Oklahoma Softball: OU and Texas Meet Again, This Time to Decide the National Championship
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma has already beaten Texas three times.
But to hoist the program’s sixth National Championship, the top-seeded Sooners (57-3) will need to notch another pair of victories.
Wednesday, the Red River Rivalry will once again take over Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, as the Big 12 foes meet in the Women’s College World Series best-of-three championship series.
In the four meetings against the Longhorns (47-20-1) this season, the Sooners are 3-1 and have won by a combined score of 21-7.
Entering the championship series, OU head coach Patty Gasso said the familiarity between the Sooners and the ‘Horns is both a blessing and a curse.
How to Watch:
WCWS CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Oklahoma vs. Texas
- Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
- Thursday, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2
- Friday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN (if necessary)
“I think the pros (to playing a conference foe) are that you know them,” Gasso said in a press conference previewing the championship series on Tuesday. “The cons are that they know you.
“There's no surprises here.”
Oklahoma will carry plenty of confidence into the championship series, as OU won the regular season slate between the two sides.
Jordy Bahl starred at the heart of the Sooners’ Game 1 victory over Texas on April 14.
The true freshman pitcher dominated in the circle for OU, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out 15 Longhorn batters in a 3-0 victory.
Texas pitcher Hailey Dolcini did an admirable job containing the Oklahoma lineup, but long balls by Jayda Coleman and Alyssa Brito provided the insurance OU needed after Grace Lyons opened the scoring with an RBI single.
Nicole May and Hope Trautwein pitched for the Sooners in the second contest of the series, and combined to allow four hits and one run while the Sooners bashed their way to a 9-1 run rule victory.
Mike White’s Longhorns flipped the script in Game 3, however.
Dolcini allowed a pair of hits and a two-run home run from Kinzie Hansen in the top of the seventh inning. Despite only striking out two OU batters, the Texas ace trusted her defense to great effect.
Battling Bahl for a second time, the Texas lineup made enough marginal improvements to pull the upset.
Mary Iakopo gave the Longhorns the lead with an RBI single in the fifth inning, and third baseman Mia Scott pulled through with a bases-clearing double in the sixth to help her team pull off the 4-2 victory.
Read More WCWS Coverage:
Texas celebrated ending OU’s bid for an undefeated season by dousing Dolcini with a Gatorade bath, something the Sooners wouldn’t soon forget.
The WCWS bracket afforded Oklahoma a chance at revenge, as the two teams met for a fourth time on Saturday in a winners’ bracket battle.
An explosive fifth inning by the OU offense drove Dolcini out of the contest, as the Sooners notched six hits and five runs in just 4 1/3 innings of work from the Texas star.
“We had something to prove,” Oklahoma sophomore Tiare Jennings said Saturday after the win. “No team beats us twice, we proved that.”
While the Sooners dialed in on Dolcini, Texas again struggled to generate any offense off of Trautwein.
The OU pitcher allowed six hits, but the Longhorns couldn’t cash in on the base runners and ultimately fell 7-2 to Oklahoma.
Despite the history between the two teams, the Sooners aren’t approaching the series worried about the Red River Rivalry. They’re merely focused on adding another trophy to the collection.
“It is a Red River Rivalry,” Alo said on Tuesday, “but at the end of the day we are competing for a National Championship, and it doesn't matter whoever is in that other dugout. It just is a matter of us going out there and playing the game that we know how to play and just continually staying one step ahead of the other team.
“So, yeah, for us it didn't matter who else was in that dugout, but it just so happened to be Texas.”
Game 1 in the 2022 WCWS championship series is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Hall of Fame Stadium, and the contest will air on ESPN.
“I think it's just going to be a battle all the way around,” Jennings said. “Defense is going to have to make plays. Offense stepping up. Backing up our pitchers.
“I think either way it's just going to be a hard-fought battle no matter what.”
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