Sooners ace Sam Landry had a feeling she couldn’t quite put her finger on heading into No. 2 Oklahoma’s first game against No. 7 Tennessee in the Women’s College World Series.
“Something’s gonna happen,” she remembered thinking.
But through most of the game, nothing did — for Oklahoma, at least. The Sooners were trailing 3-1 with two outs and runners on first and third in the bottom of the seventh staring down a Friday game in the loser’s bracket. That was until sophomore Ella Parker hammered a walk-off home run, her second of the game, over Devon Park’s center-field wall off Tennessee’s star pitcher Karlyn Pickens.
“(I) just understand to keep passing the bat,” Parker said postgame. “I wasn’t trying to make any moment too big.”
Oklahoma won 4-3, earning an off day before playing No. 6 Texas on Saturday. Tennessee faces No. 3 Florida on Friday night in an elimination game.
“That was a gut punch,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said.
“We play Florida tomorrow. One team’s going home. It’s going to come down to which team can flush today the quickest.”
ELLA PARKER WALKS IT OFF ‼️#WCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @OU_Softball pic.twitter.com/Z9RZ8t1bxI
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 29, 2025
The game felt like Tennessee’s for the taking until the…
