OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Jayda Coleman hit a game-ending homer in the eighth inning to give Oklahoma a 6-5 victory over Florida in the Women’s College World Series semifinals on Tuesday, moving the Sooners into the championship series with a chance at an unprecedented fourth straight title.
Coleman sent Keagan Rothrock’s 154th pitch of the game just past the outstretched glove of left fielder Korbe Otis and over the fence.
“I was going to take my time, really get a pitch that I wanted to see,” Coleman said. “I saw middle. I knew I needed to stay through the ball. Going around the bases, I lost it, just started crying.”
Coleman thrust her arms above her head as she rounded the bases and was mobbed by teammates at the plate as fans screamed in the stadium just a half-hour drive from the Oklahoma campus in Norman.
“I think one of the better games in College World Series history,” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said. “A nail-biter. A little bit of everything.”
Ella Parker homered and drove in three runs for the second-seeded Sooners (57-7), who will will play No. 1 seed Texas (55-8) in the best-of-three championship series starting Wednesday night. Oklahoma has won five of the past seven national titles and seven overall. Texas has never won a national title.
Oklahoma defeated Texas in the championship series in 2022. This year, Texas won the Big 12 regular-season title while Oklahoma won the conference tournament. The rival schools both will leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference next season.
Gasso, who has led the Sooners to seven national titles, said she didn’t assume the Sooners would get back to the championship series.
“I don’t know that I could tell you that I believed that we would be here again because it’s so difficult to get here,” she said. “The way we did it was wonderful.”
Texas is 3-0 in the World Series this year, each game a one-hit shutout.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, lost to Florida 9-3 a day earlier and had to rally from a three-run deficit in Tuesday’s elimination game.
Rothrock, a freshman, threw 379 pitches in three days to give the Gators a chance.
“I mean, I don’t even have words,” Florida centerfielder Kendra Falby said. “There’s only so much you can ask of a freshman. She’s not even a freshman. I don’t consider her a freshman, like whatsoever. Keagan came out and did everything and more for us.”
