Sooners Storm Into WCWS Semifinals With 9-0 Victory Over Lady Vols

Update (June 4, 4:35 p.m.): The Sooners will face Stanford on Monday at 11 a.m. for a spot in the Championship Series. Stanford has to beat OU twice to eliminate the Sooners. OU and Stanford met on Thursday in the first round of the Women's College World Series and OU came out with a 2-0 win.

Related Story: Sooners' Victory Over Stanford Cardinal Puts Them Closer To Third Consecutive Championship

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This entire season has been a numbers game for the Oklahoma softball team, and more impressive numbers kept coming with Saturday afternoon's 9-0 methodical victory over No. 4-seeded Tennessee in the Women's College World Series.

The latest update:

· The Sooners (58-1) extended their Division I record winning streak to 50 straight.

· They set a school record with their 34th shutout of the season, eclipsing the previous mark of 33 set last year.

· They have now won 17 straight games the last three seasons against Southeastern Conference opponents, a league they will join in the 2024-25 school year.

· They became the first team since Florida in 2017 to start the WCWS with back-to-back shutouts. It marked just the third time this season the 50-win Volunteers have been shut out.

OU's next contest will be Monday at 11 a.m. CT against the winner of Sunday's 2 p.m. elimination game between Stanford (46-14) and Florida State (56-9) or Washington (44-13).

With one more victory, the Sooners will advance to the best-of-three national championship series for the fourth straight time and the fifth time in the last six tournaments (there was no WCWS in 2020 due to COVID-19).

"Extremely proud of this team and the way they played pretty flawless, attacking offensively, pitching staff, all of them, on point," OU coach Patty Gasso said afterward. "Defense on point. I mean, everything was exactly the way we hoped it would be. Very proud of this team. Really stepping forward, getting the day off (Sunday), getting to recover is really important."

Sooners two-time First Team All-American righthander Jordy Bahl (20-1) got the win, working 3.2 innings and throwing just 54 pitches.

No Tennessee runner reached third base the entire game.

Meanwhile, OU scored all its runs in the second and third innings, had at least one baserunner in every inning, but left the bases loaded in the first. Seven different Sooners scored and eight of their nine starters reached base.

"Certainly not the way we wanted to play or expected to play today," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said afterward. "That wasn't us out there. At the same time, you have to give a lot of credit to Oklahoma. They are an exceptional team. We knew that coming in. We knew that we had to play a pretty near flawless game in every phase of the game to have a chance at a victory. We didn't do that, and you saw what happened."

The Volunteers used four pitchers, none of whom was ace Ashley Rogers (19-1; 0.83 ERA), who is presumed to throw against the Cowgirls on Sunday.

"Just scouting them, kind of watching a lot of the other games where people had been able to kind of hold the number in check as far as runs scored, I felt like Karlyn (Pickens) presented a pretty good option to start with," Weekly explained. "I didn't plan on anyone going the full game or letting them see anybody too many times. I thought that was something else important in terms of just trying to keep them off balance. We planned to throw different people at 'em. The people we put in there I thought had the pitches in their arsenal that would be most successful. We didn't execute in a lot of those instances, but ultimately that decision is on me."

The Sooners also used four pitchers, but Alex Storako, Kierston Deal and Nicole May made relief appearances just to step on the field for the first time after Bahl had opened with a complete game shutout against Stanford on Thursday afternoon. The foursome combined on a run-rule, one-hitter with three strikeouts.

"Really wanted to give everybody an opportunity to get on the mound. They ran with it," Gasso said afterward.

The beginning of the end for Tennessee came with two out and two on in the second inning when OU second baseman Tiare Jennings hit a line drive over the fence in left-center to give the Sooners a 3-0 lead.

"All about adjusting," Jennings said of her second at-bat. "I know my first at-bat got a little jammed. I wanted to make a good adjustment. Two outs, two on, just tried to hit the ball hard, keep passing the bat. Got a good pitch, drove it, it ended up working out."

Jennings' blast chased Vols starter Karlyn Pickens (9-7), who frequently threw a 75 mph fastball, but already had thrown 48 pitches in 1.2 innings. By comparison, Bahl didn't throw her 48th pitch until there was one out in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fourth, Sooners senior catcher Kinzie Hansen hit a line-drive homer to left-center that was hit even harder and lower than Jennings'. Hansen's two-run shot made the score 5-0 and, again, immediately chased Tennessee's second pitcher from the game.

"I think a lot of teams have a lot of different tactics to throw at us every single game," Hansen said of Pickens starting in place of Rogers. "It was something we were surprised by, but excited for. It's a new challenge every day. We weren't technically expecting it, but when it came and we found out who was starting, who was coming in and just the different strategies people try to throw at us, we were excited for those challenges, and it makes us better going forward."

Hansen atoned for grounding out with the bases loaded in the first inning.

"One thing that is special about our team is we are not result-oriented," Hansen said. "Bat to bat, pitch to pitch, we're quick to make adjustments."

Kylie Boone's two-run triple to left-center later in the third inning pushed the score to 7-0 with one out.

OU then scored on a wild pitch with Jennings batting for the second time in the inning. After a third pitching change, Coleman scored on another wild pitch to make it 9-0, thus creating a run-rule possibility.

Sooners' pinch-hitter Sophia Nugent was robbed of a solo home run to center field with two outs in the bottom of the fourth when Milloy snared the ball over the fence.

"For us, pitching against us has prepared us for this," Gasso said of routinely facing the country's finest, which included USA Softball Player of the Year finalist Valerie Cagle of Clemson at the Norman Super Regional, followed by National Freshman of the Year in Stanford flame-thrower NiJaree Canady in Thursday's 2-0 opening survival against Stanford.

"Those were tough battles for us," Gasso said. "This group feels if they can beat those pitchers, they can beat everybody. So before we even play, it's that mentality of that kind of wave that's building saying, We're prepared, we're ready for this. I think that has really enabled us to have confidence coming in here."

NOTES & NUMBERS

• Bahl, Storako (0.2 IP), Deal (0.1) and May (0.1) combined to earn OU's program-record 34th shutout of the season. 

• The staff surrendered just one hit in a game for the eighth time this season. 

• OU plated six runs on four hits in the third to break the game open and coast to the team's 28th run-rule win of 2023.

• Jennings' blast was her team-leading fifth of the NCAA postseason and 17th of the year, while Hansen hit her third in postseason play and 13th of the season. 

• Jennings has accumulated 26 runs batted in across her three WCWS played (2021-23), just two RBIs shy of former teammate Jocelyn Alo's WCWS career record 28. Her eight career homers at the WCWS trails only Alo's 12.

• After surrendering a leadoff double to start the game, Bahl retired 10 straight Volunteers from the first through fourth innings. • The Sooner ace leads all WCWS pitchers in 2023 with 14 strikeouts through two games. Bahl has surrendered just one earned run this NCAA postseason in 23.3 innings pitched, striking out 30 in those five appearances. 

• Oklahoma became the first team since 2017 Florida to open the World Series with back-to-back shutout victories. 

• The shutout was just the third time the Volunteers had been blanked this season, and the first time they've been run-ruled. 

• OU improved its NCAA record win streak to 50 games.

• The Sooners advance to their seventh consecutive WCWS semifinal appearance, making the final four every completed season dating back to 2016. 

• OU has advanced to the championship series each of the last three seasons, one win away from four straight.