their next opponent is going to be. What we do know is that they will play next at 11:00 AM on Monday. Whoever ends up becoming Oklahoma’s Monday opponent would need to beat the Sooners twice in order to knock them out of the tournament. Meanwhile, OU would just need to win once in order to advance to the championship series.
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