Walking someone — anyone short of Jocelyn Alo or Babe Ruth — to get to Oklahoma softball slugger Tiare Jennings is almost unconscionable.
But that’s exactly what Stanford did Monday.
Then Jennings made the Cardinal pay.
Struggling through an 0-fer day against Stanford’s two-headed pitching behemoth, Jennings delivered a two-run double in the ninth to lift the Sooners to a 4-2 win in the Women’s College World Series at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Sooners have won 51 consecutive games, extending their NCAA record and moving into the WCWS championship series against Florida State, the team they beat to win the title in 2021.
The best-of-three series begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The Sooners (59-1) have beaten both the Seminoles and Volunteers this season, including Saturday’s 9-0 win against Tennessee in the WCWS.
After Grace Lyons doubled to lead off the ninth, Stanford’s NiJaree Canady got back-to-back groundouts to get within an out of ending the Oklahoma threat and bringing Jayda Coleman to the plate.
Coleman had homered earlier in the game, and drove in a run in Thursday’s 2-0 victory over the Cardinal while Jennings was hitless in seven at-bats against Stanford in the WCWS including four attempts Monday.
So Stanford coach Jessica Allister opted to walk Coleman intentionally.
Coleman screamed and bounced her way to first base as Jennings stepped to the plate.
Jennings quickly fell behind 0-2. She fouled the third pitch off, then laced the fourth into right-center to break through the tie and send the Sooners to the brink of the championship series for the eighth time in program history.
“It didn’t really mater to me,” Jennings said when asked about the decision to walk Coleman ahead of her. “Either way, I was going to have to find a way to either get on or help my team as best way I can. We talked about not being results-oriented, and that’s what happened today. I didn’t get results I wanted earlier in the game but I was going to keep swinging.”
Jennings tied Alo for the WCWS career RBIs record with the hit.
Jordy Bahl made quick work of the Cardinal in the bottom of the ninth, striking out the first two batters before getting Ellee Eck to fly out to left-fielder Rylie Boone to end the game.
“We win a lot. And that’s fabulous,” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said. “But sometimes we’re so used to taking it for granted. This means a lot. This means a lot to get to the championship game.”
Stanford jumped out to an early lead after Gasso went with a pitcher other than Bahl to start at this WCWS.
That decision looked dicey when Nicole May struggled in the first, allowing three hits, including a two-run home run by Kylie Chung for the first runs scored against the Sooners in the WCWS.
But then May shut the door, retiring the next 13 hitters she faced.
May’s return to form gave the Sooners an opening against Alana Vawter.
Alynah Torres got the Sooners on the board with a sacrifice fly in the second after two walks and a hit against Vawter loaded the bases.
Then in the third, Coleman drove Vawter’s second pitch of the inning out to center to tie it.
From there, the game settled into a pitching duel.
The Sooners put runners on base in each of the next four innings but couldn’t get another run across until the ninth.
After Boone’s leadoff single in the fifth, Allister brought on freshman phenom Canady, who was mostly overpowering against the Sooners in Thursday’s opener before allowing two fifth-inning runs in OU’s 2-0 victory.
Canady quickly worked out of the fifth and then struck out the side in the sixth after hitting Alyssa Brito to start the inning.
The Sooners had a prime scoring opportunity in the seventh after Torres opened with a double that just missed going over the left-field wall.
Boone tried to bunt pinch-runner Avery Hodge to third but instead popped the bunt just over third baseman Sydney Steele’s head for a single.
But Hodge couldn’t advance, and Canady made the Sooners pay.
She got Coleman to fly out to left, then struck out Jennings for the second out before pinch-hitter Jocelyn Erickson flew out to left to end the threat.
The Cardinal finally put a baserunner on again against May when Taylor Gindlesperge led off the sixth with a single.
Gasso wasted no time going back to Bahl, who was greeted by a single by Emily Young to move the go-ahead run into scoring position.
But Bahl cut down the lead runner on a bouncer back through the middle, got Chung to line out to short and then struck out Emily Schultz to send the game into the seventh tied.
“For me, it’s be present, stay simple,” said Bahl, who hasn’t allowed a run in 14 2/3 innings in the WCWS. “The second I try to do too much with any one of my pitches, I start overthrowing and things tend to go downhill.”
Two more scoreless inning by Bahl set the stage for Jennings to send Oklahoma to its fourth consecutive championship series.
