Almost ready for Game 2... Kathryn Sandercock, who finished up last night's game for FSU, will start in the circle tonight...
Top one: Tiare Jennings with leadoff double for OU... 3-0 to Jocelyn Alo, FSU may simply be trying not to give her anything to hit... Four-pitch walk, putting runners on first and second... Grounder to third for double play: step on the bag and throw to first. Runner on second, two outs... Grounder to second, umpire rules throw to first beat the batter there, but replay (and shocked expression on batter's face) clearly showed otherwise... Side retired... Some of the Twitter reactions to missed call...
Bottom one: G Juarez in the circle for OU... One-out infield single, as batter avoids tag going to first... Elizabeth Mason with two-run blast to begin the scoring (video), 2-0 Seminoles... Next batter walks... K for second out... K on 3-2 change-up to end the inning...
A Jana Johns "jack" for OU (video) in the top of the third halves the Sooner deficit to 2-1...
A four-spot in the top of the sixth turns the game around, with OU now leading 5-2... An FSU error, a Jocelyn Alo homer (video), and four straight singles account for the four runs... And it could have been worse for the Seminoles, as the Sooners still had the bases loaded with one out, but a foul-out and a fly-out keep the score at 5-2... Nothing for Noles in bottom of sixth...
Sooners add one in the top of the seventh, making the final score 6-2 and forcing a winner-take-all match-up on Thursday. Note that, even though all previous championship-round games have been played in the evening (to my knowledge), this year's delayed starting of the championship series until Tuesday has resulted in Thursday's Game 3 being scheduled for 2:00 Central...
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As we wait for tonight's (6:00 Central) Game 2 of the championship round, in which No. 10 national seed Florida State will try to complete its shocking run through the NCAA tournament and eliminate heavily favored Oklahoma, here are a couple of postscripts from last night's Game 1:
FSU shortstop Josie Muffley appeared to suffer a possible head injury in a seventh-inning collision at home plate. Fortunately, things seem OK. According to this ESPN.com article, "The Seminoles expect her back in the lineup Wednesday."
From the same article, Sooner head coach Patty Gasso, who also serves as third-base coach, called her decision to send a runner from first home on a double in the bottom of the seventh, trailing by four runs (8-4), "horrific." The runner was tagged out at the plate for OU's second out, which helped kill the team's rally. Even if the runner had scored, you're now down 8-5 with a runner on second. You would still need at least two more batters to do something good to tie the game (e.g., a single or walk to put a second runner on base and then a homer). And if the runner who was thrown out at the plate had been held at third base, she would have scored anyway on a hit by any of the next batters, without wasting an out.