Auburn and Oklahoma met on Monday night to begin the quest to determine a National Champion in college softball as the Women’s College World Series reached its championship round.
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After falling 5-2 to the Kansas Jayhawks, Oklahoma began a winning streak that has now reached an unprecedented 31 games, two games better than any previous Sooner softball team.
“I don’t think about my accomplishments, because they’re not mine, they’re ours”, said Gasso, whose club is 55-7 and faces Auburn (56-10) tonight at 8 (EST) in Game 1 of a best-of-three.
LSU advanced to the semifinals to play Oklahoma on Sunday, however, due to the length of the day’s third game, Auburn vs. Florida State, the LSU-Oklahoma game story will not appear in today’s edition.
While the Sooners have had significantly less errors than the Tigers this season, 23 to 59, Auburn’s defense can be a significant asset, just like OU’s. “If you’ve noticed, they like to do it late and make it exciting”, Myers said.
By night’s end, it was the Sooners who now stand one win away from earning the crown. Carley Hoover pitched the final 3.2 innings and allowed just a single run on two hits with two strikeouts and five walks.
Conference pride will be on the line as well. The Southeastern Conference has won three of the last four titles, with Big 12 member Oklahoma’s 2013 title being the lone interruption.
Jessica Mendoza of espnW shares three things to watch for in the final game of the Women’s College World Series championship. That was certainly the case for the Oklahoma Sooners on Tuesday night, although it certainly didn’t seem that way early.
Contrary to the critics, OU didn’t lose Game 2 when Kelsey Stevens replaced Paige Parker as starting pitcher. Gipson was pinch-run for Morgan Podany as Whitney Jordan stepped to the plate.
“We had our chances”, Florida State coach Lonni Alameda said.
“Next year we’re going to come back even stronger and more experienced”. So we’ve got to take some time and enjoy this team and everything we did. It’s just kind of insane.
“We’re very excited”, Myers said.
Auburn’s Tiffany Howard plated Victoria Draper with a triple to make it 7-4, as Howard’s shot into left field was misplayed by Oklahoma’s Kady Self.
After Hugo ended the top of the fourth with a slick sliding play to field a grounder, she led off the bottom of the frame with a single and came in to score on a Maeve McGuire RBI double, giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 advantage.
Sometimes things just don’t go your way.
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“It hits me every now and then because I have people come up to me and say that, you know, you’ve only got three more days of playing softball in college”, said Rhodes, who calls Sarasota, Fla., home.
