NEVER FALE

Aviu, stellar defense help OU defeat Washington

Falepolima Aviu could’ve scored the easy way.

She had plenty of time to make the 60-foot dash from third to home on Macey Hatfield’s fielder’s choice in the second inning of OU’s 3-1 win against Washington, and she even took a couple quick steps toward home plate. But then, she backtracked and stayed on the base.

With Lea Wodach — batting a team-low .176 — up next and two outs on the scoreboard, it seemed like OU missed its window to score.

But Wodach laid down a squeeze bunt that just barely stayed fair, and Aviu took off down the third base line the instant the ball made contact with Wodach’s bat. Washington catcher Morganne Flores had plenty of time to scoop up the ball, and she reached out to tag Aviu as she approached home.

But Aviu tiptoed around Flores, contorting her body to avoid the tag before safely diving into the plate to give OU a 1-0 lead. It wasn’t easy, but it was a run.

Aviu wasn’t done making clutch plays Friday night with the second-inning score. In the fifth, she knocked a single into right field to plate Kelsey Arnold. Sophomore Sydney Romero added an insurance run in the sixth with a solo shot to left field.

With the win, OU will play Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The Sooners backed up Aviu and Romero’s hits with a brand of defense that was absent in the 6-3 win against Baylor the night before. The team that committed four errors in the win was long gone as the Sooners piled up defensive stops to complement Paige Parker’s pitching.

Wodach followed up her second-inning bunt with another highlight play in the third as she leapt up from her stance behind the plate and darted to the backstop to catch Trysten Melhart’s foul ball.

Then, an inning later Caleigh Clifton made a highlight reel-worthy grab of her own as she exploded into a full vertical extension to nab a liner destined for the right field gap.

In the fifth, Arnold snagged a liner heading to left field for the first out followed by a backhanded grab by Romero at third for the second out. Parker issued her first walk of the

[PHOTO BY SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN] Oklahoma’s Fale Aviu, right, avoids the tag of Washington catcher Morganne Flores and scores on a squeeze bunt during the second inning of a Women’s College World Series softball game at Hall of Fame Stadium. OU beat the Huskies, 3-1.