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On and on it went in record time before Oklahoma won, 7-5, in 17 innings (five hours, 28 minutes) of Monday’s game one of the NCAA Softball Division I World Series in Oklahoma City
Best-of-three plays again tonight with Sooners one win from successfully defending their championship
It was a classic. Records were shattered in front of a record crowd, the hours just ticked away, the scoreboard was unable to handle all the innings, the sun had set hours ago, and all measures of time had faded away in a clash of countless twists and turns.
Would dawn settle in and have them serving breakfast in between innings?
On and on it went. It was a blur, a Monday night contest that began at 5:30 (Mountain Time) and ended at two ticks before the midnight hour on the East Coast, and at 10:58 Oklahoma time.
A blur? Well, after top-seed Florida fought back to knot the score the first time, head coach Tim Walton said he wasn’t sure if it was the 8th or the 21st inning when he let his team know how proud he was of them.
Well, coach, it “only” went a college softball World Series record 17 innings before the 10th seeded, defending champion Oklahoma wound up 5 hours and 28 minutes by halting one last Gator challenge to grab a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three final that plays game two tonight.
The final score was 7-5 after sophomore first basemen Shay Knighten lined a 1-2 pitch from Player of the Year, Gator right-hander Kelly Barnhill, into the last rows in left field, with two aboard, to break a 4-4 tie.
Then Sooner junior left-hander Paige Lowary, who was the starter, came back in relief of reliever Page Parker, and struck out Kayli Kvistad with the bags full, two out, and a 1-2 rising fastball.
Twice before, Florida had responded. After taking a 1-0 lead in the last of the fourth, it fell behind in the top of the inning on freshman Nicole Mendes’ 2-run home run over the fence in right. And when Oklahoma sophomore Fale Aviu hit a 2-run shot well over the right field fence in the top of the 12th, back came the Gators to deadlock it at 4-4 in their half of the frame.
The Sooners (60-9) had several heroes, one of which was Mendes. Three innings after her 2-run blast, the Florida lead-off batter lined a the ball off the fence in right, where Mendes grabbed it quickly and fired a strike to second base to get the runner before a record ASA Hall of Fame Stadium crowd around the 10,000 mark at Oklahoma City.
“Epic, epic battle,” said an exhausted Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso, “I don’t know else – but that was it, epic. This was one of the greatest games I’ve even seen, and no doubt the best in college World Series history,”
How true. It was like two heavyweight fighters throwing punch after punch.
It was a game of will, a game of team, a game of character.
Walton was impressed by his team’s resilience, how they twice extended the game. But there could be only one winner, and his side fell short.
The statistics were unbelievable. Four hundred and 96 pitches thrown by four hurlers, 171 at-bats, 31 players involved.
While Florida started its ace, Barnhill, Gasso chose Lowary as her starter. A transfer from Missouri, in one start she was smashed in the face by a line drive, one eye was bloodied, and she didn’t take the circle the rest of the season, winding up at Oklahoma, she said, just to be part of a pitching staff that could win a championship.
Other than the one run, Lowary went pitch-for-pitch, power-for-power against hard-throwing Barnhill before Gasso called on Parker in the seventh. But Parker, now 9-0 in these World Series, couldn’t hold the 4-2 lead. Right after, Walton brought on senior righty Delanie Gouley and she worked until the 12th when Barnhill returned.
Lowary made 139 pitches and got the win to run her record to 16-3, The loss went to Barnhill, who threw 103 pitches and was reached for two home runs after allowing only five all season (Florida gave up eight in all), and dropped to 26-4. Gouley, with the well-disguised off-speed stuff, struck out 13, the same as Parker.
Lowary, with pitches that zoomed in at a high of 75 miles an hour, struck out five and walked two. Parker, with the challenging curveball, change-up and rising heat, whiffed four and did not issue a pass. It was a classic battle of a quartet of talented pitchers, two from the left side, two from the right side.
Florida had come up with a dozen hits, Oklahoma 10, and the game’s two errors were committed by the Sooners.
So up stepped Knighten, the Big 12 Player of the Year. She had struck out four times, but did double in the two-run seventh.
“I was just waiting for my pitch,” she said. “The one before that I took, so when the next ball came right into my strength, I went after it, and knew it was gone as soon as it left my bat.”
That brought yet another celebration for Oklahoma at home plate, hoping this time a 3-run lead would hold up. The Gators came up, put two on with no out, scored once, and Lowary got a infield pop-up before striking out the last two hitters.
Now at least the fans could finally exit, the teams could finally get some food, and sleep could finally come.
And now Gasso and Walton, opponents after being on the same coaching staff in years past, have to figure out who to put in the circle. Four tired hurlers, yes, but there’s only tomorrow for Florida. A loss tonight would hand the Sooners their fourth national title, second in the last five seasons. The other two in that span were won by the Gators.
Let’s get it on again. Just tune in to ESPN.
