Oklahoma beat Stanford two times and Tennessee once in its runup to the NCAA College World Series Championship finals in Oklahoma City.
In their first game against Stanford the Sooners edged the Cardinals 2-0. The game was a pitching duel between OU’s First Team All-American Jordy Bahl and NiJaree Canady.
“Thankfully, Jordy was absolutely on her game,” Patty Gasso said. “She was just a boss today. It was really fun to watch that, especially not getting the opportunity she wanted last year (sitting out with an injury) and just making the most of it from day one.”
OU’s two runs came in the fifth inning on a line-drive by Jayda Coleman to left field driving home Rylie Boone and Avery Hodge.
The win brought Bahl’s pitching record to 19-1. She pitched a complete game, with only 5 hits and 1 walk.
Next up for the Sooners was Tennessee who the Sooners shut out 9-0. That made for a record of 34 shutouts for the season. Jordy Bahl also pitched this game and was the winning pitcher.
“Extremely proud of this team and the way they played pretty flawless, attacking offensively, pitching staff, all of them, on point,” OU coach Patty Gasso said afterward. “Defense on point. I mean, everything was exactly the way we hoped it would be. Very proud of this team. Really stepping forward, getting the day off (Sunday), getting to recover is really important.”
OU’s scoring was lead by Jayda Coleman and Grace Lyons with two runs each, followed by Tiare Jennings, Cydney Sanders, Kinzie Hansen, Alynah Torres and Rylie Boone with one run each.
RBIs were recorded as 3 for Jennings, 2 for Hansen and Rylie.
In OU’s final game against Stanford the game was tied at the end of 7 innings and went 2 extra innings until OU won in the ninth 4-2. Bringing the season record of the Sooners to 59-1. Jordan Bahl was the winning pitcher (21-1).
Tiare Jennings broke the tie by hitting a double to center field to drive in 2 runs (Jayda Coleman and Grace Lyons) in the bottom of the ninth.
“What a battle today for both teams, very even and just back and forth the whole way,” Gasso said. “Challenging always at the plate, with both pitchers are very good. A clean game, exciting game, but a great pitching duel.”
The Sooners scored in the second inning off a sacrifice fly by Alynah Torres, driving in Alyssa Brito and scored again in the third with a homer by Coleman to tie up the game 2-2, which continued until the ninth inning.
Oklahoma will play Florida State in the World Series Championship in a 2 best of 3 game series beginning Wednesday, June 7 at 7 p.m. in Oklahoma City, continuing on Thursday, June 8 at 6:30 and then if necessary on Friday, June 9 at 7 p.m. All games will be televised on ESPN.