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The Oklahoma Sooners are now just two wins away from softball immortality.
After overcoming another challenge with a 4-2 victory over Stanford on Monday, Oklahoma locked up its place in the Women’s College World Series Finals for the fourth consecutive season.
The Sooners are looking to become only the second team in history to win three consecutive national titles. They’d be the first to do so since the great UCLA teams from 1988-1990.
Oklahoma Softball @OU_Softball
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒 💥#ChampionshipMindset x #WCWS pic.twitter.com/MVJvAkT2Vl
The only thing standing in their way are the Florida State Seminoles, who also punched their ticket to the final Monday night with a 5-1 win over Tennessee.
So, it’ll be rematch of the 2021 championship series, which the Sooners won in three games.
The Seminoles will be looking for revenge this time around as they seek to capture the program’s second national title.
Florida State Softball 🥎 @FSU_Softball
YOUR FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR A NATIONAL TITLE‼️‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/KfFzW7dxUv
While Oklahoma has been dominant throughout the tournament, it had to show some guts on Monday to extend its record winning streak to 51 games.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Sooners were quick to respond, scoring a run in each of the next two frames. It was a pitching battle the rest of the way as the game went into extra innings.
Ultimately, the championship DNA prevailed as Tiare Jennings was once again a hero, hitting a two-RBI double in the ninth inning to give Oklahoma the lead and eventually the win.
The reigning champs also got great pitching out of Nicole May and Jordy Bahl, who gave up eight hits combined while striking out nine batters. May gave up the two early runs but shut things down after that.
As for FSU, it had a fairly comfortable ride to the championship as it cruised through Bracket 2 and now finds itself competing for a second national title in three years.
The Seminoles had a strong response after going down 1-0 in the first, never allowing the Lady Volunteers to get anything going again offensively while pouring in five runs of their own, setting up what should be an excellent World Series Finals.
Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series Finals in Oklahoma City is set for Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
