Sooner time
OU women’s softball will play the Florida Gators in the World Series final.
Lea Wodach didn’t think twice.
When the ball dinged off her bat in the bottom of the fifth inning of OU’s 4-2 win against Oregon, Wodach took off toward first base.
She didn’t look back to see if the ball would roll foul behind her. She just knew that she was going to run until the umpire or her coach told her to stop.
She wasn’t even supposed to bunt, but with a 2-2 count and a second-inning strikeout still lingering in her mind, Wodach knew she had to make something happen for the Sooners.
OU was down 2-0 and badly needed to find its offense.
So she bunted and took off.
“You’re not really thinking about it because it doesn’t really matter,” Wodach said. “If it goes foul, I’m out, so I’m running down the line as hard as I can.”
As Wodach ran, Oregon catcher Gwen Svekis moved to scoop the ball
as it rolled in the dirt by home plate. Because the home plate umpire didn’t signal it foul, the ball was still live, and Svekis had to make a play.
She picked the ball up and fired it to first. But an errant throw went past first baseman Mia Camuso, giving Wodach time to make the dash to first.
“I was trying to make the play,” Svekis said. “I didn’t want to play umpire because I’ve hit a ball this year that was three feet foul and it was called fair. He had the best view of it. We both saw the same ball. I’m not going to comment on it because I tried making the play and I threw the ball away. That’s all on me.”
The Sooners and the Ducks (54-8) stayed locked in a pitchers’ duel through the first four frames of the Women’s College World Series semifinal as OU ace Paige Parker and Oregon pitcher Megan Kleist teamed with their defenses to keep the bats from heating up. Until the fifth inning, Parker, who won her 16th consecutive postseason decision, and Kleist gave up a combined five hits.
Parker’s shutout was broken up by Danica Mercado’s two-run blast in the fifth while Kleist lost hers with Nicole Mendes’ fielder’s choice that scored Raegan Rogers, on to pinch run for Wodach.
Rogers’ score kicked off a deluge of OU offense as Shay Knighten smacked a single into right field to score two more runs later in the inning. Then, Nicole Pendley crushed a double down the right field line, scoring Knighten.
With junior Paige Lowary on to close the game through the final two frames, OU (59-9) maintained its two-run lead through the final out to set up a championship series date with No. 1 seed Florida.
It’s exactly where the Sooners always hoped they’d wind up when they began the 2017 season. Fresh off the 2016 WCWS title, OU began the year as the No. 1 team in the preseason poll. But the Sooners didn’t stay there long, faltering in early season tournaments. It took weeks of tweaks to game plans and attitudes, but by the time Big 12 play rolled around, the Sooners were dealing.
Adversity struck again, however, when OU lost the first game of the Norman Regional and fell into the losers’ bracket. Again, OU tinkered with the mental and physical game plan, and again, the Sooners found positive results. Since falling behind 0-2 to Tulsa in the fourth game of the regional, OU hadn’t trailed in the postseason — until Sunday afternoon’s game.
That adversity was back, and OU had to find a way to deal with it quickly.
“With our backs against the wall, I think we play our best softball,” Parker said. “Just having that regional, it really does make you appreciate the experience of the World Series.”
Before Sunday afternoon, there hadn’t been a come-from-behind win at the 2017 WCWS.
But catalyzed by Wodach’s bunt, the Sooners didn’t conform to the tournament trend, and instead, they will play in the championship series for the fourth time in program history.
“They really are getting into their groove,” Gasso said. “We’ve wasted about eight weeks of trying to figure this out, and I think we’re making up for lost time. They are relaxed, they’re playing their best softball, they’re having a blast. They don’t want it to end.”