Jun. 8—OKLAHOMA CITY — Florida State was knocking on the door for the second time in three innings when Kalei Harding blasted a fly ball deep into center field.

As she watched the ball fly over her head towards the wall, Oklahoma’s Jayda Coleman only had one thing on her mind: go get it.

With an assist from left fielder Rylie Boone as she tracked the ball back, Coleman went vertical and snagged the ball over the wall at the apex of her jump. She didn’t even know she had caught it until she looked in her glove.

“I practice them all the time,” Coleman said. “But like I say every single time, the best thing out of those plays is watching your teammates react and watching them just be so happy for you.”

If the ball had left the yard, the Sooners would’ve been playing from behind a 3-0 deficit, instead the scoreless game pushed on to the fourth inning. The very next inning the Seminoles got their first run on the board when Mack Leonard’s solo shot carried the wall in right field.

Trailing for the first time at the Women’s College World Series Final, Cydney Sanders answered with a lead-off home run in the top of the fifth. Four pitches later, Grace Lyons joined her with a solo home run over the same wall.

After taking the lead, the Sooners rode the hot hand of Jordy Bahl to the finish line. Bahl held the Seminoles hitless over the final three innings with a strikeout to secure the win.

With a 3-1 win on Thursday, the Sooners secured a sweep of the Seminoles and their third straight national title.

“I think something that way talked about early on in the fall is the expectations from the outside, of what people expect of us, what fans, even like opposition, what they make us see or think on social media,” Lyons said. “The message off the bat was, Eyes are on our circle. We’re going to keep focusing on what we do every single day. Doesn’t matter what the outside has to say.”

The Sooners went back to work on offense in the sixth inning and put two runners in scoring position with one out. Alynah Torres brought home an insurance run on the next at-bat on a ground ball to the shortstop.

Both starting pitchers let runners on base early, but were able to work their way out of the jam. In the top of the third inning, the Sooners had the bases loaded with no outs, but couldn’t get a run across. OU starter Alex Storako pitched four innings and allowed three hits and one earned run with two strikeouts.

Florida State starting pitcher Kathryn Sandercock went the complete game and allowed eight hits and three earned runs with three strikeouts.

“Alex has been waiting for this moment,” OU head coach Patty Gasso said about the decision to start Storako. “Nicole (May) helped us get here. They all have helped us get here. Alex was kind of the right matchup. We played them before. Alex had pretty good success.”

The Sooners end the season with a 61-1 record, which sets a new record for fewest losses by a WCWS champion.