Sooners Drop WCWS Opener

Thursday, June 3

Oklahoma City, Okla.

11 AM

University of Oklahoma

50-3

James Madison

40-2

James Madison

Oklahoma

Photo by: Ty Russell

June 03, 2021 | Softball

Box Score Box Score: JMU 4, OU 3 Photo Gallery Highlights

By: John Rohde for SoonerSports.com

OKLAHOMA CITY — The unseeded James Madison softball team will go as far as senior righthanded pitcher Odicci Alexander can carry them.

In the opening game of the Women's College World Series on Thursday, Alexander helped carry the Dukes to a stunning 4-3 upset over top-seeded Oklahoma in eight innings by keeping one of the most explosive offenses in Division I history off-balance.

Afterward, Hall of Fame Sooners head coach Patty Gasso made no excuses.

"Look, we flat out got beat. We all admit that," Gasso said. "Alexander is really, really good. The ball gets on you really, really fast. The ball breaks really, really hard. She changes speeds really, really well. So you better have a good plan. I think at the plate some of our plans got lost. You can see that by the way we were swinging. So we need to figure out why. Why did our plans get lost? Were the lights too big for you? Was the speed too fast for you? The video will tell us exactly what we need to know so we can work on fixing that as we go forward."

JMU (40-2) became the first unseeded team to defeat the top seed in the first round of the WCWS since Louisiana-Lafayette beat No. 1 Florida 3-2 in 2008.

Making their 14th WCWS appearance overall and in search of their fifth national title, all since 2000, the Sooners (50-3) will now face Georgia in an elimination game at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

OU has lost just three times this season. Coincidentally, all three of those victorious teams – James Madison, Georgia and Oklahoma State – are in the same side of the WCWS bracket.

Gasso's primary message to her team afterward was "flush it and learn from it."

"You have to have short memory here or you're out of this tournament before you even play your next game," Gasso said. "(OU's players) have been called out. We've watched Florida State do it not that long ago (en route to claiming the 2018 title), so it can be done. But it's going to have to take a completely different approach, attitude, commitment as a team to stay alive as long as you can."

Although the game was witnessed by a record crowd at freshly expanded USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, the Dukes seemed at ease from the start.

Thursday's game-winner came on Kate Gordon's solo home run to left with one out in the eighth.

"I think they have something special going on there," Gasso said of JMU, which faces Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. Friday. "Very calm, very cool, very team-oriented, fearless. You felt no fear from them."

Consistently throwing 70-plus mph fastballs, Alexander (17-1) wound up scattering six hits with nine strikeouts and two walks while throwing 129 pitches in going the distance.

"The way she throws the pitch comes on you really fast," Gasso said of Alexander. "I know it's 70 (mph), but the way it looks to me, it looked like it's 77. We just couldn't track it the way we needed to. The change-up is definitely a bonus for her, but why lay something out there when you can get us chasing things out of the (strike) zone. That's what I felt she was doing."

OU righthander Shannon Saile (17-1) suffered her first loss of the season. She surrendered just three hits, one of which came when Lauren Bernett was ruled safe on a ground-out to second base in the third inning. Bernett later scored on Sarah Jubas' three-run homer that gave the Dukes a 3-0 lead. The other hit came on Gordon's game-winner.

"It's lose or go home now, and I don't think we want to go home," Saile said afterward. "I think next time we come out, we've just got to throw punches early and fast, play like we've got nothing to lose. I think (for) a little bit there we were playing not to lose. I think that's the difference for going forward."

After OU fell behind 3-0, freshly crowned NFCA freshman of the year Tiare Jennings tied the score in the bottom half of the inning with a three-run shot to center field as the Sooners touched Alexander for four straight hits to lead off the inning.

"She's a great pitcher. I give all the credit to her," said Jennings, who went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI against Alexander. "Really effective rise ball that I think we couldn't make adjustments on. But I think that's just what really hurt us at the end, is just making adjustments. I think going on in the future, just continue to make those adjustments as quick as we can to try to win ballgames."

The key to conquering OU's overpowering lineup? "I'd say just focusing on every pitch, knowing where I wanted to put that pitch, just keeping them kind of off-balance," Alexander said.

In the first-ever meeting between the Sooners and James Madison, OU left four runners on base and managed to put just two runners in scoring position.

"Their pitcher absolutely can take them a little bit further in this tournament," Gasso said of Alexander. "I mean, she has the capability of doing that. I know that. Like I said, there's no excuses here. They deserved every minute of that. My focus right now is our team and how we're going to fight through this bracket play."

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