Oklahoma Tops Florida State to Advance to WCWS

Oklahoma senior Jayda Coleman only had two putouts in the Sooners second game of the Norman Super Regional against Florida State, but she made sure one of them was memorable.

Coleman made a highlight-reel, home run robbing play on a fly ball off the bat of Jaysoni Beachum in the fifth inning helping propel Oklahoma to a 4-2 win over the Seminoles.

With the victory, the Sooners advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the eighth consecutive season and earned an opportunity to become the first team in NCAA Division I history to win four consecutive national championships.

But before the Sooners could secure a trip up Interstate-35 to Oklahoma City, they had to eliminate a gritty group of Seminoles.

OU posted an 11-3 run-rule victory in the series opener, but Florida State rose to the challenge in game two of the Norman Super Regional.

Both teams used a bevy of arms in an attempt to keep the opposition off the scoreboard. For Oklahoma, head coach Patty Gasso turned to Kierston Deal, Karlie Keeney and Nicole May while Florida State head coach Lonni Alameda utilized Ashtyn Danley, Makenna Reid and Mimi Gooden.

As the visitor in game two, Oklahoma struck first in the top of the third inning.

Tiare Jennings singled with one out and advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a passed ball. After Ella Parker drew a walk, the Sooners executed a perfect play where Parker allowed herself to be caught in a rundown while Jennings scampered home from third with the first run of the game.

Florida State, which saw its season come to a close with a record of 46-16, wasted little time in tying the game as Beachum led off the bottom of the third inning with a home run to leftfield.

The game remained deadlocked until the top of the fifth inning when Oklahoma took the lead for good.

Coleman singled to lead off the fifth and advanced to third when Parker singled to rightfield.

The Sooners, who improved to 54-6, took the lead for good when Parker stole second and Coleman scored on a wild pitch.

Two batters later Kasidi Pickering increased the lead to 4-1 with a home run to leftfield that scored Parker ahead of her.

But the Seminoles were far from done.

Beachum led off the inning and belted what appeared to be her second home run of the game, but Coleman sprinted back to the wall and made an incredible catch to keep the game at 4-1 in favor of the Sooners.

“I like all my robbed home runs. I’m not going to lie,” Coleman said. “But I will have to say I had 110-percent trust in (OU leftfielder) Hannah Coor, because she was the one telling me how much space I had to the wall. I didn’t even look back at the wall at all. And just to see her face after I caught it. She was like, ‘Oh, my God. You actually caught it.’ That was the best thing of all was watching your teammates celebrate. The best part of making those plays is watching your teammates celebrate and just watching how happy they are.”

Kalei Harding followed with a drive that not even Coleman could catch as she hit a towering home run to left and the Seminoles trimmed the lead to 4-2.

Isa Torres kept the pressure on for the Seminoles as she lined a two-out double, but Keeney was able to get a groundout to end the inning.

May entered in the bottom of the sixth inning and took the Sooners home as she worked two perfect innings to earn her second save of the season.

“There is nobody I would rather have in the circle in that situation than Nicole May,” said Gasso.

OU will have five days off before returning to action at the WCWS beginning on May 30 at OGE Energy Field at Devon Park. The Sooners will meet the Missouri-Duke winner in the Columbia Super Regional.

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