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WCWS: Washington loses to Oklahoma, faces elimination game

Jun 2, 2017

WCWS Game 6: No. 10 seed Oklahoma 3, No. 6 seed Washington 1

Washington

A solid 6.1 innings in the circle from Paige Parker and timely two-out hitting lifted defending-champion Oklahoma to a 3-1 win over Washington Friday night in Oklahoma City, sending the sooners to the Women's College World Series semifinals. With the loss, Washington drops into a Saturday 4 p.m. PT elimination game against the Texas A&M-UCLA winner Saturday morning.

Improving to 15-0 in postseason play over the last two years, Parker struck out six while walking one and allowing three hits and one run for her second win in as many nights after leading the Sooners to a 6-3 win over Baylor in their WCWS opener Thursday. Paige Lowary retired the only two batters she faced coming on in relief of Parker to earn the save.

Each of Oklahoma's first two runs came with two outs. The Sooners went ahead 1-0 in the second when Fale Aviu evaded the tag from Washington catcher Morganne Flores on a Lea Wodach squeeze bunt. It appeared as though Aviu would be easily tagged out but ran around Flores' tag to get home safely. Oklahoma then padded its advantage to 2-0 in the fifth thanks to an Aviu run-scoring single to right field before Sydney Romero hit a solo homer to lead off the sixth. 

Washington inched to within 3-1 on Ali Aguilar's one-out solo home run but could get no closer. The Huskies got a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh but could not do any further damage.

In addition to her great pitching, Paige Parker got some help from her defense. Wodach made a fantastic diving catch behind home plate on a foul ball off the bat of Trysten Melhart in the third inning, while second baseman Caleigh Clifton made a leaping grab on a sharply-hit line drive by Sis Bates.

Washington starter Taran Alvelo went six innings and allowed three runs, two of which were earned. She gave up five hits and a walk while striking out one. 

After scoring 83 runs in the 10 games leading up to the Women's College World Series, the Dawgs have put up only four runs on seven hits in two games in Oklahoma CIty. The Huskies have also committed three errors in WCWS play this year.