{"id":35495,"date":"2022-06-03T20:25:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T20:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ou-blasts-past-cats-in-wcws-opener\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T20:25:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T20:25:09","slug":"ou-blasts-past-cats-in-wcws-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ou-blasts-past-cats-in-wcws-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"OU Blasts Past Cats in WCWS Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"sidearm-story-template-text-aside\" aria-label=\"Related Sport Links\">&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<section class=\"sidearm-story-template-links\" aria-label=\"Story Links\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"hide\">Story Links<\/h2>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n   <\/section>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n                             &#13;<br \/>\n                    <\/aside>\n<p><b>OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.<\/b> &#8211; Oklahoma Hall of Fame coach <dfn>Patty Gasso<\/dfn> wanted people to know she wasn&#8217;t trying to show up anybody when she inserted freshman All-American righthander <dfn>Jordy Bahl<\/dfn> to get the final out of Thursday afternoon&#8217;s 13-2 victory over Northwestern in the opening round of the Women&#8217;s College World Series.  <\/p>\n<p>Gasso did, however, want to show the softball world that the top-ranked, top-seeded Sooners (55-2) are back to having a three-headed monster available inside the pitching circle with the return of the engagingly magnetizing Bahl, who hadn&#8217;t pitched since May 6 due to an injury in her throwing arm.<\/p>\n<p>Though Bahl&#8217;s one-third inning of work was hardly dominant (two hits allowed facing three batters), a noticeable vibe enraptured her teammates along with the sellout crowd of 12,282 at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew with two outs we wanted to do it,&#8221; Gasso said of inserting Bahl, &#8220;and I hope no one takes offense to that. I&#8217;m not trying to show off anything or anything like that. It&#8217;s really thinking ahead and strategizing as to a young lady who has been dying to get on this mound and struggling through it. To give her that opportunity was gold, and our team responded to it. I wasn&#8217;t trying to make a big deal out of it. It was purely to say, &#8216;Get a feel for what this feels like so you&#8217;ll be ready if and when we go again.&#8217;  &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>With the victory over the Wildcats (45-12), the Sooners will next play Saturday at 2 pm against Red River Rival Texas, which opened the WCWS with a convincing 7-2 triumph over UCLA.  The Longhorns (44-19-1) are one of only two teams to defeat OU this season, posting a 4-2 victory in Austin on April 16.<\/p>\n<p>The way Gasso sees it, her team won twice on Thursday by beating Northwestern and simultaneously being able to return Bahl to the circle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I felt like I really wanted her to feel this atmosphere,&#8221; Gasso said.  &#8220;Especially going into Saturday because her stuff is moving, and it&#8217;s working. It was a victory just seeing her being able to pitch because truly I didn&#8217;t think she would be able to come back (from her injury). She&#8217;s done everything right , and she&#8217;s done it 24 hours a day every day since it happened.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need her, but these two pitchers (righthanded starters <dfn>Hope Trautwein<\/dfn> and sophomore <dfn>Nicole May<\/dfn>) have been crushing it.  So adding Jordy to the mix and making you now train for three different pitchers instead of two is difficult for teams. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Earning the win over the Wildcats started out slowly for the Sooners, who headed into the bottom of the third inning trailing 1-0.<\/p>\n<p>For the first two innings Northwestern lefthanded workhorse Danielle Williams (31-5), a unanimous selection as Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, kept the Sooners off-balance with three strikeouts thanks primarily her change-up.<\/p>\n<p>Northwestern owned the lead thanks to rightfielder Rachel Lewis hitting a solo shot to left for her 23<sup>rd<\/sup> home run of the season.  It was just the third dinger super senior Trautwein (19-1) had surrendered all season.  In the end, it wound up being the only hit Trautwein allowed in 4 2\/3 inning before giving way to Bahl for the final out.<\/p>\n<p>Trautwein struggled early with her control, walking four in the first three innings.  She finished with five walks and seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>Given Williams&#8217; off-speed prowess, patience at the plate most certainly was a virtue for OU.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We just have to keep telling them what the plan is (facing Williams) because it&#8217;s one thing to work on it at practice and then another thing to be standing on the biggest stage and seeing it in person,&#8221; Gasso said.  &#8220;It was more about, &#8216;Just trust what we&#8217;re talking about.&#8217;  It&#8217;s hard to sit, sit, sit, wait. You know? They&#8217;re not used to that. They like to go free, and they like to go fast. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Gasso&#8217;s rather assertive message finally registered in the bottom of the third when the Sooners erupted for six runs followed by seven more in the fourth as they extended their Division I record total of run-rule victories to 39 in 57 games (.684) this season .<\/p>\n<p>Rightfielder <dfn>Rylie Boone<\/dfn> started the onslaught when she roped a line-drive double directly over Lewis&#8217; head in right.  On the next pitch, third baseman <dfn>Jana Johns<\/dfn> singled to left to score Boone and tie the score at 1.<\/p>\n<p>Centerfielder <dfn>Jayda Coleman<\/dfn> singled to right to advance Johns to second.  Designated player <dfn>Jocelyn Alo<\/dfn> walked on four straight pitches to load the bases for second baseman <dfn>Tiare Jennings<\/dfn>who promptly lined the first pitch over the centerfield wall for a grand slam and a 5-1 lead for the Sooners.<\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, it was OU&#8217;s first-ever grand slam in 15 WCWS appearances since 2000. &#8220;Really?&#8221;  said a stunned Gasso.  &#8220;I have a hard time believing that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With still no outs in the inning, shortstop <dfn>Grace Lyons<\/dfn> singled sharply to shortstop and eventually scored when Boone singled up the up middle in her second at-bat of the inning to make it 6-1.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<dfn>Rylie Boone<\/dfn> was really the catalyst of all this, &#8220;Gasso said.&#8221; It just kind of bled into everybody else.  Everybody else knew, &#8216;OK, I have got to change.  I must change. &#8216;  You started to see what that looked like. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Buoyed by Boone, her teammates immediately followed suit.  &#8220;I think we just think pass the bat and trust our teammates,&#8221; Boone said.  &#8220;Everyone is going to get the job done, so mainly just passing the bat and trusting each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lyons collected two RBI in the fourth inning with a single up the middle to push the lead to 8-1.  Boone was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give OU a 9-1 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Johns followed with a grand slam of her own to right to make it 13-1.  It marked only the second time in WCWS history a team had two grand slams in the same game.  Washington did it against Georgia in 2009.<\/p>\n<p><b><u>NOTES &#038; NUMBERS<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <dfn>Tiare Jennings&#8217;<\/dfn> third-inning grand slam was the first grand slam in program history at the WCWS.  Johns quickly made it two in the fourth inning. <\/p>\n<p>\u2022 OU&#8217;s two grand slams marked just the second time in WCWS history a team has hit a pair of grand slams in a single game (Washington, 2009 vs. Georgia). <\/p>\n<p>\u2022 It was Jennings&#8217; team-high third grand slam of the season and fourth of her career.  Johns&#8217; was her di lei first di lei as a Sooner and second of her career (1 as a freshman at South Carolina, 2\/25\/18)<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 OU broke WCWS program records for runs (13, previously 10) and RBIs (13, previously 10 vs. UCLA, 2021).  The Sooners tied the WCWS school record for hits with 11, having done so four times in Oklahoma City in program history.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <dfn>Jana Johns<\/dfn> broke the WCWS program record for RBIs with 5. The previous record was four, done twice and most recently in 2013 when Keilani Ricketts had four vs.  Tennessee. <\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The mercy-rule win was OU&#8217;s 39th of the season, extending the program record. <\/p>\n<p>\u2022 OU has hit a home run in 51 of 57 games and Thursday&#8217;s game was the 36th multi-homer game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Northwestern&#8217;s 1-0 lead in the third inning was the first time OU has trailed this NCAA postseason and just the 10<sup>th<\/sup> time this season OU has been behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 OU is 9-6 all-time in WCWS openers.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p align=\"center\"><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '532571424217817');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Story Links &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. &#8211; Oklahoma Hall of Fame coach Patty Gasso wanted people to know she wasn&#8217;t trying to show up anybody when she inserted freshman All-American righthander Jordy Bahl to get the final out of Thursday afternoon&#8217;s 13-2 victory over Northwestern &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ou-blasts-past-cats-in-wcws-opener\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">OU Blasts Past Cats in WCWS Opener<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d4sjo25z9q3iq.cloudfront.net\/images\/2022\/6\/2\/Lead_Tiare_WCWS_G1.jpg?preset=large.socialmediaimage","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}