Oklahoma’s quest for a fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series championship is off to a tremendous start.
The Sooners fired off Texas on Wednesday in an 8-3 Game 1 victory over their Big 12 rivals. Oklahoma is now one win in the best-of-three series away from its eighth Big 12 softball championship. NCAA and sixth since 2016.
Texas entered Game 1 on a roll as the tournament’s No. 1 seed. The Longhorns pitched three consecutive one-hit shutouts in the WCWS en route to the championship series. Freshman All-American Teagan Kavan (20-2) pitched two of those shutouts and took the mound against Oklahoma.
But Wednesday’s game got off to an ominous start. Kavan allowed leadoff hitter Jayda Coleman to reach a hit by pitch. Six pitches later, Coleman crossed the plate.
In Oklahoma’s next at-bat, All-America shortstop Tiare Jennings launched a 3-2 Kavan ball over the left-center field wall for a 2-0 lead and the first runs given up by Texas in the WCWS. .
The runs were the first allowed by Kavan since the Longhorns’ May 5 regular-season finale. There was more to come.
But not before Texas struck back. The Longhorns responded with a solo home run by second-team All-American Mia Scott, who sent a first pitch from Kelly Maxwell into the right field stands to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 2-1.
That’s the closest Texas would get.
Oklahoma’s Ella Parker led off the third inning with an infield single. Two batters later, second-team All-America catcher Kinzie Hansen sent it home with a two-run homer off Kavan to increase the Sooners’ lead to 4-1.
Kasadi Pickering then sent a 1-1 pitch over the center field wall for consecutive home runs to increase Oklahoma’s lead to 5-1. This was thrown from another fly ball over the plate.
That was the end of Kavan’s day. He finished the game allowing five earned runs on five hits, three home runs and two walks in 2 1/3 innings. She did not record a strikeout.
Maxwell shuts down multiple Texas threats to secure victory
Texas had a chance to cut into Oklahoma’s lead late in the third. Maxwell walked Scott and Bella Dayton to bring Texas National Player of the Year Reese Atwood to the plate with two on and two out. But Atwood sent Maxwell’s second pitch straight to the mound for an inning-ending groundout.
The Sooners added a pair of insurance runs before Texas threatened again in the sixth. The Longhorns made two runs to cut their deficit to 7-3, then put on two more runners with two outs. Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso did not pull Maxwell even though her starter allowed four hits and threw a wild pitch in the inning.
Maxwell rewarded Gasso’s confidence. The Oklahoma State graduate transfer struck out Victoria Hunter with a swing to end the Texas threat and maintain Oklahoma’s 7-3 lead. The Sooners added another run in the seventh and the Longhorns failed to come back with their last chance in the bottom half of the inning.
Maxwell finished the game with a 1-2-3 seventh to secure the victory for Oklahoma. A strike on Viviana Martínez’s third pitch ended the game. Maxwell earned the complete-game victory, allowing three runs (one earned), four hits, a home run and four walks. He struck out eight Texas batters.
With the win, the Sooners take a 3-2 lead in the season series against their future SEC rivals. More importantly, they are closing in on a national championship victory.
