All Sooners

OU Softball: Oklahoma Must Endure WCWS Rematch to Advance to Championship Series

The 9-seeded Stanford Cardinal have battled back out of the loser's bracket to square off against Oklahoma in Monday's WCWS semifinal.

Ryan Chapman

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s Women’s College World Series will come full-circle on Monday.

The top-ranked Sooners, riding a 50-game win streak and 58-1 overall, are win one away from returning to the Championship Series for the fourth straight season.

But first they’ll have to overcome their first opponent at the WCWS — the 9-seeded Stanford Cardinal.

OU battled freshman sensation NiJaree Canady in Thursday, emerging with a 2-0 win after fifth inning heroics from Jayda Coleman.

After battling through the loser’s bracket, notching wins over Alabama and Washington, Canady and her Cardinal will get another shot at the Sooners.

Though OU was able to plate a pair of runs, the offense didn’t exactly figure out Canady.

How to Watch Oklahoma vs. Stanford:

  • Monday, 11 a.m., ESPN

Stanford’s star right-hander struck out seven Oklahoma hitters, allowing just four hits and one walk, and only one of the OU runs was earned.

Heading into the contest, Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso knew the difficult task at hand for her Sooners.

“When I saw our matchup ‘I’m like, okay, oh, no, let's go,’” Gasso said after the game with Stanford on Thursday. “Let's get the machine cranking up. Let's grease it up, make sure it's working, they can throw that hard.”

Oklahoma’s work studying Canady didn’t immediately pay off.

OU’s top four hitters in the lineup, Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Haley Lee and Kinzie Hansen, finished Thursday’s contest a combined 2-for-11, with Coleman responsible for both hits.

Canady brought the heat, hitting as high as 75 miles per hour on the radar gun while still mixing in her rise ball to get the Oklahoma offense to chase balls high out of the zone.

“She wanted to throw 75,” Coleman said after the game. “… She was really starting ahead. She was getting strikes.

“I think we realized we needed to take those pitches up in the zone. For some reason we felt like we needed to swing at them, but we got a little bit more disciplined as the innings went on and just kind of letting those go and really focusing on the strikes that were lower in the zone.”

If the Sooners do lock in on Canady, Stanford can also turn to NFCA Second Team All-American Alana Vawter, who only faced six OU batters on Thursday.

But Gasso has plenty of pitching options herself.

Sophomore right-hander Jordy Bahl pitch the complete-game shutout in the WCWS opener, striking out 11 Stanford batters, but she also got the nod in OU’s second game against Tennessee.

SB - Alynah Torres, 2023 WCWS
Oklahoma right fielder Alynah Torres' single helped spark OU's two-run fifth inning against Stanford on Thursday :: BRYAN TERRY / THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK

Neither Nicole May nor Alex Storako has started yet in the World Series, as the two have combined to face four total batters in the last two games.

Storako started the early-season battle between the two teams, so May could be in line for the start.

Regardless of who starts in the circle, the Cardinal offense has continued to sputter in the WCWS.

Stanford plated just two runs against Alabama on Friday, and slid past Washington 1-0 in Sunday’s elimination game.

The Sooners also have some breathing room.

Oklahoma will have to lose twice in a row against the Cardinal to crash out of the tournament, as OU enters Monday in the exact same position it found itself last year in the semifinals against UCLA.

Gasso’s team needed both games to get past the Bruins in 2022, but it didn’t derail OU’s momentum, as the Sooners went on to dominate the Championship Series against Texas.

A win in the first meeting on Monday would turn it into the only matchup for the Sooners, as Oklahoma will have the opportunity to bank the maximum amount of rest by taking care of business right off the bat.

The Sooners and the Cardinal will meet at Hall of Fame Stadium at 11 a.m.. Should Stanford win, they’ll turn around and play a do-or-die game against OU at 1:30 p.m.

Both the semifinal and the potential if-necessary game will be broadcast on ESPN. 

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is deputy editor at AllSooners and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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