OKLAHOMA CITY — Jayda Coleman hit a game-ending home run in the eighth inning to give Oklahoma a 6-5 victory over Florida in the semifinals of the Women's College World Series on Tuesday, lifting the Sooners into the series championship with an unprecedented opportunity to achieve a fourth in a row. qualification.
Coleman sent Keagan Rothrock's 154th pitch of the game just past left fielder Korbe Ortis' outstretched glove and over the fence. She raised her arms above her head as she rounded the bases and her teammates mobbed her at the plate as fans screamed at the stadium just a half-hour drive from Oklahoma's campus in Norman.
Ella Parker homered and drove in three runs for the second-seeded Sooners (57-7), who will play No. 1 seed Texas (55-8) in the best-of-three championship series that begins Wednesday night. evening. Oklahoma has won five of the last seven national titles and seven overall. Texas has never won a national title.
Oklahoma defeated Texas in the 2022 championship series. This year, Texas won the Big 12 regular season title, while Oklahoma won the conference tournament. Both rival schools will leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference next season.
Texas is 3-0 in the World Series this year, and every game was a one-hit shutout.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma lost to Florida 9-3 a day earlier and had to rally from a three-run deficit in Tuesday's elimination game.
Florida led 5-2 when Oklahoma's Cydney Sanders hit a two-run homer to center field in the fourth inning. In the sixth, Parker tied it with a two-out RBI single that scored Avery Hodge from second.
Kelly Maxwell retired all six Florida batters in the seventh and eighth innings to set up the finish.
Parker made the score 2-2 in the first with a two-run homer in the second. Jocelyn Erickson, who won a national title with Oklahoma last season before transferring, hit a two-run homer for Florida in the top half.
All of the Gators' runs were home runs. Ariel Kowalewski's homer in the second, a two-run homer and his eighth of the year, put Florida up 4-2, and Reagan Walsh's solo homer in the third made the score 5-2.
Parker singled in the fifth and tried to turn it into a double. He collided with Skylar Wallace at second and the ball came loose when Wallace's forearm hit Parker's helmet. Wallace was called for obstruction, putting Parker safely at second. Both players remained on the ground for a while before getting up.
