How Oklahoma, Texas earned showdown in Women’s College World Series championship series (2024)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Women’s College World Series championship teams are set, and it’s a Red River rivalry matchup: No. 1 Texas against No. 2 Oklahoma for the title.

The Sooners beat Florida 6-5 in eight innings in a winner-take-all semifinal Tuesday afternoon behind a walk-off home run by senior Jayda Coleman. The day prior, the Gators snapped Oklahoma’s 20-game NCAA tournament winning steak to force the elimination game.

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Here come extra innings. Oklahoma leaves two stranded on base in the bottom of the seventh and we're still tied 5-5.

To the bottom of the sixth inning we go and it's still 5-4, Florida. Oklahoma actually has the edge in hits (8-4) but Florida's three home runs have given it the edge.

As soon as Kelly Maxwell looked like she was getting in a groove with two solid strikeouts against Korbe Otis and Jocelyn Erickson, she gave up a home run to Reagan Walsh on the first pitch. That's Florida's third home run of the day and seventh in the last two days against Oklahoma. The Gators have a 5-2 lead in the third inning.

The overwhelming feeling yesterday was OU would bounce back after its first NCAA tournament loss since 2022. Right now, it looks more like the wheels might actually be falling off the bus.

Yesterday, Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said one of the advantages of having the "if necessary" game today was the extra time it would give the Sooners to make adjustments — especially when it came to their evaluations of Florida pitcher Keagan Rothrock.

" (Hitting coach) JT (Gasso) does a really good job looking at video, creating game plans," Gasso said. "We can go back and see what we did not do well, make those adjustments."

In their first inning against the Florida freshman, the Sooners drew three hits and two runs.

That was a strong 10-pitch at bat for Tiare Jennings, who kept hitting foul before finding her pitch for a double to center field. Next to the plate, Ella Parker drilled a two-run homer to tie this one up.

Florida is having a meeting in the circle after Alyssa Brito drew a double herself, the third consecutive hit against Rothrock.

Florida strikes first once again. After throwing a leadoff walk, OU pitcher Kelly Maxwell gives up a two-run homer hit by Jocelyn Erickson to right field.

Yesterday, the Sooners fell too far behind for their offense to catch up. They need to avoid that today and it's already 2-0 Gators.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – With top-seeded Texas eliminating No. 8 Stanford in Monday's Women's College World Series semifinals, Pac-12 softball has officially come to an end.

"It's very sad," said Texas coach Mike White, who previously worked as an assistant and head coach at Oregon. "We all don't know how it's going to turn out in the future, what's going to happen, how it's going to play out because of – you know, it was a money move, just for TV and everything."

The Pac-12 is the winningest conference in college softball and the home of rich history in the sport. Of the 40 national championships since 1982, current Pac-12 teams have won 24 titles (UCLA's 1995 championship was vacated by the NCAA).

UCLA is the winningest program in college softball history with 12 titles, followed by Arizona's eight. The Bruins joined Stanford as the two Pac-12 reps in this year's WCWS but were eliminated after losing to the Cardinal on Sunday night.

"It's sad. It's bittersweet," Stanford coach Jessica Allister said. "To think about how far this program has come in the last seven years, where we're sitting here disappointed with a top-four finish and feeling like we could have done more, that's great.

"It's sad that the conference is going away. Hopefully one day it will come back in some form (smiling). Really, really proud of Stanford softball and proud of the women that I've been able to spend all this time with."

Texas wins 1-0 and advances to the championship series behind another shutout from Teagan Kavan.

An error like that fumble by Taryn Kern at second base is so costly right now. Texas gets Alyssa Washington on base with no outs and a 0-0 tie game. Then Joley Mitchell hits a double to put Texas runners on second and third base.

One run could easily be the determining factor tonight. This is the definition of a pitchers duel, with neither team's offense able to get much going off elite performances from NiJa Canady and Teagan Kavan. And that was a tough end to the bottom of the sixth for Stanford, with Taryn Kern striking out on an action clock violation. Remember, the batter has to be in position with 10 seconds left.

To the seventh inning we go!