Jun. 1—OKLAHOMA CITY — Watching the first inning of Oklahoma’s Women’s College World Series opener on Thursday revealed all the insight needed into how the rest of the game would eventually unfold.

Starting pitcher Jordy Bahl let two runners on base in the top of the inning, but quickly ended the threat to keep Stanford off the board.

When Oklahoma went to the plate for the first time in the bottom of the inning, Jayda Coleman got her first look at Stanford freshman pitcher NiJaree Canady, and battled through a long, 10-pitch at-bat, before finally muscling a pitch low in the zone out into centerfield for a single. Tiare Jennings struck out swinging, but even that didn’t come easily for the freshman pitcher.

Stanford let one more baserunner on when a routine throw from the shortstop sailed over the first baseman’s head, out of the field of play. Canady’s brilliance in the circle got the Cardinal out of the inning with a strikeout of Kinzie Hansen.

Oklahoma did finally poke its first run through in the fifth inning, and scored another on another error by Stanford’s defense. But even despite Canady’s standout performance, the Sooners went on to grind out a narrow 2-0 win.

“We knew what we were running into in the way of NiJa, and she has become one of the hardest-throwing, ball-moving freshmen I’ve ever seen,” OU head coach Patty Gasso said. “So I feel like we got a really tough, tough matchup.”

Just a season ago, OU’s Jordy Bahl was the young freshman that people were raving about coming into the WCWS.

With Bahl recovering from an injury, much of the speculation surrounding the Sooners’ pitcher had to do with when or if Bahl would get to see action in the WCWS. There was no mystery this time around.

Bahl got the start against Stanford and matched Canady every step of the way.

The sophomore gave up a single and hit a batter with a pitch in the first inning, but needed just five pitches to retire the next two batters to end the threat. The Cardinal got two runners on base in the first, four and fifth innings, and each time Bahl shut them down before they could get a run on the board.

Bahl allowed five hits, one walk and had a hit-by-pitch, but struck out 11 batters and retired nine straight from the first to the fourth inning.

“Going into today, I think, if I learned anything from my injury, it was you just really can’t take anything for granted,” Bahl said. “So just trying to be as present as possible was huge. At the same time, just trying to treat it like another big game you’re getting ready for.”

Offensively, the Sooners kept battling through at-bats, but couldn’t find any consistency against the freshman. Canady retired nine straight batters from the second to the fifth inning before Alynah Torres landed a single in left centerfield.

After grinding Canady down with 99 pitches in five innings, the Sooners finally got their chance to break through when Rylie Boone and Jayda Coleman each hit singles to left field. Coleman’s hit drove in the Sooners’ first run of the game, but the left fielder let the ball get by her, allowing an unearned run to score.

“I think she saw a good pitch and hit it, honestly,” Canady said about the play. “All I can do is throw each pitch to the best of my abilities.”

Oklahoma outhit Stanford 6-5, and took advantage of a pair of defensive errors. The Cardinal left seven base runners stranded and were 0-5 with runners in scoring position.

Coleman went two for three at the plate with one RBI.

“I think those really long at-bats, even though we weren’t scoring, I think our team was still very motivated,” Coleman said. “We knew we were having good at-bats, and we were seeing balls. We like to celebrate the little things, (like) watching people go to a 13-pitch at-bat.”