Sooners fight until the very end, but fall to Texas Tech in the WCWS Semifinals

Another instant classic at the Women's College World Series. Oklahoma has more late-game heroics, just for Texas Tech to walk-it off on a sacrifice fly. There will be a College Softball National Champion *not* named Oklahoma for the first time since 2019. Texas Tech will play Texas in the championship series.

In the middle of the 7th inning, I had an article written about how Oklahoma was shutout for the first time since 2019 and how the season was over. Then, Abby Dayton happened.

The Sooners were down 2-0 in the 7th. The offense was struggling to deal with Texas Tech Pitcher NiJaree Canady all game long. And with two outs and two strikes, Dayton hit a game-tying two-run homerun. This program...

Texas Tech responded well. A one-out single was followed by a double and the Red Raiders had runners on second and third with just one out. Lauren Allred hit a fly into right, and Mihyia Davis scored to give the Red Raiders the 4-3 win.

Texas Tech Ace NiJaree Canady finishes with eight strikeouts and proved she is the best pitcher in the country.

Canady started the game with a 3-up-3-down first inning, striking out two Sooner batters in the process. The OU got a hit and a couple of runners on base in the second, but couldn’t convert it into runs, leaving two on base. 

Texas Tech broke the tie in the bottom of the second when Demi Edler hit a ball down the first base line deep into the right field corner. That brought Alana Johnson home and landed Elder on third, with the Raiders leading 1-0. Two batters later, Bailey Lindemuth would bring Elder home, and Texas Tech would lead 2-0 after two. 

Sam Landry settled in for the next few innings, giving up no hits in the 3rd and 4th while striking out two. Meanwhile, the OU bats started connecting on more pitches, but they couldn’t quite get the distance to leave the yard, resulting in fly-outs instead of runs. 

Texas Tech put two on base in the fifth, by way of error and a single, but the OU defense held firm, turning an inning-ending double play. Incredibly, that marked the seventh double-play of the World Series for the Sooners. OU would trail 2-0 with 6 outs left to use. Could the strong defense inspire some offense? 

Ella Parker seemed to feed off the defense with a hard-hit single into right to open the 6th. The next three at-bats for OU were: strikeout, pop-out, and strikeout. Six innings down and still zero runs for Oklahoma. 

Last chance in the 7th: Ailana Agbayani opened the inning by grounding out. Sydney Barker hit a blooper into right to bring the game-tying run to the plate, but it was followed by a fielder's choice getting Barker out at second. The season comes down to this: Tia Milloy on first, Abby Dayton at the plate. TWO. RUN. BOMB.

To Texas Tech's credit, they were not rattled and were able to reclaim the lead- and secure the win- in the bottom of the seventh.