Cydney Sanders and Grace Lyons hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning, leading No. 1 Oklahoma to a 3–1 win over No. 3 Florida State as the Sooners won their third consecutive Women’s College World Series championship on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma (61–1) swept the best-of-three championship series. The Sooners won their final 53 games to end the season as they joined UCLA (1988–90) as the only teams to capture three WCWS titles in a row.
“It is incredibly hard (to win three straight),” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said. “I don’t know how to explain it. I just can tell you the way I feel right now is free because the expectation is overwhelming, the pressure is overwhelming. ... It’s extremely rewarding. ...
“The fact that we got here and we won this is just mind-boggling with all of the wave of pressure and so forth, I could not be more proud of this group.”
The Seminoles (58–11) took a 1–0 lead on a fourth-inning homer by Mack Leonard.
Sanders responded with a leadoff homer in the next half-inning, and then Lyons went deep to put Oklahoma in front. Alynah Torres gave the Sooners an insurance run with an RBI single in the sixth.
Oklahoma’s Jordy Bahl, who threw a complete game in a 5–0 victory in Game 1 of the final round on Wednesday, came on in relief and got the win in Game 2, too. She threw three perfect innings, striking out three. Sooners starter Alex Storako allowed one run on three hits and a walk with two strikeouts in four innings.
Florida State pitcher Kathryn Sandercock yielded three runs on eight hits in a complete game. She walked one and fanned three.
Seminoles coach Lonni Alameda said, “Congratulations to OU. They’re just firing on all cylinders. It’s pretty cool. I think a lot of people were texting me throughout, like a lot of people don’t like that one team’s winning all the time. I get a little vibe sometimes of, like, take down the machine. We gave our best for that, but they’re really good.”
