WCWS: Sooner's 5-3 win over Arizona State puts them in finals

Oklahoma used a four-run third inning to beat defending national champion Arizona State 5-3 Sunday afternoon at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium and propel it into the Women’s College World Series finals.

By Gina Mizell, Staff Writer gmizell@opubco.com | Modified: June 3, 2012 at 2:48 pm | Published: June 3, 2012 Comment on this article

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Oklahoma used a four-run third inning to beat defending national champion Arizona State 5-3 Sunday afternoon at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium and propel it into the Women’s College World Series finals.

The Sooners (53-8) have yet to lose in the postseason and will face either California or Alabama in the best-of-three series that begins Monday night. Cal and Alabama play at 2:55 p.m. Sunday, and the Golden Bears must beat the Crimson Tide twice to advance to the championship series.

The Sooners captured their only national title in 2000.

OU trailed 2-0 before coming to the plate when ASU’s Annie Lockwood drove a two-run double to the wall in right-center in the top of the first inning. But the Sooners cut that lead in half on a solo home run to center by Katie Norris in the second, then exploded for four runs on four hits and an error the following frame.

Ricketts started the scoring with an RBI bloop single into right. Then Jessica Shults sent a double the same way — a ball that was just out of reach of a diving Alix Johnson — to score Destinee Martinez and Ricketts. A drop by ASU third baseman Haley Steele on a popup allowed Shults to score and make the score 5-3.

Ricketts (36-7) was not as dominant as she has been previously in the postseason, giving up eight hits and four walks while striking out 13. But she came up big in the sixth inning, striking out ASU stars Katelyn Boyd and Johnson to end the inning when both batters represented the tying run.