By Big12Sports.com
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — No. 1 Oklahoma punched its ticket to its fourth straight Women’s College World Series Championship Series with a 4-2 win over Stanford in nine innings Monday afternoon.
In addition to its fourth consecutive Champ Series appearance, the Sooners (59-1) have made the finals six of the past seven seasons. The win extended OU’s NCAA record win streak to 51 games.
On her 21st birthday, Tiare Jennings delivered the go-ahead runs in the ninth inning that sent the Sooner contingent of Monday’s attendance of 12,071 into a frenzy. After a leadoff double in the ninth off the wall from senior captain Grace Lyons followed by a two-out intentional walk to Jayda Coleman, Jennings ripped a two-run double to center field for the first runs since the third inning.
Sophomore ace Jordy Bahl entered in relief in the sixth inning and shut down the Stanford offense, allowing no runs on just four hits to go with no walks and six strikeouts.
Stanford got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning via a two-run home run from Kylie Chung. It was just the seventh home run allowed by OU starter Nicole May in 2023, and the second of the postseason. After surrendering a single after the home run, May proceeded to 13 straight Cardinal batters into the sixth inning when Bahl entered.
OU responded at the top of the second and third innings with a sacrifice fly from Alynah Torres in the second followed by a leadoff home run from Coleman in the third, her 10th career leadoff home run and sixth of 2023.
The defensive bout continued with May and Bahl battling Stanford pitchers Alana Vawter and NiJaree Canady for five scoreless innings from the fourth through eighth.
Jennings broke the tie with her 16th double of 2023 to score Lyons and Coleman in the ninth. The two-bagger was Jennings’ sixth career double at the WCWS, moving into sole possession of the record for most career WCWS doubles. The two runs batted in also moved Jennings into a tie for most career RBIs at the World Series, joining Jocelyn Alo with 28 in their careers in OKC.
The top-seed Sooners move into the best-of-three WCWS Championship Series which begins Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN. Oklahoma will meet the winner of the semifinal matchup between No. 3-seed Florida State (57-9) and four-seed Tennessee (51-9) Monday evening. Tennessee would have to beat FSU twice to advance.
Oklahoma is two wins away from their third consecutive and seventh title in program history and fifth in the last seven years.
