The last time the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida State Seminoles took the field together before game one of the Women’s College World Series championship, Sooners’ ace Jordy Bahl had an ERA hovering above 2.00.
Bahl had an ERA of 2.23 before throwing three shutout innings of relief in Oklahoma’s 5-4 win over the Seminoles.
Since the win over Florida State on March 14, Jordy Bahl’s allowed runs in just three appearances and just five total runs. She’s allowed just five runs in her last 26 appearances, which accounts for 100.1 innings pitched.
Over that span, she’s lowered her ERA to 0.92 on the season.
Wednesday night’s performance against Florida State was just another in a long run of outings that has cemented Bahl as the best pitcher in softball. This is her second complete game shutout in the last week after throwing seven innings of shutout ball against Stanford.
Through four appearances in the Women’s College World Series, Jordy Bahl hasn’t allowed a run and is 4-0.
The thing that’s been most impressive is Bahl’s ability to lock in when opposing runners get into scoring position.
When Florida State did get runners on base, they weren’t able to take advantage because of Bahl’s ability to work around a jam. In the third inning, Florida State had a runner on second and one out and wasn’t able to score, with Bahl ending the inning with a flyout and a strikeout to get out of trouble.
In the top of the fourth, the Seminoles put runners on second and third with two outs. Again, Bahl came up with the clutch strikeout to end the inning. Oklahoma’s sophomore ace stole the show when Florida State had opportunities to cash in.
And in the bottom of the fourth, when Oklahoma’s offense got going, it was too late for the Seminoles. Over their final three at bats, Florida State managed just a hit and a walk and couldn’t get a runner into scoring position.
Adding to her legend, Bahl provided the breakthrough run for the Oklahoma Sooners, scoring from first on Kinzie Hansen’s double. In a game where it looked like runs would be difficult to come by, Bahl’s speed and baserunning ability came through in the clutch to help put the Sooners on the scoreboard and ahead for good.
One game doesn’t win a championship for Oklahoma, but this performance from Jordy Bahl put them in a strong position to win their third straight national championship. All that stands in their way is one more win against a formidable Florida State Seminoles team.