Whitaker’s homer helps preserve season
Texas needed some sort of spark after losing 6-1 to Oklahoma State in Game 1 of the NCAA Tournament Stillwater Super Regional on Friday night.
So ahead of Saturday’s matinee at Cowgirl Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., coach Mike White decided to start freshman Jordyn Whitaker in right field and slot her into the three-hole. Smart move.
In the bottom of the sixth, in a tense 1-1 game, Whitaker got ahold of a ball Cowgirls pitcher Kelly Maxwell, a Clear Springs grad, let float across the middle of the plate. The ball plummeted into a horde of Cowgirls fans a few feet beyond the left-field fence, and Whitaker erupted in joy once she crossed home plate.
Three at-bats later, catcher Mary Iakopo increased Texas’ lead to 4-2 by muscling a two-run home run to opposite field. That silenced the crowd as reality set in that a berth in the Women’s College World Series would require a Game 3.
No. 12 seed Texas (43-13) finally got the best of fifthseeded Oklahoma State (4610) after five straight losses to the Cowgirls this season, earning the 4-2 win to extend the best-of-three series to Sunday.
“We knew what the stakes were for the game, and for us to come out and be down 1-0 straight away and able to hang in there through Shea (O’Leary’s) pitching and defense,” White said during a postgame Zoom with reporters. “It was a great team effort.”
Whitaker, Iakopo and ever-reliable baseman Janae Jefferson supplied all four of Texas’ RBIs and four of its seven hits. Aside from that sixth-inning outburst, Saturday’s game was all about the work being done in the circle.
Texas starter O’Leary (16-5) earned the win and was superb aside from a pair of solo home runs by Oklahoma State in the third and seventh innings. She allowed only four baserunners across seven innings and struck out five to hold Oklahoma State below three runs for just the 10th time in 56 games.
“Pressure is a privilege, so I see it as a great opportunity to just go out there and have fun,” O’Leary said. “I mean, there’s pressure in every game, but if we just go out there with confidence like we did today, then I think we could beat anybody.”
The middle portion of the game was an offensive desert for Texas.
It produced just one baserunner across the second, third and fourth inning with Maxwell (15-4) dealing. But Texas eventually found a way to throw off Oklahoma State’s starter, who allowed four earned runs and struck out five over 51⁄3 innings, taking the loss.
Singles by Texas shortstop McKenzie Parker (Willis) and first baseman Colleen Sullivan set the table for Jefferson, a Nimitz alumna who rarely fails to deliver. The All-American lifted Texas yet again with a gametying two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fifth.
But it was that pair of crowd-silencing sixth-inning home runs that finally allowed Texas to breathe and break the skid against the Cowgirls.
Whitaker’s solo home run was just her fourth of the year and her first since April 21. Her timing, in the biggest moment of her young college career, couldn’t have been better.
“The main thing that gets me going in big moments is knowing that my coach trusts me enough to put me out there, and he believes in me that I’m gonna get it done,” Whitaker said. “So if he believes in me, I believe in myself, and I know I can do it.”
O’Leary will be back on the mound for Game 3, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday (ESPN) at Cowgirl Stadium. It’ll be another hostile atmosphere, and Game 1 pitcher Carrie Eberle will be back in action after a day of rest.