Seminoles stumble midway, fall 5-0 to OU in game one of WCWS Championship Series

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (WCTV) - It was close until it wasn’t

Florida State and Oklahoma played a back and forth contest until the Sooners avalanched the Seminoles with three runs in the fourth, propelling OU to a 5-0 victory and a 1-0 series lead in the Women’s College World Series Finals.

After an hour plus lightning delay, Mack Leonard would get the start for the ‘Noles (58-10) in the circle and did an admirable job keeping the ever so dangerous Sooners (60-1) lineup in check. The senior hurler went three complete, surrendering no runs on just one hit, walking one and striking out another on 50 pitches all while navigating a second lightning delay that came in the bottom of the first.

While Leonard held down the circle, the Seminole offense failed to take advantage of rare miscues from the tournament’s top seed. FSU stranded three in the first four innings of play, failing to take advantage of two errors and a hit.

Then came the bottom of the fourth.

Leonard led the inning with a hit by pitch and from there the Sooners pounced. The Seminoles had both Kathryn Sandercock and Makenna Reid in the pen, opting to go with the undefeated freshman over the veteran ace. Using back-to-back base hits from Kinzie Hansen and Alyssa Brito OU jumped to a 2-0 lead, getting further support from an Alynah Torres RBI single to push the lead to 3-0.

After the big inning from OU the Florida State bats went silent, putting up two 1-2-3 innings and then managing a walk in the seventh to end the contest.

Meanwhile the one seed was far from done, using a three hit fifth to add another off the bat of Hansen to extend the lead to 4-0. Tiare Jennings knocked in another in the sixth to push the surplus to 5-0.

FSU had one bit of fireworks left in it in the bottom of the sixth. Kaley Mudge went airborne to make a spectacular grab in left, robbing OU slugger Lee of a surefire home run that would have added three more to the Sooners’ tally.

Leonard picks up the loss to fall to 2-2 this season in the circle while OU ace Jordy Bahl threw seven complete to advance to 23-1 on the year.

Florida State will try to stave off elimination on Thursday in Game 2 of the series. First pitch is set for 7:30 PM on ESPN.

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