LITTTLE LEAGUE SOFTBALL WOULD SERIES QUARTERFINALS

It was a mixture of pitching, hitting and defense as Undefeated Oklahoma cruised into the Junior Little League Softball World Series Tuesday semifinals by shutting down previously unbeaten Missouri, 7-0, in Monday’s quarterfinals.

This put the Oklahoma squad into the final and in quest of its first-ever World Series championship, and in a season in which the university won another national title, that would also be a first.

This was game one of the semis, with game two sending Texas West against Virginia at the new site of this event at a dressed-up Elm Park Stalling Stadium in Greenville, N.C. It was an attractive setting looked on and cheered by a limited turnout because of COVID-19 issues.

And if right-hander Joie Griffin was remarkable in the circle, Oklahoma can now send its No. 1 hurler, Cambri Casy, there in the finals.

While Casey is coming off a no-hitter on Saturday, Griffin kept the Columbia Missouri Little League at bay by allowing only two hits, striking out eight, walking one, hitting a batter, and her defense and offense took care of the rest.

It took two big innings for the Muskingee girls Green County LL to put the game out of reach. On Saturday, Missouri received a stellar outing from southpaw Kennedy Watson, but this time she couldn’t contain Oklahoma as it scored three times in the bottom of the third, and four more in the fourth.

Only one runner reached second base for Mo and that came after a one-out walk to Grace Brittan in the fifth frame that was followed by a fielder’s choice to first base. But that was it as Griffin settled in quickly with a pair of strikeouts in the first inning, fanned the side in the second, and just had too much of a mixture that baffled the team that wound up at 6-1.

In the third, RBI hits from Juliana Hutchess, Taylan Starr, and Aubree Davis added to a pair of base-on-balls and two errors and it was 3-0.

In the fourth, Griffin got into the hit parade by leading off with a double to the fence in right-center field. She scored on a single to left by Riley Dotson, who sped to second on an errand throw and tallied on Juliana Hutchess’ line drive down the left field line. Alexis Kiersten and Starr followed with safeties up the middle and it was 7-0, and back-up-the-bus for Missouri.

Oklahoma also played the numbers game with three in the third and four in the four, and the big hitter was again Hutchess, who came into the contest batting.437 and left with two singles and a double, and scored twice.

Against the Summerlin LL from Nevada in her previous 4-0 start, Watson was helped by an error-less defense, but not so this time as Oklahoma had too much speed that brought hurry-up throws.

In the same Southwest region as runner-up Texas West, Oklahoma beat the Texans twice and could well face them again or it could by versus Chesterfield Virginia, which is 5-1 and lost only to host North Carolina, who it shut down, 1-0, in the quarters. Virginia has very good pitching, and could be a tougher test than Texas, which lost 7-5  and 7-4 to Oklahoma.

And in game two, it became a complete turnabout when Texas led 5-1 after three innings and proceeded to watch Virginia ring up six go-ahead runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Texas was breezing along, and after a 1-1 tie heading into the third, pushed across four runs, drove out starting pitcher Kaylee Hodges and in came Virginia’s usual starter Jeena Keefer who shut down the hot-hitting Texas.

But her side never gave up, and with one-out in the fourth, the Chesterfield girls came up with four-straight hits, took advantage of a pair of Texas errors, and took the score on a bases-clearing triple from Jasmine Miller, who then brought the lead run on a wild pitch.

That was it. Texas employed its usual starter, Zee Zee Carter, and had no one else to bring in. So Virginia, which has only lost to host North Carolina, now meets up with Oklahoma, and it hopes that Keefer has enough left after her stellar job coming in in relief. Oklahoma will no doubt go with its ace, Cambri Casey, although it does have four quality starters, and all have more rest than Keefer or even Hodges or anyone Virginia sends to the circle.

The final will be on ESPN 2 p.m. Mountain Time, Wednesday. Catch it.