SOONERS’ SLAMS SPARK BLOWOUT
OKLAHOMA CITY
Tiare Jennings and Jana Johns hit grand slams and No. 1 seed Oklahoma rolled past No. 9 seed Northwestern 13-2 in five innings Thursday on the opening day of the Women’s College World Series.
The defending champion Sooners pounded out 11 hits. Northwestern’s Danielle Williams (31-5) — a first-team
Oklahoma 13, Northwestern 2
NFCA All-American pitcher — lasted just three innings and took the loss.
Oklahoma (55-2) advanced to play rival Texas on Saturday in their first ever World Series meeting. Texas is responsible for one of Oklahoma’s losses this season, though the Sooners won two of the three meetings.
Oklahoma coach Patty
Gasso considers it a plus that the Sooners are familiar with the Longhorns.
“I think it’s a benefit,” Gasso said. “We know what we’re dealing with. We know what to work on. We’ve seen it three times.”
Northwestern (45-12) will play UCLA in an elimination game today.
Northwestern’s Rachel Lewis’ solo blast to left in the third inning opened the scoring. It was her 23rd homer of the season.
That was the only hit Oklahoma starter Hope Trautwein (19-1) allowed. She struck out seven in 42⁄3 innings to claim the win.
Oklahoma took over in the bottom of the third. The Sooners tied it up on an RBI single by Johns that scored Rylie Boone. Williams walked Jocelyn Alo — the two-time USA Sotball Collegiate Player of the Year — to bring up Jennings with the bases loaded. Jennings, also a first team All-American, put Williams’ first pitch over the fence in center field to give the Sooners a 5-1 lead and control for good.
It was Jennings’ 25th home run of the season.
Johns’ grand slam in the fourth put OU up 13-1.
Texas 7, UCLA 2: Texas freshman Mia Scott went 4for-4 and helped the unseeded Longhorns defeat the No. 5 seed Bruins. Scott had a triple, a double and two singles for the Longhorns.
Texas hadn’t won a World Series game since a semifinal run in 2013. Texas’ Hailey Dolcini held the Bruins to six hits in a complete game victory. UCLA’s Megan Faraimo took the loss.
Florida 7, Oregon State 1: Natalie Lugo pitched six innings of scoreless relief and Cheyenne Lindsey went 3for-3 to help Florida beat Oregon State. Lugo stepped in for starter Lexie Delbrey with the bases loaded and no outs in the second and got out unscathed.
Oklahoma State 4, Arizona 2: Karli Petty hit a threerun homer in the bottom of the sixth and Kelly Maxwell threw a 126-pitch complete game as OSU outlasted the Wildcats.
Arizona, which got a tworun homer from Sharlize Palacios to take the lead in the fifth, will play Oregon State today in an elimination game.