Expected full house Wednesday at the Onge Energy Field

With Cat Osterman, the southpaw and the greatest to ever twirl out of the circle for Texas can do is reserve another front row seat as the Longhorns finally made their way into the NCAA National Division I Softball World Series.

She has never slowed down her support of the program she toiled for with four stellar years, and this time she sat through a doubleheader sweep over Big 12 rival, 7th-seeded Oklahoma State, the first at 5-0 behind a masterful combo performance from right-handers Megan Faraimo and Holly Azevedo. Faraimo struck out one and walked a pair in four innings and Azevedo fanned three and issued two walks in three frames.

Now unseeded Texas needed a second win to send the Cowgirls packing and vaulting itself into the Wednesday best-of-3 series with top-seeded Oklahoma, and it did so by pitching, hitting and fielding to a 7-6 cliff-hanger over OSU.

In the opening twin bill, the Sooners required one win to advance, but were surprised when 5th-seeded UCLA hung a 7-3 upset on them, and no doubt the Bruins celebrated too soon, and Oklahoma came out and put its long ball on display as it has done all season.

Thus, UCLA’s fans in the stands had a quick hurray and hurrah and watched the Sooners power game that brought four over the fence and ended at 15-0 in five run-rule innings.

Texas, which defeated Oklahoma, 4-2, back in Austin on April 23, has been on a hot streak and wasn’t too happy at not getting a high seed after stunning 4th-seeded Arkansas in the Super Regionals. From there. they added surprises over Mississippi State, Washington and now Oklahoma State in the playoffs. But hasn’t happened gotten past the Sooners again.

Now the Longhorns (44-20) have their chance to carry off their initial national championship, but they will have to keep Oklahoma (57-3) from hoisting its sixth and making a successful defense of the title it won over Florida State last year.

Texas came out with long ball on its mind and Jour-baggers came from Delanie Wisz and Maya Brady, the 17th each from both, in addition to adding 65 RBIs for Wisz and 58 for Brady, who two over the fence in left, plus Wisz was walked twice, and she and Brady accounted for all seven runs.

But game two was not what UCLA wanted, especially a 15-0 blowout. The first inning was brutal as the Sooners opened with lead-off hitter, sophomore Jayda Coleman, drawing a walk and senior college all-time home run hitter Jocelyn Alo doubling her to third. Up came sophomore Tiera Jennings and she sent the ball over the left-center fence for a 3-0 lead, and that proved to be all the runs Oklahoma would need.

In the second, Oklahoma came up with five more runs as senior Taylor Snow led off with a single to right, junior Rylee Boone put down a bunt single to third, and with two down, Alo found the fence in left with a 3-run shot, and Jennings singled through the right side to score pinch-hitter Grace Green.

In all, Alo, who now has a record 121 career home runs, scored four times on a trio of hits, Coleman tallied three times, Jennings came up with a pair of hits and three RBI, and Boone added two runs, three hits, and senior right-hander Hope Trautwein went the distance by fanning six, not walking a batter, and yielding two hits. She threw 67 pitches, 43 for strikeouts.

Oklahoma and Texas played three times, all in Austin, with the Sooners winning games one and two, 3-0 and 9-5 in five innings, and losing 4-2. The Longhorns had win streaks of eight, nine, and 10 in a row, the Spooners’ were biggest at 24 and 21 games. Oklahoma posted 31 shutouts and won 37 times via the run-rule. Texas won 16 times via shutouts and 11 times by the run-rule.

The Longhorns began the season with four setbacks in six starts, then recovered to reel in five straight. The Sooners had no such problem as it went 17-0 before a loss.

Against Big 12 foe Oklahoma State, the Sooners won five times and lost one. The Longhorns won once and lost four times versus the Cowgirls.

And you must admit, it’s an all Big 12 yellow ball finale that is already sold out. This best-of-3 series usually brings in about 13,000 per game and about 40,000 for three. And so far, the weather up that way has been marvelous so far, no postponements, just sunny skies, super atmosphere.

Wednesday’s best-of-3 games are scheduled for 7:30, 6:30 and 7:30 starts Central Times.