OKLAHOMA CITY — Florida hit four home runs, including two by Skylar Wallace and an inside-the-parker by Kendra Falby, as the Gators knocked off Oklahoma 9-3 in the Women’s College World Series on Monday.
The teams will play again Tuesday in an elimination game for a berth in the WCWS Championship Series. The if-necessary game was originally scheduled to be played immediately after the first, but a lengthy rain delay before the game caused the NCAA to shift the schedule.
The loss snapped Oklahoma’s NCAA-record 20-game NCAA Tournament winning streak. The Sooners’ last tournament loss came during the semifinals of the 2022 WCWS.
Falby had a strong performance before her homer, making a catch at the wall that kept the Sooners (56-7) off the board in the second.
When Falby came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the inning, she was hitless in her last 20 at-bats.
But Falby slapped the ball to left and Oklahoma’s Rylie Boone gave chase, diving but coming up short. The ball bounced past Boone and into the corner, and Falby easily scored for just the third inside-the-park home run in WCWS history, putting the Gators (54-14) up 2-0.
Wallace followed with a solo shot to make it 3-0.
Reagan Walsh added a three-run blast in the fourth to make it 7-1 and Wallace added a two-run shot in the fifth.
Keagan Rothrock pitched all seven innings for Florida and scattered seven hits and seven walks with three strikeouts. Oklahoma starter Nicole May was tagged with the loss after lasting just two innings and yielding three runs on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
–Field Level Media