Sooners Drop First of Two Semifinal Games

¹Oklahoma

⁸Alabama

Box Score

Highlights

Photos

Inning-by-Inning
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H	E
OU	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
UA	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	2

Pitching
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Fouts (21-6)	8.0	4	0	0	4	5
L - Juarez (28-2)	7.2	4	1	1	0	8

Individual Leaders
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - Alo	2	0	1	0	2	0
UA - Hardy	1	0	1	1	0	0

NORMAN – Alabama forced an “if necessary” finale against top-ranked Oklahoma with a 1-0 victory in eight innings at the Women's College World Series on Sunday.

A sellout crowd of 9,046 at USA Hall of Fame Stadium watched a pitchers' duel between Sooners ace left-hander Giselle Juarez and Crimson Tide freshman right-hander Montana Fouts.

The game was decided on Caroline Hardy's pinch-hit single up the middle past diving second baseman Caleigh Clifton that scored pinch-runner Kloyee Anderson from second base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Juarez allowed four hits – two coming in the decisive eighth inning – had zero walks and eight strikeouts in just 109 pitches. Fouts also allowed four hits, had four walks and five strikeouts and needed 143 pitches.

After power-hitting Alabama first baseman Bailey Hemphill hit a bloop single to left in the first inning, Juarez retired 18 consecutive batters. With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Kaylee Tow hit a double to center field, which popped out of Nicole Mendes' glove when she collided hard with the outfield wall.

Two batters later, Mendes extended the game with a diving catch on a sinking line drive off the bat of Merris Schroder that would have scored the winning run had it fallen.

Then came the decisive eighth inning.

Sooners sophomore rightfielder Jocelyn Alo doubled down the left-field line with two outs in the top of the eighth, but freshman Grace Green struck out to end the inning.

No runner for either team reached third base until the game-winning sequence. OU (56-4) stranded eight base runners and the Tide (60-9) left only two.

The top-seeded Sooners will be the home team in the “if” game, which was set to start 45 minutes after No. 8-seeded Alabama's victory.

The winner of that game will advance to play No. 2-seeded UCLA (54-6) in the best-of-three championship series that begins Monday at 6:30 p.m.

The Bruins got to the championship series by outlasting Pac-12 rival Washington (52-9) with a 3-0 victory in 10 innings prior to the OU-Alabama game, which delayed the start of the second contest by one hour, 45 minutes. That game was decided by a walk-off, 3-run homer from two-time National Player of the Year Rachel Garcia.