Sooners win fifth WCWS title

OKLAHOMA CITY — The No. 1 seed Oklahoma Sooners (56-4) completed an historic season with the program’s fifth national title Thursday in Oklahoma City, beating 10th-seeded Florida State, 5-1.

Oklahoma has won three of the past five national titles and all five of their championships have come under Hall of Fame coach Patty Gasso (2000, ’13, ’16, ’17, ’21).

Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, her 34th of the season, extending her program record for homers in a season.

Freshman Jayda Coleman hit OU’s second homer in the second inning to give OU the record for most home runs in one World Series, OU’s 15th in OKC. The homer was OU’s 161st of the season, extening the NCAA single-season record for home runs.

Redshirt senior Giselle Juarez capped her Oklahoma career by being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, while six Sooners were named to the All-Tournament team (Alo, Mackenzie Donihoo, Kinzie Hansen, Tiare Jennings, Juarez and Nicole Mendes).

Juarez went the whole way for OU in the circle Thursday, giving up just two hits and one run to go with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Alo and Coleman each finished 2-for-3 in the box, with Coleman batting in three runs.

The Sooners forced the winner-take-all game with a 6-2 win over 10th-seeded Florida State (49-12-1) Wednesday night.

Alo propelled the Sooners to their fifth elimination-game victory, going 3-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and one recordbreaking home run.

Alo launched OU’s 159th home run of the season in the sixth inning to break the NCAA singleseason record for home runs after Jana Johns hit No. 158 in the third inning to tie the mark Hawaii set in 2010.

After trailing 2-0 through two innings, Johns put the Sooners on the board in the third on her solo blast before OU plated four runs in the sixth and an insurance run in the seventh.

Oklahoma also broke the NCAA record for runs scored in a season, bringing its tally to 634 on the year.

The total bests 1995 Arizona’s previous record of 629.

Jennings broke the OU program record for doubles in a season with her 25th in the first inning, breaking the tie with Becky Burroughs (1994).

OU outhit the Seminoles 11-4 on the night while Juarez (22-1) went the whole way in the circle for the Sooners, allowing just two runs on four hits to go with six strikeouts and three walks.

Donihoo continued her WCWS tear at the plate, batting in one run in a 2-for-4 performance.

She leads all players with 10 RBIs in the World Series.