May 30, 2004
Oklahoma City, Okla. - For the second consecutive game, junior Meghan Sickler knocked in the winning run as the Stanford softball team notched a 3-2 win over Oklahoma in an elimination game at the College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla in front of a crowd of 6,423. The Cardinal improve to 49-18 while the Sooners end their season with a 45-22-1 record.
There was a weather delay at the top of the sixth inning due to lightning on Saturday night and the game was postponed until 9 a.m. on Sunday morning.
The Sooners got on the board in the top of the first as Kristin Vesely scored on an error by the Cardinal shortstop. Mariee Mena then singled to score Christina Enea and give OU a 2-0 advantage.
Stanford picked up a run in the bottom of the third when Katherine Hoffman reached base on an error by the second baseman. She advanced to second on a sacrifice by Jackie Rinehart and moved to third on a ground out by Catalina Morris. Lauren Lappin singled to rightfield to bring home Hoffman.
Lauren Lappin hit her third homerun on the season - a solo shot to leftfield - to tie the game up at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Jessica Allister then reached on an error by the second baseman. Jacki Hansen entered the game as a pinch runner for Allister. With two outs on the scoreboard, Meghan Sickler again came up big, slicing her first triple of the season down the rightfield line to score Hansen and put the Cardinal up, 3-2.
Dana Sorensen (34-10) recorded the complete game win for the Cardinal, allowing two unearned runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts. Kami Keiter (22-15) took the loss for the Sooners, allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits with six strikeouts over six innings of work.
Stanford was led by Lauren Lappin who went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored. Meghan Sickler also went 2-for-3 with the game-winning RBI. Jackie Rinehart had a 1-for-2 day at the plate as well.
Oklahoma's Mariee Mena, Jessica Leslie and Kami Keiter each collected two hits for the Sooners.
The Cardinal will now face UCLA at approximately 1 p.m. CT in continued WCWS action. The two teams have met four times this season with the Bruins winning three-out-of-four.