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College Football

Oklahoma cements place in history, caps 4th straight title with WCWS thriller over Texas

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Oklahoma has secured its place in history, capping an unprecedented run of dominance with a 4th straight national title! This one would not be easy, but the Sooners would capture the Women’s College World Series Finals by taking the first 2 games against Texas.

Thursday’s WCWS clincher would not come easy with the Longhorns scoring first and taking a 3-2 lead in the 4th inning. However, true to form, Oklahoma’s offense was inevitable, scoring 8 runs for back-to-back games in an 8-4 win over the Longhorns.

To get to the historic win, Oklahoma set another record by using 5 pitchers in the game. That is the most pitchers ever used in a WCWS Finals game with Game 1 starter Kelly Maxwell coming back out to throw the final 1.1 innings in the deciding victory.

With the win, Oklahoma now has 8 WCWS titles, tying Arizona for the 2nd-most all-time. UCLA holds the record with 12 titles.

Here are the key moments, players and stats from Thursday’s game:

Key moment

In the top of the 6th, Texas had a great chance to tie things up. After a double by Ashton Maloney put the tying runs in scoring position with 1 out, Oklahoma would get 1 final strikeout from Nicole May before turning to Kelly Maxwell out of the bullpen.

Maxwell, who threw all 7 innings in the Game 1 win Wednesday night, entered to face Mia Scott who homered off the pitcher in Game 1. Scott was able to deliver an RBI infield single on an 0-2 count, but a costly base-running error ended the inning there.

In an inexplicable decision, Scott wandered away from the bag after her infield hit. She was quickly tagged out by the Sooners while trying to retreat to first base.

Had Scott not been tagged out, Texas would have had the tying run on 3rd and the go-ahead run on 1st base with Viviana Martinez coming up. Instead, it ended the inning with Oklahoma still up 5-4.

If that isn’t disastrous enough, Oklahoma made the blunder sting even further in the bottom of the 6th inning. The Sooners would score 3 runs, punctuated by a 2-run hit from Ella Parker, to put this one out of reach at 8-4.

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Key players

One game removed from hitting 3 home runs and 3 doubles, Oklahoma delivered most of its major run production with a few big hits in Thursday’s clincher. After Texas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd, the Sooners immediately responded.

Alyssa Brito led off the frame with a ringing double to center field, and Kasidi Pickering produced a massive opposite-field home run for a 2-1 lead.

The other back-breaking hit from Oklahoma came after Texas re-took the lead at 3-2 in the top of the 4th inning. Cydney Sanders would clear the bases with a double in the gap, driving in 3 runs for a 5-3 lead by the Sooners.

Once Oklahoma re-took the lead, the Sooners would not relinquish it in their chase for history.

Texas would get RBIs from Mia Scott, Alyssa Washington and Kayden Henry in this one, but the Longhorns were never able to get the big hit to really pour on the damage.

Of Oklahoma’s record 5 pitchers used in a WCWS Finals game, Nicole May did the most damage while striking out 4 of the 7 hitters she faced. May did allow an earned run but was mostly lethal while covering 1.2 innings late in the game.

The late-game efforts of Maxwell must also be mentioned. After pitching 7 innings Wednesday, she came out of the bullpen to deliver the final 1.1 innings of the historic victory for the Sooners.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.

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