Alabama coach Patrick Murphy made an odd choice of starting third pitcher Krystal Goodman over Sarah Cornell or Montana Fouts. In the beginning, it looked like a big mistake as the Sooners scored two in the first on a walk, double, and a pair of wild pitches.

Oklahoma again started Giselle Juarez but she was not effective early, especially to right-handers. After a solo home run by Bama senior Reagan Dykes in the second inning, the All-American was lifted from the game.

Goodman looked sharp the next two innings but found trouble with her control in the fourth, though escaped without any damage. Murphy stuck with her in the fifth and let her go one batter too long as Jocelyn Alo hit a two-run bomb to dead center that was one of the longest home runs of the WCWS to put OU up 4-1. It was only the second hit of the game for the Sooners.

The Alo home run came right after the Bama Gnome came crashing to the concrete. [I think a Sooners fan knocked it down which sucks. Note the girl on the right in the white hat in the video below. She is acting like she saw the whole thing happen.]

That didn't sit well with the Crimson Tide. In the top of the sixth, Dykes took a base on balls with two outs. Skylar Wallace followed it up with a home run to left field to cut the lead to one.

For who knows what reason, Murphy returned Goodman to the circle in the sixth and the score was 6-3 after two batters. The junior pitched her heart out but just ran out of gas. Cornell came in and the umpire was simply not giving her the corners and you could see she was visibly annoyed. So, then she left a pitch right over the middle that was deposited into the outfield stands.

It was a valiant effort by the Tide but not quite enough as the Sooners got the win.

The loss eliminates Bama from the tournament, leaving UCLA and Oklahoma to duke it out for the championship (not that I’ll watch).

OVERVIEW

It was an incredible season for the Crimson Tide. After being picked to finish eighth in the SEC and then getting an eight seed despite winning the conference regular season by four games, Alabama made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to the team that had been number one all season. The Tide played spirited, tough softball throughout the tournament and proved worthy of being among the top four, if not top two, best teams in the nation.

See you next season!

ROLL TIDE