Sanders homers twice, Sooners beat Oregon 4-1 and earn a spot in the WCWS semifinals

The Oklahoma Sooners are headed back to the Women's College World Series semifinals. OU scored four runs on three homeruns and shut Oregon out for the final five innings to get the 4-1 win. The Sooners will play Texas Tech in the semifinals Monday evening at 6 PM. Oklahoma will have to beat the Red Raiders twice to advance to Wednesday's Championship series.

Oregon played tough all evening Sunday. After a three-up, three-down first inning defensively, the Sooner offense opened the game up with back-to-back singles from Kasidi Pickering and Ella Parker. Two outs later, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas walked, loading the bases. The Sooners would strand all three runners, matching a theme that plagued the Sooners against Texas Saturday. 

Kierston Deal retired the first five batters of the game, striking out two of them. Batter number six was a different story. Oregon’s Dezianna Patmon smacked one over the center field wall for a solo homerun, giving the Ducks an early 1-0. Worth noting: coming into the game the Ducks were a perfect 42-0 in games in which they hit a homerun. 

Isabela Emerling got the run back with a homer of her own in the second frame of the second. She also knocked a huge monkey off her back. It was just her second hit of the NCAA Tournament (2/10 batting), and comes after back-to-back poor games here in OKC. Pickering and Parker would both get on the bags again, but the Sooners couldn’t add any more runs. The Sooners had already left five runners on base through two innings, with the game tied 1-1. 

The top of the third gave the fans one of the best defensive highlights of the weekend. Freshman Gabbie Garcia looked like a safety in football, retreating from her shortstop position into left field to catch a blooper, then somehow getting the throw back to an outstretched Ailana Agbayani on second for the double play. With one runner already on, OU Ace Sam Landry came into the circle to spell Deal. Landry would walk one, then strikeout the next to bring OU’s offense back up to the plate. 

The fireworks returned in the bottom of the third. With McEnroe-Marinas on first, Cydney Sanders crushed one over the left field wall for a two-run homerun. Sooners take their first lead of the game, 3-1. That score would remain until the fifth, when Sanders stepped into the box and cranked another homer: this one a no-doubter over the ESPN cameras in left field. Sooners lead 4-1. 

Landry would end the game with six strikeouts while giving up zero runs in 4.4 innings of work. Deal ended with three strikeouts and gave up just one run in 2.2 innings of work.