Texas, a team that has bounced back when facing elimination before, must do it again tonight and tomorrow night, against an Oklahoma squad that may be the best offensive outfit in college softball history.
TOP 1: Estelle Czech starting tonight for the Longhorns, who are the home team... Jayda Coleman lines a sharp single to right to lead off for Sooners, bringing up Jocelyn Alo... Strikeout looking, a rare out for Alo (who was 4-for-4 in the semifinal clincher vs UCLA and 3-for-3 last night vs. Texas)... Tiare Jennings grounder to second bobbled, giving OU runners at first and second with one out... Easy infield pop for second out... Another infield pop to end threat...
BOTTOM 1: Jordy Bahl in the circle for OU... After a brief delay to reduce the slipperiness of the pitching circle, Janae Jefferson steps in and singles up the middle for Texas... Mia Scott follows with single to left... Per ESPN graphic, Texas was 0-for-7 last night with runners in scoring position (RISP)... Ball four from Bahl, sending Bella Dayton to first and loading the bases with none out for the Horns... Sac-fly almost to the wall in right-center, driving in game's first run, 1-0 UT... Other runners advance a base, as well... Another deep sac-fly, this time to center, makes it 2-0 Longhorns, trail runner moves to third... Third out from yet another deep fly (video)... UT putting good aluminum on the ball...
TOP 2: Sooners with a leadoff infield single to short... K for first out... Jana Johns delivers with double to wall in left-center, putting runners on second and third... Lead runner tagged out between third and home on infield grounder... Pop to SS ends half-inning... Still 2-0 Longhorns...
BOTTOM 2: Infield single up the middle (would have been hard to get batter even if fielded cleanly)... Followed by a walk... Fly to shallow center for first out... Jefferson with infield grounder, slides head-first into first to avoid double-play... Two outs, runners on the corners... Replay review, but Jefferson clearly seems safe... Review possibly could also be over whether OU fielder's foot touched second-base bag on first part of play... Replay confirms original calls... Scott lines out to Taylon Snow at first to end threat...
TOP 3: Alo leads off... Walks, bring up Tiare Jennings... 5-4-3 ground-out double-play... Pop to SS ends half-inning... Estelle Czech keeping Sooners in check, so far...
BOTTOM 3: Leadoff walk for UT... K for first out... Another infield-grounder double-play (6-4-3) to end inning...
TOP 4: Leadoff double for OU's Alyssa Brito... Kinzie Hansen with grounder to third for (apparent) easy out at first, but throw gets away, allowing Brito to score and Hansen to take third... Sooners cut UT lead to 2-1... Snow with line-single to center ties game 2-2... Still no outs... Infield-grounder double-play... Pop to SS ends half-inning...
BOTTOM 4: Two quick outs on foul out and batter thrown out trying to stretch single into double... K for third out...
TOP 5: The Oklahoma offensive explosion has finally arrived, all with two outs: Single, HBP, RBI double, and then a three-run homer by Hansen (video)... 6-2 OU...
SIXTH & SEVENTH: Sooners add four more in the top of the sixth, increasing their lead to 10-2... Texas now down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh, trailing 10-2 with a runner on first... Jefferson, the Longhorns' senior sparkplug, currently batting... HBP on right hand or wrist, replaced by pinch-runner... Hope that Jefferson is OK... Mia Scott with three-run homer to cut UT deficit to 10-5... Walk to next batter... Grounder to second ends the game... OU wins WCWS for sixth time...