No. 1 Oklahoma Eliminates Cal from NCAA Softball Tournament
Cal was hoping to pull off a major upset, but instead the Bears became another statistic in Oklahoma’s record-setting run.
The top-ranked Sooners hit four home runs before Cal had its first at-bat as Oklahoma hammered Cal 16-3 in five innings on Sunday, eliminating the Golden Bears from the Norman, Okla., Regional of the NCAA Softball tournament.
The Bears (35-21-1) made their first postseason appearance in five years and did well to get to Sunday’s Regional championship round. Cal was the only team to score against Oklahoma in the Sooners’ three games in this four-team Regional, and the Bears got five hits after Oklahoma had yielded just two hits in its first two games combined. The Bears even knocked Oklahoma starting pitcher Alex Storako out of the game in the third inning after Storako began the game with a 17-0 record and a 0.74 ERA.
However, the Bears were overmatched by Oklahoma, one of the best collegiate softball teams in history which now advances to the Super Regionals.
The Sooner (54-1) smacked six home runs for the game, tying an NCAA tournament record, and led 14-0 after three innings. They ended the game after five innings due to the run-ahead rule. (If a teams leads by eight runs or more after five innings, the game is ended.)
Oklahoma has now won 46 games in a row, one shy of the Division I record of 47 straight wins achieved by Arizona from April 1996 to March 1997. The Sooners have won 63 straight home games, their last loss in Norman coming more than three years ago.
If Cal had won that game it would have had to beat the Oklahoma again later Sunday to capture the double-elimination Regional event. Oklahoma never gave Cal a chance to consider that possibility, though.
Cal starting pitcher Haylei Archer struck out the first batter she faced, but that was the only out she recorded as she was out of the game after one-third of an inning. Tiare Jennings hit the first of her two home runs of the game, then Alyssa Brito, who also hit two homers, added a two-run homer. Archer was replaced by Annabel Teperson, who promptly gave up a two-run homer to Cydney Sanders and a solo blast to Jocelyn Erickson.
Cal had recorded just one out and trailed 6-0. The Bears batted in the bottom of the first inning trailing by six runs.
Oklahoma hit two more home runs later in the game, and finished with 19 hits in five innings.
Cal broke through in the bottom of the third inning as Kacey Zoback had an RBI single and Sona Halajian added a two-run single, knocking Storako out of the game.
It did not prevent the Sooners from ending the game after five innings and ending Cal's season.
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