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On the brink of an opening-round loss to Tennessee, Oklahoma came through in the clutch once again.
Down 3-1 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, Ella Parker stepped to the plate for her 4th at-bat of the game against All-American Karlyn Pickens. The first at-bat of the game resulted in a solo home run. The next two ended with Parker walking back to the dugout after strike three.
But in the game’s decisive at-bat, it was Parker who won the battle again, blasting a walk-off home run well over the centerfield wall to give the Sooners a 4-3 victory. Here’s a clip of the moment from Oklahoma City:
The Sooners are the highest-seeded team remaining in the field and are in pursuit of a 5th consecutive National Championship.
Pickens was dominant in the circle until the very last at-bat of the game. She pitched 6.2 innings, scattering just 5 hits on the day (2 in the final frame) while striking out 8.
Offensively, Tennessee had plenty of traffic on the base paths and were able to take advantage of a lackluster defensive effort by Oklahoma. Two of the three runs Tennessee scored were unearned. Tennessee strung together 8 hits overall, with 3 coming from Taylor Pannell alone. Oklahoma ace Sam Landry was solid overall as she was charged with just 1 earned run on the day.
Oklahoma will now advance to the winner’s bracket and will Texas in the next round on Saturday. The Vols will face Florida in an elimination game on Friday.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
