At this point, what more is there to say about the Oklahoma Sooners? We are witnesses to one of the greatest runs in collegiate athletics of all time.
Their 4-2 win over Stanford was another feather in the cap of one of the greatest teams in the history of college softball. And they earned their win in a way that’s becoming all too commonplace for the Oklahoma Sooners: a clutch hit from one of their best players with two strikes in the at-bat.
They did it on Thursday against NiJaree Canady, and they did it again in the top of the ninth when Tiare Jennings took the 0-2 pitch to the gap in right-center to score two and put the Sooners ahead for good.
It was a moment of a player harnessing a short memory and making a play in the biggest moment of the game.
Tiare Jennings was 0-4 on the day and was 0-5 against Canady in the two games in the Women’s College World Series.
And that’s why Stanford head coach Jessica Allister elected to walk Jayda Coleman. The Cardinal had Jennings’ number, but this time Tiare answered the call.
“Tiare has this ability to get locked in like nobody I’ve ever seen as well,” Patty Gasso said after the win. “Her swing just looked kind of easy. It looked pretty free and easy and ran right into it at the right time.”
Oklahoma’s lineup creates lose-lose situations for opposing coaches. Pitch to Jayda Coleman, who hit a home run earlier in the game, or to Jennings, who had struggled against the Cardinal. In Jennings’ mind, walking Coleman didn’t change what she needed to do. She knew the Sooners were going to need her in that moment.
“I didn’t know they were going to do that to Jayda,” Jennings said. “It kind of didn’t matter to me. Either way, I was going to have to find a way to either get on or help my team as best I can… I was going to battle. But I was going to keep swinging and just do whatever I can to help the team.”
And just as she has on so many occasions in her three-year career with the Oklahoma Sooners, Tiare Jennings made the magic happen. And it was fitting that the two-RBI double set the record for most runs batted in in a Women’s College World Series.
On her 21st birthday, Jennings was the gift to Sooner Nation, giving Oklahoma the lift it needed to advance to their fourth-straight Women’s College World Series championship.