Red River Rivalry Renewed In WCWS Championship Series

By Rhenny Urena
on June 8, 2022

After a grueling regular season and a postseason that has been full of fireworks, the stage is set for the best-of-three 2022 WCWS championship series. Oklahoma and Texas will renew their historic Red River Rivalry on the sport’s biggest stage for a national title. Meeting up for the fifth time this season on Wednesday, the Sooners are trying to win their second straight national title and sixth overall, while the Longhorns are seeking their very first NCAA championship in program history.

The conference foes met on Saturday in the winners’ bracket game, which Oklahoma was able to win 7-2. The two squads will get at least two more cracks at one another, as action in the WCWS championship series begins on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Both teams took very different paths to get to this point in the season. Oklahoma made it as the top overall seed and was able to host regionals and super regionals. Unseeded Texas, however, took the most difficult road to get to this point, as the Longhorns took down two seeded teams to get to the WCWS.

How They Got to the Championship Series

Oklahoma

Norman Regional: (14-0 Prairie View A&M, 3-2 Texas A&M, 20-0 Texas A&M)

Norman Super Regional: (8-0 Central Florida, 7-1 Central Florida)

WCWS: (13-2 Northwestern, 7-2 Texas, 3-7 UCLA, 15-0 UCLA)

Texas

Seattle Regional: (6-0 Weber State, 8-2 Washington, 1-2 Washington, 3-2 Washington)

Fayetteville Super Regional: (1-7 Arkansas, 3-1 Arkansas, 3-0 Arkansas)

WCWS: (7-2 UCLA, 2-7 Oklahoma, 5-2 Arizona, 5-0 Oklahoma State, 6-5 Oklahoma State)

The Matchup

Texas and Oklahoma will meet for at least the fifth and sixth time this season. The teams met up in Austin for a three-game series during Big 12 play earlier this year. The Sooners took the series by winning the first two games, but Texas pulled off an upset in the final game, as the Longhorns halted top-ranked Oklahoma’s perfect start to the season at 38-0. The Sooners had not lost since the first game of last year’s championship series.

The teams battled at the WCWS on Saturday afternoon, but Oklahoma came out on top behind another offensive outburst that was led by home runs from Jocelyn Alo and Tiare Jennings. In the circle, Hope Trautwein was stellar, as she limited Texas to just two runs, one of which came on a solo home run to Janae Jefferson.

Impact Players

Oklahoma: Jocelyn Alo, Tiare Jennings, Hope Trautwein, Jayda Coleman

Texas: Hailey Dolcini, Janae Jefferson, Mary Iakopo, Courtney Day

Lingering Questions

Oklahoma: Will Oklahoma’s pitching hold up? Nicole May had a tough time against UCLA, allowing five runs in the loss, and Jordy Bahl is returning from an injury. Hope Trautwein has been leading the way for the Sooners in the circle this postseason, and time will tell if that continues in the championship series.

Texas: Can the Texas defense continue to stay sharp facing its toughest challenge yet? The Longhorns can’t afford to give the big Sooner bats any extra outs to work with this week.