Women's College World Series: Tennessee walks off UCLA in extras to survive controversial ruling

Sunday at the NCAA Women’s College World Series came with a pair of win-or-go-home games. The desperate bid to stay alive in the tournament, and advance to the semifinals, came through with plenty of thrills and drama.

The first game, between No. 7 Tennessee and No. 9 UCLA, lived up to the hype. The Lady Vols walked off the Bruins with a 5-4 win in extra innings.

Tennessee finished the job after a dramatic seventh inning where the Lady Vols blew a two-run lead, and UCLA nearly ended its season on a technicality.

Tennessee struck first, with shortstop Laura Mealer hitting a two-run RBI in the first inning to get the Lady Vols on the board. UCLA tied things up in the second with a pair of solo homers from catcher Alexis Ramirez and designated player Sofia Mujica.

A great defensive effort from both teams kept the score at 2-2 through the first four inning. Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens and UCLA ace Kaitlyn Terry each had seven strikeouts in the first five innings to keep things even.

The Lady Vols broke through again in the bottom of the fifth inning: a huge two-run homer from third baseman Taylor Pannell gave Tennessee a 4-2 lead. The Lady Vols’ hot bats kept going, with the team getting two runners on base, but Terry closed out the inning without any more damage.

After a scoreless sixth inning, UCLA had one final chance to keep its season alive in the top of the seventh. After getting two outs, Pickens had to face the Bruins’ two best hitters, Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant. Woolery hit a single and Grant hit a massive two-run bomb to tie the game.

The heroics were nearly for naught for UCLA. While celebrating the homer, Grant stepped right over the plate, forgetting to touch it. Ramirez, who was on deck, noticed that Grant had missed the plate and led her back to step on it, but Ramirez’s assistance was another violation. With two outs already, the mistake could have ended the Bruins’ season right there.

Tennessee asked the officials to review the ruling, leading to a nearly 10-minute stoppage. Despite the very lengthy review, the umpires upheld the call that Grant was safe, saying that Grant did miss the plate but that the play was not reviewable, as stated by a niche addendum in the rulebook.

Tennessee head coach Karen Weekly, and the Lady Vols fans, were not pleased by the ruling. But the game continued, with Tennessee quickly getting the final out and setting up a potential walk-off.

Pannell nearly finished the game right from the jump, smashing a ball toward the fence that went just foul. But even with two batters on base, UCLA got a crucial double play to end the inning and keep things moving into extras.

The stalemate continued in the eighth inning, with both teams unable to break through despite some key chances.

With two outs in the top of the ninth, second baseman Savannah Pola and Woolery both got on base after driving singles that went just past the infield, and had the bases loaded after Pickens intentionally walked Grant. Ramirez grounded out on the next at-bat to send Tennessee back to the plate.

In the bottom of the ninth, Pannell hit a double that hit the very top of the wall, and bounced back into the park — so close to a walk-off homer. (Another review confirmed the double.) After an intentional walk, and a slightly less intentional walk, from UCLA reliever Taylor Tinsley, Tennessee had the bases loaded with one out.

And then, the moment: Mealer, who gave the Lady Vols their first runs of the game, hit a beautiful single to send Pannell home and give Tennessee the 5-4 walk-off win.

Tennessee will now move on to play Texas in the semifinals Monday, but will have to beat the Longhorns twice in order to advance.

Oklahoma takes out Oregon

After dropping into the loser’s bracket on Saturday with their loss to Texas, the Sooners bounced right back on Sunday.

Oklahoma, which has won the past four Women’s College World Series titles, powered past Oregon in the second elimination game on Sunday night to grab a 4-1 win and stay alive in the tournament.

Though Oregon jumped up to an early lead after Dezianna Patmon hit a solo shot in the second inning, the Sooners answered immediately. They hit a home run in each of the next two innings, including a two-run shot from Cydney Sanders in the third.

Sanders hit another home run in the fifth, too, which pushed the Sooners’ lead to three. That was enough to take them the rest of the way and close the game out.

The Sooners will now advance to take on Texas Tech on Monday night. Oklahoma will have to beat Texas Tech twice to reach the championship series.

Women’s College World Series: Tennessee walks off UCLA in extras to survive controversial ruling

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