Tag: super regionals

Sooners advance to Women’s College World Series with 7-1 win over UCF

With four home runs, including two by Grace Lyons, the Oklahoma Sooners advanced to the Women’s College World Series with a 7-1 win vs. UCF.

For the second day, the Sooners opened their Super Regional matchup with UCF with a run in the first inning and then exploded in the middle frames to pick up the win.

With their 7-1 win over the Knights, the Sooners advance to the Women’s College World Series for the sixth straight year and 12th time in program history.

Nicole May pitched seven innings, picking up the complete-game win and the Sooners got four home runs Grace Lyons, who hit two, Jocelyn Alo, and Jana Johns.

Alo’s home run put a perfect stamp on a storied career. In what would be her final at-bat at Marita Hynes Field, the reigning National Player of the Year closed her career at home the way she started it, clearing the Marita Hynes fences.

After rounding the bases, Sooners fans continued standing, offering the OU legend a lengthy ovation. Alo answered the curtain call, waving to Sooner Nation to show her appreciation in her final game at home.

Jocelyn Alo put an exclamation point on a fantastic career in Norman as the Sooners continue their national title pursuit in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

Though the 2022 season has been much about Jocelyn Alo’s last ride with the Sooners, Grace Lyons continues to be the biggest revelation of the year. Her two home runs and four RBIs proved to be the difference in the ball game.

Lyons now has 21 home runs on the season, joining Alo and Tiare Jennings to form the only trio in the nation with 20 or more home runs in 2022. Arkansas is the only other team that can boast multiple players in the 20-homer club.

May’s day started out rocky as she was forced to work around base runners in the early going before settling in to control the UCF lineup while the Sooners’ bats struggled to push runners around to home plate.

May and Hope Trautwein have been clutch for the Oklahoma Sooners since the Big 12 tournament, allowing Patty Gasso to rest Jordy Bahl. As the Sooners get ready for the College World Series, Bahl will have had three weeks of rest to recover from the soreness that’s kept her out.

It’s truly been a team performance for the Sooners who improved to 54-2 on the season and have allowed just three runs in NCAA tournament play, outscoring their opponents 52-3 this postseason. As they await the remainder of the Super Regional results, Oklahoma knows that Big 12 foes Texas and Oklahoma State will be joining them in Oklahoma City. The Longhorns and the Cowgirls are the only teams to get a win over the Sooners, though Oklahoma won the season series against the talented rivals.

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Arkansas drops game three of Supers to Texas, ends magical season

Arkansas’ magical season comes to a close following a tough loss to Texas in the Super Regionals.

The best season in the history of Arkansas Razorbacks Softball came to a crushing end on Saturday, as the Razorbacks fell to Texas, 3-0 in game three of the Fayetteville Super Regional.

After playing a scoreless game through the 5th inning, it was Texas who cracked the scoreboard first with a three-run 6th inning.

The Longhorns opened the inning with two hits that placed both baserunners in scoring position. Alyssa Washington then stepped into the box for Texas, and battled [autotag]Chenise Delce[/autotag] to a hitters count at 3-1. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Washington hit a double that cleared the bases, and gave Texas the 2-0 lead. In the next at-bat, Washington scored on an RBI single by Mary Iakopo to extend the lead to 3-0.

Over the final two innings, Arkansas would put a total of six runners on base, with only two runner going beyond 2nd base.

Arkansas was limited to five hits on the day, with [autotag]Danielle Gibson[/autotag] collecting two of those. In the circle, Chenise Delce struck out eight batters and allowed seven hits in 6.0 innings pitched. In relief, [autotag]Mary Haff[/autotag] allowed a hit while recording a strikeout.

The magical season for Arkansas Softball comes to a close with Saturday’s loss. The Razorbacks ended the season with a record of 48-12. Over the historic season, Arkansas won every SEC series of the season, en route to their second SEC regular season championship, as well as their first-ever SEC Tournament championship.

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Notre Dame falters late, doesn’t advance to ACC Baseball Championship

It was a great run

It was a very good run by the Irish baseball team, but unfortunately they fell just one game short of advancing to the ACC Championship game. It was a tight game, one that saw Notre Dame and North Carolina tied 2-2 after seven innings. Unfortunately for the Irish, the Tar Heels plated three runs in the top of the eighth while Notre Dame bats went cold over the final innings before falling 7-2.

It was a historical run for Link Jarrett’s team, as this was the farthest the Irish have gone in the ACC Baseball Tournament. The Irish will miss a chance for an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, but will make it anyways in a season where they were ranked for the whole season.

 

They key for the Irish in the first-round of the NCAA’s will be having the regional at home. Many of the projections had them just inside the range of hosting the initial round. The ideal situation would be having the first two-rounds in South Bend, and making the College World Series for a second year in a row.

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Best images of the Oklahoma Sooners 8-0 win over UCF from game 1 of the Super Regionals

Relive the Oklahoma Sooners dominating win over UCF through these stunning images.

The Oklahoma Sooners opened up their Super Regional matchup with UCF in dominating fashion, getting a no-hit performance from [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] while a five-run second inning put the Knights in an insurmountable hole.

[autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] continued their hot run during the NCAA tournament to lead the Sooners to a 1-0 series lead. On Saturday they’ll have a shot to punch their ticket to the College World Series with the second of their three-game series.

Coleman and Alo have combined to go 15-for-22 (.681 batting average) with four home runs, 16 RBIs, and 15 runs scored in the NCAA tournament thus far with both hitting better than .700 in the first four games.

With those two putting together an incredible postseason, the Oklahoma Sooners are going to be incredibly difficult to stop.

As you get ready for game two of the Super Regionals, take a look back at some of the best images of Oklahoma’s 8-0 win over UCF.

Rivalry rekindled: Arkansas Softball set to host Texas for a spot in the WCWS

A rivalry series for a shot at the Women’s College World Series? Count us in.

The rivalry between two former Southwest Conference foes begins a new chapter on Thursday, that in the form of softball.

The Arkansas Razorbacks, winner of the Fayetteville Regional, is set to host the winner of the Seattle Regional, Texas, in the Super Regionals this weekend at Bogle Park for a shot to compete in the Women’s College World Series.

The Razorbacks defeated Oregon on Sunday, 9-3 to close a perfect 3-0 weekend in their home-standing regional led by a four home run game from the likes of Danielle Gibson, Kacie Hoffman, Linnie Malkin, and KB Sides. Despite there being four home runs hit, the leader at the plate was [autotag]Rylin Hedgecock[/autotag], as she hit a three-RBI double in the 6th inning, an inning where the Razorbacks scored six runs to put the game away.

For Texas, they were one of five teams to win their regional despite not hosting. Competing in the Seattle Regional hosted by Washington, Texas defeated the Huskies twice over the weekend to advance to the Super Regionals. After defeating Washington 8-2 on Saturday, the Longhorns fell to the Huskies, 2-1 to set up a winner-take-all game seven.

In the final game of the weekend, the score was deadlocked at 0-0 until the 5th inning when Bella Dayton doubled down the left field line to score two runs, giving Texas the 2-0 lead. The Longhorn’s final blow came when Jenae Jefferson hit a solo home run in the top of the 7th to extend the lead to 3-0. That home run really came at a great time, as the Huskies scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning to trim Texas’ lead to 3-2, but ultimately ran out of outs and taking the defeat.

The Razorbacks and Longhorns begin their three-game set on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. CDT at Bogle Park. The game will be televised on ESPN 2.

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5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners 3-0 weekend in the Norman Regional

The Oklahoma Sooners were excellent in their three-game sweep in the Norman regional and here are five takeaways from the weekend.

The Oklahoma Sooners have made a habit of advancing to the super regionals of the NCAA tournament. This will be their 12th straight appearance when they take on the UCF Knights in Norman next weekend.

The Sooners were incredible in their three games against Prairie View A&M and Texas A&M, outscoring their opponents 37-2 in the three games, which included two run-rule victories and two shutouts.

The only blemish to what could have been a perfect weekend was a two-run home run in the sixth inning from Aggies star catcher Haley Lee that brought the game within one. But Hope Trautwein provided little hope after that and kept the Aggies at bay to pick up the win on Saturday.

Marita Hynes Field was rocking once again as the Sooners put on a show all weekend in front of the home crowd. Before setting the stage for the Sooners showdown with UCF, let’s take a look at five takeaways from Oklahoma’s incredible weekend in the Norman regional.

Oklahoma Sooners advance to Super Regionals with 20-0 win over Texas A&M

After the largest win in NCAA Softball Tournament history, the Sooners will move on to Super Regionals for the 12th straight-year with their 20-0 win over Texas A&M.

For the 15th time in program history and for the 12th year in a row, the Oklahoma Sooners are going to the Super Regionals after beating Texas A&M 20-0. This was the largest win in NCAA Softball Tournament history.

On Saturday, the Aggie pitching did enough to keep the Sooners’ bats uncomfortable and A&M made the game close on a late two-run home run. On Sunday, it was a completely different story in the Sooners dominating win over the Aggies.

The Sooners scored 20 runs on 12 hits, and four walks and were aided by four errors from the Aggie defense. After an emotional win Saturday evening over Minnesota, it seemed like the Aggies were just out of gas in the regional final.

[autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] was nearly unhittable as she struck out seven Aggies and allowed just two hits through 4.1 innings. [autotag]Macy McAdoo[/autotag] came in to finish the job in the fifth inning to claim yet another run-rule victory for the Sooners.

Oklahoma got it going with a nine-run first inning where the Sooners sent 14 batters to the plate. Texas A&M had three errors in the inning, but Oklahoma had five hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch to reach base. The frame included a [autotag]Jocelyn Alo[/autotag] home run and doubles by [autotag]Lynnsie Elam[/autotag] and [autotag]Jana Johns[/autotag] to put the game out of reach before the Aggies ever stepped into the batters box.

The Sooners scored every time they took their turn to bat and scored at least three runs in each inning except the second.

Alo was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs. [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] and [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] added home runs of their own as the Sooners. Seven Sooners notched RBIs led by Britto’s four runs batted in.

OU’s opponent in Super Regionals will be Central Florida after the Knights defeated the Michigan Wolverines in their regional final. UCF was the host as the No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Super Regionals will run from May 26-29. The Sooners will host UCF for a best-of-three series. The winner will go to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series.

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Mississippi State outlasts Notre Dame, eliminate Irish in NCAA tournament

Even with the loss, it was a great season for the Irish

After the top of the first inning, it looked like Notre Dame had the momentum after a dominating game two win. It just wasn’t meant to be for the Irish, as Mississippi State posted double digit runs en route to a berth in the College World Series.

Starter Will Mercer didn’t bring his A-game and it seemed like every time the Irish would answer MSU, the Bulldogs had an answer of their own.

After falling behind 7-1 after two innings, the Irish offense faced their largest deficit of the NCAA tournament and just couldn’t dig themselves out of it. You have to love the fact that they didn’t ever fold, Link Jarrett’s team played their hearts out to the end. It just wasn’t enough, as the Bulldogs used their 6-run second to cushion their way to the CWS. Tanner Allen hit two homers for MSU,

Jarrett tried to keep his team within striking distance, even bringing back game one starter John Michael Bertrand, who was magnificent in his three innings. The Irish tried to mount a comeback but it was all for naught.

The highlight of the game for the Irish was undoubtedly their best players efforts, Niko Kavadas. He absolutely crushed a ball off Landon Sims that left Dudy Noble Field.

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It has been a fantastic first full season under Link Jarrett, that shouldn’t be lost after getting eliminated tonight. This team won’t be the same next year, but if this is the kind of effort and results behind Jarrett squads, its going to be a very prosperous era of Notre Dame baseball.

Must see: Notre Dame’s Kavadas massive blast leaves Dudy Noble Field

WOW

It has been a tough series for Notre Dame first baseman Niko Kavadas. After hitting 5 homers during regional play, the single-season home-run leader in Irish history was held in check for the majority of the super regional series against Mississippi State.

Kavadas took out all of his frustrations on this pitch, as he blasted it out of Dudy Noble Stadium.

The homer brought the Irish two-runs closer to the Bulldogs as they try and keep their season alive in the elimination game of the Starkville super regional.

Ryan Cole’s solo homer gives Notre Dame lead in first inning

The Irish strike first on a long ball by Ryan Cole

Once again the Notre Dame offense has gotten off to a great start. Even though it wasn’t the lead-off batter, the Irish have scored every time they’ve gotten on, it was the second hitter of the inning, Ryan Cole. He blasted a fastball to the opposite field for a solo homer and an early lead.

With so much on the line, a trip to the College World Series, the ending of the season, it seems like Notre Dame does not want to go home.

The Irish will not turn to starting pitcher Will Mercer to guide them through the early stages of this game and hopefully continue their season in Omaha next weekend.