Oklahoma Softball Rally Falls Short In Game Two

The Oklahoma Sooner softball team's bid for a second national championship will have to wait another night.

Alabama raced to an 8-1 lead, then withstood a seventh inning outburst from the Sooners and held on for an 8-6 victory over the Sooners, Tuesday night.

Things were bad from the beginning for OU, with Alabama loading the bases in the first inning. However, the Sooners were able to get a run across when Jessica Shults singled to center to drive in Georgia Casey.

In the second, things began to unravel for the Sooners. Alabama scored four runs in the inning, with three of them coming on pitcher Jackie Traina's bases-clearing double to grab a 4-1 lead.

The Sooners gave a lot of free passes to Tide batters, with two hit batters from Keilani Ricketts, as well as two errors at third by Javen Henson.

Ricketts, who has been dominant throughout the postseason, was pulled with one out in the fourth inning, after hitting a World Series record five batters.

Alabama came back against new pitcher Michelle Gasciogne later in the fourth, coaxing two straight walks out of the junior to load the bases, before Amanda Locke's double brought everyone home.

Gasciogne was great through the rest of the game, not giving up another hit, but the one she did give up proved to be the difference in the game.

The Sooners, who pounded Traina for 11 hits and four runs in game one Monday night, were silenced Tuesday night by the hard throwing righty. The Sooners managed only four hits and a single run against Traina through six innings.

The Sooners also continued to struggle to get hits with runners on base, leaving 11 runners on base, after leaving 12 on base the night before.

Oklahoma rallied for five runs on five hits in the bottom of the seventh to draw within two runs, but Traina struck out Henson to end the rally and the game.

The national championship will be decided in a winner-take-all game three on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CST.