Mississippi State stole the lead in its All-SEC Norman Super Regional showdown against Oklahoma and at the same time broke the hearts of the home fans in Norman in Friday afternoon’s riveting Game 1.
The Sooners were 1 strike away from snatching victory and giving those home fans a happy Friday, but the underdog Bulldogs had other plans. Mississippi State trailed 9-6 going into the top of the seventh inning, with 1 more at-bat to stage a comeback. The Bulldogs did just that with a 5-run outburst, highlighted by Morgan Bernardini’s game-tying walk that scored Abby Grace Richardson and changed everything about the entire afternoon.
Tatum Silva followed with an infield single that really turned things sideways for the Sooners, who committed a throwing error on the play. Two runs scored, giving Mississippi State an 11-9 lead that turned into the final score. It was 1 of 4 errors committed by Oklahoma, which will have 1 more chance to save its season and dreams of another trip to the Women’s College World Series in Game 2 on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Mississippi State (42-18) will be the designated home team on Saturday, as the Bulldogs try to eliminate perennial powerhouse Oklahoma (51-9) in front of its home fans. Meanwhile, the Sooners, who’ve won all 8 of their national championships since 2000 and who captured 4 straight national titles from 2021-24, will be trying to push the best-of-3 super regional to a deciding Game 3 on Sunday.
All of that is to be decided this weekend. But Friday was Mississippi State’s day, as the Bulldogs nailed down their first ever super regional victory in program history.
That game-tying walk came on a 3-2 pitch by Oklahoma ace Audrey Lowry that was inside. After that, the single and that error by Ailana Agbayani helped waste a 3-run sixth-inning rally by the Sooners that had given them a 9-6 lead. No. 3 overall seed Oklahoma answered the Bulldogs’ 4-run top of the sixth that had tied the wild game at 6-6, and it looked like the Sooners were heading toward a Game 1 victory.
But Mississippi State got the last rally, and Oklahoma couldn’t answer in the bottom of the seventh. It was the Sooners’ first super regional loss since 2015, and now they must answer on Saturday, or it’ll be a rare Women’s College World Series without them.
The Bulldogs, coached by former Oklahoma star Samantha Ricketts, will be trying to make sure that becomes a shocking reality.
Oklahoma star freshman Kendall Wells did her best to save the Sooners on Friday, going 4 for 5 with 2 homers and 6 RBI. Wells now has 39 homers this season, moving her within 1 long ball of tying the NCAA single-season record held by UCLA’s Megan Grant.
Wells will get another shot to help save the Sooners in an elimination game on Saturday.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
