Oklahoma back in WCWS finals with walk-off win over Florida - ESPN

OKLAHOMA CITY — For the fifth straight season, Oklahoma earned a trip to the Women's College World Series championship series, delivering another dose of Sooner Magic and stunning Florida with a walk-off home run by Jayda Coleman in the eighth inning on Tuesday.

The drama won't stop there.

The No. 2 Sooners will face No. 1 Texas in a Red River Rivalry at the WCWS in a best-of-three series beginning Wednesday (8 ET, ESPN/ESPN+), just the second time since national seeding began in 2005 that the top two seeds will meet.

«We know each other very well,» said Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso, who will be gunning for an unprecedented fourth straight national championship. «I don't know that there are a lot of secrets. It's going to be an absolute battle.»

The Sooners' title streak looked to be in jeopardy after they were rocked Monday by Florida 9-3, then fell behind early Tuesday after the Gators hit three more home runs to lead 5-2 after three innings. But starting pitcher Kelly Maxwell settled in and found a groove, holding Florida to just one hit the rest of the way as Oklahoma clawed back.

«I didn't kind of have my best stuff,» said Maxwell, a transfer from Oklahoma State in her first season at OU. «I knew I was going to make an adjustment in the middle of the game. I flipped a switch, chose my fighter and went to war, I think.»

Oklahoma rallied to close the gap to 5-4 in the fourth inning on a home run by first baseman Cydney Sanders. Freshman Ella Parker, who homered in the first inning, then drove in a run to tie it in the bottom of the sixth.

Coleman, the senior who never has finished a season without a national title, then came through again for Oklahoma. She blasted freshman Keagan Rothrock's 154th pitch of the game — the