Texas and Stanford are scoreless B3 (with the Cardinal as the home team), as the Longhorns -- with no losses in the WCWS -- try to advance directly to the championship round. The one-loss Cardinal would need to beat Texas tonight and tomorrow to make the finals... UT center-fielder Kayden Henry with a great catch on Stanford's leadoff hitter. Nothing for the Cardinal in B3... Longhorns' Katie Stewart with a one-out double to the wall in right-center T4... Two-out HBP gives Texas two runners on base... NiJaree Canady strikes out UT hitter to end the threat... T6, still scoreless in this pitcher's duel between Canady and UT's Teagan Kavan... One-out single for Longhorns' Reese Atwood... K for second out... UT pinch-runner Adayah Wallace steals second and advances to third on overthrow into center-field... Grounder to second ends the threat... B6, Stanford comes up, having gotten only one hit so far (to UT's four)... Cardinal goes quietly, the third out coming on a strike-out as the Stanford batter called for a time-clock violation for the third strike... T7, UT with leadoff runner on base as Stanford second-baseman flubs grounder... Ground single to left, runners on the corners with none out... Bunt in front of home plate, UT's Alyssa Washington scores from third on wild rundown (video). Stanford challenging, but Washington looks safe at home; indeed, protest denied, so Texas leads 1-0. On first glance, the key aspect of the rundown is that, after Stanford's catcher threw the ball to third, the third-baseman held onto the ball too long in chasing Washington toward home before throwing the ball back to the catcher... Runners now on second and third, still with none out... Fly-out, foul out, and infield pop limit UT to the one run... B7, Stanford down to last three outs... K for first out... Ground-out to second for second out... Foul pop (3B side) for final out... Texas advances to WCWS title round...
Oklahoma failed today to clinch a spot in the WCWS championship round, losing to Florida 9-3. The Sooners and Gators -- each now with one loss in OKC -- will have to play again on Tuesday, with the winner going to the championship round. The bottom of the second inning (which began with UF leading 1-0 thanks to a first-inning run) provided a pretty good sign that this was not the Sooners' day. After the first two batters in B2 were retired, the Gators' Kendra Falby blooped a fairly innocuous fly to shallow left, which OU could have confined to a single. However, the Sooner left-fielder made the high-risk decision to dive for the ball and it got by her, rolling all the way to the far corner in left while Falby circled the bases for an inside-the-park homer, making it 2-0 (video)... The next batter, Skylar Wallace, then delivered an outside-the-park homer and it was 3-0... After four complete, the Gators led 7-1... The Sooners never go quietly, however, and they mounted a threat in T7. Trailing 9-3 with two outs, Oklahoma received three consecutive walks. Rylie Boone then got some good metal on the ball, driving a fly ball to the warning track in right, but Katie Kistler chased it down for the final out. Granted, even if the Boone had hit a grand-slam, Florida still would have led 9-7 with two outs and bases empty. Still, one more runner would have brought the tying run to the plate for OU.
An important thing to keep in mind is that OU did not use Kelly Maxwell, its most effective WCWS pitcher so far, in this game. Nicole May started for the Sooners and Kierston Deal went most of the rest of the way in long relief...