Jun. 8—OKLAHOMA CITY — Neither the umpire nor Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso saw the pitch from Mack Leonard bounce off designated player Haley Lee during the fourth inning.

The pitch was ruled a ball, but Lee turned and appealed to her head coach that the ball had actually grazed her left thigh. After a quick video review, Lee was given first base and the Sooners had their first leadoff base runner of Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series Final.

“Any time they say something happened, I believe them,” Gasso said.

The Seminoles pulled Leonard from the game and brought in Makenna Reid. Three pitches later, Kinzie Hansen lined a double into the gap in right field to score the first run of the game.

The Sooners would come away with three runs on three hits and score two more times in the fifth and sixth innings to take a fiverun lead.

Oklahoma starting pitcher Jordy Bahl threw all seven innings to help lead the Sooners to a 5-0 win over Florida State in a game that was delayed twice due to lightning.

“I always know the offense is going to get going,” Bahl said. “Especially this entire tournament, we’ve faced some really tough pitching, but I know they’re going to score runs.”

The Sooners needed three innings to get going, but once they started the Seminoles never had an answer.

Reid was replaced by DuBois in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Sooners produced three hits and a walk, but could only get one more run across on an RBI-single by Hansen. Rylie Boone hit her second double of the game on a line drive to right center field and Tiare Jennings drove her in two batters later to make it 4-0.

Haley Lee followed Jennings up with a blast to left field that would’ve made it out of the park if not for a superb play from Kaley Mudge to leap high enough to bring it back over the wall.

The Seminoles used three different pitchers for each of the final three innings of the game and the Sooners came away with eight hits and three earned runs during that span. The Seminoles used a similar strategy in their only other meeting with the Sooners this season, playing four pitchers, including three that the Sooners saw on Wednesday night.

“Going into this game, we knew that they were going to try to take a different strategy possibly,” Hansen said. “We know there’s a bunch of different challenges that people might throw at us to catch us off guard.”

Florida State head coach Lonni Alameda said her team was going to stick to being aggressive against the Sooners’ formidable defense, and they took their chances when they were available early.

Right fielder Hallie Wacasar made it to first base on an error by Alyssa Brito in the top of the third inning. Wacasar stole second base for the first steal attempt on the Sooners in nine games at the NCAA Tournament.

In the end it didn’t matter and Bahl is a big reason why.

The Seminoles got at least one runner on base in five of the seven innings, but Bahl and the Oklahoma defense shut them down each time. Bahl struck out 10 batters and allowed just two hits.

Kalei Harding seemed to have something going for the Seminoles with two outs in the sixth, when a line drive sailed over the head of center fielder Jayda Coleman. The speedy junior raced back to the wall and fired a throw that beat Harding to second base by so much, she didn’t even attempt to slide.

The Sooners’ defense had two errors, which tied a season high, but Bahl held the Seminoles hitless in nine attempts with runners on base.

The standout sophomore struck out 10 of the 25 batters she faced with one walk and one hit batter.

“They’re going to try to create chaos, and we understand that,” Gasso said. “They make us better. I knew Florida State was going to be in this championship, we faced each other before, and we’ve had battles, but they always make us play hard and better. That is just a tribute to them.”

With the win, Oklahoma’s winning streak is extended to 52 games.