Weekend Wrap: Oklahoma's 'Avalanche' Buries Alabama, Offense Ready for WCWS

NORMAN — Oklahoma punched its ticket back to the Women’s College World Series in style.

The 2-seeded Sooners were offered a chance to some postseason revenge — an opportunity they did not take lightly.

OU hosted 15-seeded Alabama at Love’s Field, a rematch from the regular season series that went the Tide’s way last month, and Oklahoma emphatically dispatched of Patrick Murphy’s group.

Sam Landry shut Alabama out on Friday, then OU’s offense took center stage on Sunday.

The Sooners scored eight runs in the third inning to power a 13-2 run rule victory.

Patty Gasso’s unit will have another regular season rematch waiting for them in Oklahoma City, as OU opens the WCWS against 7-seeded Tennessee, but the legendary head coach was giddy when previewing what her lineup could do this week at Devon Park.

An Oklahoma Avalanche

To say things snowballed on Alabama in the third inning on Saturday would have been an understatement.

At one point in the third inning, nine straight Sooners reached safely. The Crimson Tide only issued one walk, but OU strung together six singles, a double and added a home run.

“They had (nine) in a row on base between walks and hits. And that's like an avalanche,” Murphy said on Saturday. “Just got to somehow stop the bleeding there.”

Alabama’s pitching staff fared no better on Saturday than Boston’s or Cal’s from the weekend prior.

OU’s offense has scored in 13 of the 25 innings it has gone to the plate in the NCAA Tournament. Furthermore, in seven of those innings, the Sooners have scored at least four runs.

Oklahoma saved it’s best offensive outbursts for tournament time.

“It's hard to describe, but I would label this group — and I used this over the year — the word ‘clutchness.’ They are clutch,” Gasso said on Saturday. “We're calling hit and runs. We're calling squeezes. We're calling things that they are executing.”

The Sooners’ “clutchness” will need to be on full display again this Thursday as OU takes on Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens, but there’s no question the lineup has grown greatly since the Volunteers made their trek to Norman at the end of March.

Top to Bottom

The top of OU’s order — Kasidi Pickering, Ella Parker, Gabbie Garcia and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas — has been potent in the postseason.

But the contributions the Sooners are getting from Ailana Agbayani and Abby Dayton at the bottom of the order is the difference between a nice offense and an elite group.

Dayton in particular hurt the Crimson Tide.

Her walk in Game 1 against Alabama gave Pickering another baserunner to turn a solo shot into a two-run blast.

Then her leadoff double turned into the third run of the game on Friday.

Saturday, Dayton tallied three RBIs on a pair of singles.

"Having someone like that behind you — Pick, Ella and then you go to (Sydney) Barker and Gabbie,” Dayton said on Friday. “It's just having those people behind you is so much easier just to get on base and not having to worry about hitting a double or anything like that. Being able to do that, it's great."

Banking Rest

Saturday’s blowout meant the Sooners didn’t have to tax their pitching staff.

Landry threw 108 pitches in Friday’s victory, then Kierston Deal threw 71 pitches in four innings on Saturday.

Freshman lefty Audrey Lowry tossed the final inning on Saturday as well, banking more postseason experience while keeping Deal’s pitch count low.

In comparison, Pickens had to throw in all three games of the Volunteers’ Super Regional against Nebraska.

She tossed 17 2/3 total innings over the weekend, and needed 284 pitches to eliminate the Cornhuskers.

Oklahoma will lean heavily on Landry in Oklahoma City, especially if it can stay in the winner’s bracket and play games every other day, and the OU ace will have the rest advantage over her counterpart to open the WCWS on Thursday.