A year ago, the Oklahoma Sooners started their Women’s College World Series with a loss to unranked James Madison University. The Sooners avoided history repeating itself and rode a pair of grand slams to claim a 13-2 run-rule victory against the Northwestern Wildcats.
On offense, the Sooners took a little while to get going and came into the bottom of the third with only one hit and losing by one.
Then the floodgates opened.
The Sooners exploded in the third inning for six runs. A lead-off double by Rylie Boone got the Sooners started and Jana Johns drove her in. Jayda Coleman followed that up with a single to move Johns to second. A wild pitch allowed Coleman and Johns to move up, clearing a base for Jocelyn Alo to get the unintentional-intentional walk to load the bases.
Tiare Jennings wasted little time, taking the first pitch from Danielle Williams to deep center for her third grand slam of the season and 25th home run on the year. That made the game 6-1, but the Sooners weren’t done yet.
Oklahoma got two more runs in the bottom of the fourth and then the bottom of the lineup delivered yet again as Jana Johns bombed another Sooners grand slam to the opposite field to cap off the Sooners scoring.
While opening the WCWS with a massive win to get a day-off on Friday is a very nice way to start, perhaps the biggest story of the day came in to pitch with two outs in the top of the fifth.
After missing almost a month due to an arm injury, freshman phenom Jordy Bahl is back. When she came on to relieve the ever-dominant Hope Trautwein, the Sooner faithful in Oklahoma City erupted in cheers.
Patty Gasso did say that Bahl would be back during the WCWS, and with such a large lead, why not bring in your star pitcher to get the final out to get her first taste of WCWS action?
Hope Trautwein was solid, but not great. Five walks is simply too much at this stage in the season. Trautwein was tagged with both of Northwestern’s runs, but other than the home run given up in the third inning and the walks, she was very, very solid.
With Bahl back, the Sooners’ pitching staff is looking more and more scary.
Their next opponent will be a very familiar foe.
The next round of the WCWS will have a heavy dose of the Red River Rivalry. OU-Texas will face off at 3 P.M. on Saturday.
The Longhorns handled no. 5 UCLA in the first round and won 7-2. Texas ended the Sooners’ 40-game winning streak back in April.
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