May 25, 2000

Box Score

OKLAHOMA CITY - Third-seeded Oklahoma scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to post a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over No. 6 seed California in the first round of the College World Series Thursday night.

With the loss, Cal (49-24) will next play the Arizona-Southern Mississippi loser at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the double-elimination tournament. OU improved to 63-8 with the victory.

"I thought we came out very aggressive and were hitting the ball very hard," said Cal head coach Diane Ninemire. "Unfortunately, we had many opportunities tonight to score, but the ball was hit right to a lot of people and we made some mistakes on the bases. We just have to shake this off and be ready for Saturday."

Cal broke on top, 1-0, in the top of the fifth inning. Amber Phillips led off with a single to left and advanced to third after sacrifice hits by Eryn Manahan and Kristen Morley. Candace Harper then singled to left to drive in Phillips.

But in the seventh, clean-up hitter Andrea Davis opened the inning with a walk. After a sacrifice bunt moved her to second base, Cal starter Jocelyn Forest hit the next two batters in succession to load the bases with one out. Leah Gulla then singled through a drawn-in infield to tie the score. After Forest struck out LaKisha Washington on a 3-2 pitch, Christy Ring line a ball to deep center field. Phillips made a diving attempt at it and caught it in her glove, but when she hit the ground, the ball rolled away for a base hit and OU had the 2-1 victory.

"We struggled a little bit offensively to get things going," said OU head coach Patty Gasso. "Jocelyn Forest is an excellent pitcher, and we knew that going in. In the seventh inning, when Ashli Barrett got the bunt down, that sort of opened up the floodgates."

Earlier in the game, Cal had several chances to score, but missed those opportunities with base-running errors. In the first inning, Harper was hit by a pitch and Veronica Nelson walked. However, Harper was picked off second base to end the inning. In the second inning, Lisa Iancin led off with a single, but was caught in a rundown trying to stretch it into a double. Overall, the Bears had six hits on the night, but also left seven runners on base.

Forest, whose record fell to 23-14, appeared to have the game in control until the seventh as only one OU runner got into scoring position in the first six innings. Forest ended the game with a six-hitter and struck out five.

"I have the utmost the confidence in Jocelyn," Ninemire said of leaving Forest in the game once she got into trouble in the seventh. "I know that she went out there with every intent to do it. It's unfortunate that it didn't fall our way."

For Oklahoma, Lana Moran started the game, but Jen Stewart came into begin the sixth inning. Stewart allowed one hit in her two innings of work to improve to 31-6 on the year.

This marks the second straight year Cal has lost its opening game. Last season, the Bears fell 3-0 to Arizona before coming back to tie for third place in the eight-team field.

With Oklahoma's campus just 30 miles from Don Porter Hall of Fame Stadium, the Cal-OU game attracted an NCAA CWS record crowd of 6,856.