OKLAHOMA CITY — Joley Mitchell homered twice and Teagan Kavan allowed just two hits to lead sixth-seeded Texas past No. 3 seed Florida 3-0 on Thursday to open play at the Women’s College World Series.
Mitchell homered in the second and sixth innings off Gators ace Keagan Rothrock, becoming the first Texas player to hit multiple home runs at the WCWS, the eight-team event at OGE Energy Park at Devon Field that will complete the NCAA Division I softball tournament that began earlier this month with a 64-team field.
“Kind of a clean slate for me,” said Mitchell, who didn’t face Rothrock in last year’s WCWS game between the teams. “I knew I needed to be on time, and that’s kind of just the forefront of my thoughts.”
The WCWS begins with a pair of double-elimination brackets to determine the two teams that meet in next week’s best-of-three finals, and Texas (52-11) will face second-seeded Oklahoma (51-7) on Saturday for a spot in the final of a bracket made up of four Southeastern Conference teams. Oklahoma, seeking its record-extending fifth national championship, has beaten border rival Texas in the WCWS finals two of the past three years.
Texas, which along with Oklahoma moved from the Big 12 to the SEC this season, has never won the WCWS.
Florida (48-16) will play No. 7 seed Tennessee (45-16) in an elimination game Friday. The Lady Volunteers lost 4-3 to Oklahoma on a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, ending Thursday’s second game in walk-off fashion.
In the opener, Kavan tossed her third shutout in two years of WCWS action.
“I mean, it’s the place to be,” she said. “There’s no other place I would rather be. A lot of people would give a lot to be here. So I’m grateful to be here to give my all for my teammates and come out with some wins for us.”
Back-to-back home runs by Mitchell and Katie Stewart in the sixth ended the outing for Rothrock, who was pulled after throwing 105 pitches. Three of the five hits she allowed were home runs.
Mitchell’s first homer traveled 250 feet to left field.
The Gators were hitless through three innings against Kavan, who improved to 25-5 this season. Florida finally broke through in the fourth, when Korbe Otis lined a base hit off Mitchell’s glove at first base.
“I mean, she’s a good pitcher,” Otis said. “Everybody that we’re going to face at the College World Series is going to be a good pitcher. She just made a few better pitches than we were able to hit, so she did a good job.”
In the fifth, Texas threatened to add to its 1-0 lead by putting runners on first and second with two outs, but Rothrock struck out Reese Atwood looking to end the inning.
Now the Gators, who reached a bracket final at last year’s WCWS, are playing to extend their season and the hopes of adding a third national championship to the titles they won in 2014 and 2015.
“Obviously, it’s a huge letdown to lose the first game of the College World Series, and the way they go about their business just tells me everything I need to know about the people that I coach,” Florida coach Tim Walton said. “They take it serious. They compete. They work hard, and they enjoy what they do.
“So to me, no matter what we do tomorrow, today was a learning opportunity.”
Texas Tech 1, Ole Miss 0
The SEC was guaranteed a pair of wins in the opening round of the WCWS, but the league with five representatives at the event came up short in its lone matchup against a nonconference opponent as the 12th-seeded Red Raiders — the first-time Big 12 regular-season and tournament champions — continued their impressive run by pushing the unseeded Rebels into the elimination bracket.
The start of the evening session’s opener was delayed 75 minutes by lightning and rain. Texas Tech, making the program’s first appearance at the WCWS, got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Lauren Allred hit a one-out single, then advanced on Alana Johnson’s double and scored on an outfield throwing error in the same sequence.
NiJaree Canady, the high-profile transfer who helped Stanford reach the past two editions of the WCWS, improved to 31-5 in the pitcher’s circle this season and lowered her ERA to 0.86 as she allowed just two hits and no walks while striking out 10 batters.
She retired the first 16 batters she faced, and she struck out the side in the first and seventh innings. Canaday blew a fastball by Lexi Brady for the game’s final out.
“You just know when the game starts, she’s a competitor,” Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco said. “You have been around athletes enough, no matter what sport, you just run across people that can turn it up at game time. And she’s that player.”
The Red Raiders (51-12) improved to 6-0 in this year’s NCAA tournament — they went 3-0 at their four-team Lubbock Regional, then swept last week’s best-of-three Tallahassee Super Regional hosted by Florida State — and will play again Saturday against No. 9 seed UCLA.
Ole Miss (42-2) is back on the field Friday, facing both No. 16 seed Oregon and the prospect of elimination in a must-win matchup for both teams. The Rebels have had to a win an elimination game at every phase of this NCAA postseason.
Stanford made a bracket final the past two years, but did so the hard way. Now, for the first time in her three seasons at the WCWS, Canady won’t have to work her way through the losers bracket.
“It was definitely a goal of mine just to come back, have a day off tomorrow,” she said. “So definitely huge. To be able to give this team a rest I feel like is going to be really good.”
Ole Miss starter Aliyah Binford allowed four hits and did not give up an earned run.
“I thought Aliyah did an incredible job in the circle,” Rebels coach Jamie Trachsel said. “Got our defense involved right away, especially sometimes that helps, just moving around in the big environment for the first time being out here. Had some big pitches in big moments.
“And obviously Nija is tough. She’s done that to a lot of people. She’ll probably continue to do that. She’ll do that to some other teams here.”
UCLA 4, Oregon 2
Jessica Clements hit a two-run walk-off homer with two outs to lead UCLA (55-11) past Oregon (53-9) in an all-Big Ten matchup to cap the first day of the WCWS — which finished after midnight.
Oregon and UCLA both left the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten this season, but the game’s late start gave it a feel of their former conference. The game started 75 minutes late because storms in the area delayed the previous game. It was fitting that the game between the only West Coast teams at this year’s WCWS didn’t start until nearly 10 p.m. local time.
For two brief moments, right at 10 and a few minutes later, the lights went out for several seconds and many fans turned on the flashlights on their cellphones to illuminate Devon Park.
Once the lights came on for good, there was plenty of action.
Oregon’s Kedre Luschar hit a single that scored Kaylynn Jones in the third inning to put the Ducks up 1-0.
UCLA’s Alexis Ramirez cranked a two-run home run in the fourth — just her fifth homer of the season — to put the Bruins up 2-1.
And in the top of the seventh, with UCLA still leading 2-1, the Bruins appeared to have the second out when Oregon’s Paige Sinicki was called out on a play at the plate. The call was overturned because of obstruction by Ramirez, and the run tied the score at 2.
There was one more dramatic moment still ahead, with Sofia Mujica reaching on a one-out single in the bottom half, and after a foulout by the next batter, Clements sending the second pitch she saw deep for the win.