‘All or nothing’: Wichita State softball advances to NCAA Regional championship game
After going toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the country on Saturday, the Wichita State softball team will get another chance at Oklahoma in a regional championship game on Sunday.
The Shockers had the go-ahead run at the plate in the seventh inning in Saturday’s first game against the Sooners, but ultimately fell short in a 7-5 loss. With its season on the line, WSU bounced back with a 9-6 elimination game win over the Texas A&M Aggies in a marathon that ended after midnight early Sunday morning.
“I’ve never been more proud of this team and I don’t think in Shocker history we’ve played as good of game as we played against OU,” WSU coach Kristi Bredbenner said. “We made them not play their best game and in my opinion that shows that we are a World Series-caliber team.”
That sets up at least one more meeting between the Shockers (41-12-1) and the Sooners (47-2), this time in a NCAA regional championship series that begins 3 p.m. Sunday at Hynes Field in Norman. WSU will need to beat OU twice to advance to its first Super Regional.
It is the second time in program history WSU has advanced to a Sunday final, the first coming in 2018 when the Shockers lost to Arkansas in the Fayetteville Regional championship.
“We’ve got a lot of fight and a lot of grit,” Bredbenner said. “We’ve got a chance now and we believe in it. We’ve got to go home and get some rest and get in a cold tub and do anything we can to get ourselves ready to go because it’s all or nothing (Sunday).”
WSU believed it was going to stun the Sooners on Saturday afternoon when seniors Madison Perrigan and Ryleigh Buck hit solo home runs for a 2-1 lead over OU after four innings. But that’s when the nation’s most explosive offense struck, plating six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on four hits to bury WSU in a 7-2 deficit.
The Shockers didn’t go down silently, as Buck, a Wellington native, blasted a three-run homer over the center-field fence to swing the momentum back WSU’s way and trim OU’s lead to 7-5.
A two-out rally in the top of the seventh inning began with back-to-back singles from Addison Barnard and Perrigan to bring up the go-ahead run to the plate, but Neleigh Herring struck out swinging to end the game.
“I think it proves a point of how good we are,” said Buck, who finished the day with five RBIs. “A lot of people disrespected us and looked past us and I think we showed up today and showed everybody what we could do.”
That set up an elimination game against Texas A&M, which was every bit as nerve-wracking and exciting as the 9-7 thriller WSU won on Friday night.
WSU struck first, as Sydney McKinney delivered an RBI double off the wall followed by a two-run home run by Barnard for a 3-0 lead. Barnard’s long ball, her 22nd of the season, gave WSU’s team 100 home runs on the season — a mark that has shattered the previous school record of 59.
After Bailey Urban drew a bases-loaded walk to score a run in the top of the fourth inning, Texas A&M cut the deficit to 4-3 on one swing by Haley Lee for a three-run home run off WSU starter Caitlin Bingham. WSU and Texas A&M traded two runs apiece in the fifth inning, as the Shockers scored on RBI doubles from Herring and Buck.
The Shockers took a 9-6 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning after senior Kaylee Huecker launched a solo home run into the left-field bleachers in the top-half of the inning.
Texas A&M once again made things interesting in its final frame, as the Aggies had the game-tying run at the plate with one out and Lee, Texas A&M’s single-season home run record-holder with 25 bombs, to bat. But WSU’s Bailey Lange, who replaced Bingham after five innings, struck Lee out swinging and coaxed the final out to finish the win.
“We’ve got nothing to lose on Sunday,” Bredbenner said. “We’ve got to continue working that angle and understand the target is on (OU’s) back. They’re the ones supposed to win. We’re just here to try to disrupt that as much as possible.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 12:19 AM.
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