No. 2 Oklahoma finds no trouble against Boston in first round of NCAA Softball Tournament
No. 2 Oklahoma finds no trouble against Boston in first round of NCAA Softball Tournament
The Oklahoma softball team needed little time to show its strength in its first game of the NCAA Tournament.
OU, the No. 2 national seed and top seed in the Norman Regional, dispatched Boston, 8-0, in the first round on Friday. The Sooners will play California-Berkeley on Saturday in the winner's bracket. The Golden Bears beat Omaha, 1-0, in the regional's opener just before OU and Boston started.
Oklahoma did most of its damage in the second inning, scoring five runs to open an insurmountable lead against the Summit League champions. Strangely, all of it came in bits and pieces.
Sydney Barker, Ailana Agbayani and Abigale Dayton hit three straight one-out singles to load the bases. BU pitcher Haley Ganino then hit Isbela Emerling with a pitch, forcing across the game's first run. Hannah Coor then singled in Agbayani and Dayton and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas knocked in Dayton and Coor with another two-run single.
Boston was overwhelmed. A throwing error and a bases-loaded walk resulted in two more Oklahoma runs in the third and the Sooners put the game away via a run-rule on Chaney Helton's solo home run in the bottom of the fifth.
Sam Landry and Kierston Deal allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out seven in their five innings of work for the Sooners.
OU and Cal play the winner's bracket game at 2 p.m. Saturday. Boston and Omaha meet in a loser-goes-home game immediately thereafter, tentatively scheduled for 4:30 p.m. from Love Field.
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Tyrese Haliburton hit an NBA Finals game-winner in the same game he debuted his first signature shoe…then he put the shoes on FULL DISPLAY ON THE TABLE at the postgame press conference 😂😂 — Hater Report (@HaterReport_) June 6, 2025 Regardless of what comes next, the Indiana win in the series opener quieted all that noise about these NBA Finals being a Thunder coronation while legitimizing the Pacers in a way few saw coming. And Haliburton, who plays this underdog role so well, isn't about to go quietly. If he goes at all. 'After you have a run like last year and you get swept in the Eastern Conference finals, and all the conversation is about how you don't belong there and how you lucked out to get there and that it was a fluke, guys are going to be pissed off,' he said after Game 1. 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