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Oklahoma

Cydney Sanders helps keep the OU softball season alive, onto WCWS semifinals

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•06/01/25•

BPrzybylo

Cydney Sanders7
OU senior Cydney Sanders. (Brett Rojo - Imagn Images)

OKLAHOMA CITY – There isn’t a lot of Women’s College World Series experience for OU softball this season.

We get it and have said it before. Even Patty Gasso was saying it after Saturday’s loss, having to remind herself again. A bunch of young players and some fresh transfers who haven’t been in this environment before.

But then there’s Cydney Sanders. The senior didn’t start her career at OU (transfer from Arizona State), but it sure feels like it. And she picked the perfect time to wake up.

Sanders didn’t have an RBI in postseason play before Sunday. That all changed with two massive swings to keep her OU career going and the Sooners back to the WCWS semifinals.

Sanders had two home runs and drove in three in a 4-1 victory for OU over Oregon in an elimination game at Devon Park.

OU advances to the WCWS semifinals to take on Texas Tech at 6 p.m. Monday. If OU wins that game, the Sooners have to come right back around and play Tech again in a winner-take-all semifinal showdown.

OU will get that chance thanks in large part for Sanders. She came to the plate in the third inning with the game tied 1-1. A 3-2 count against Oregon ace Lyndsey Grein, and Sanders did not miss.

She entered that appearance 2-for-15 hitting in the postseason.

The count was 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Sanders took Grein with the long ball one more time.

Redemption is too strong of a word for it, but Sunday proved to be some big bombs from unexpected spots. Or at least players who simply hadn’t been producing lately.

OU trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the second when Isabela Emerling crushed a solo home run. Maybe that will get her going as well? The Sooners have missed her bat for the majority of the postseason, too.

Pitching, obviously, was going to be situational. Head coach Patty Gasso elected to start Kierston Deal. And then after 2.2 innings, Gasso turned to Sam Landry one more time.

Deal allowed a solo home run but did what was necessary to put Landry in a spot to bring No. 2 OU (52-8) one step closer.

Landry threw the rest of the way, allowing just two hits and striking out six.

This marks the ninth straight victory in a win-or-go-home game at the WCWS for OU. That’s one way you win four straight national championships.

The quest for five? Well, it continues, at least for one more day.

Up next

Here comes NiJa. Tech star pitcher NiJaree Canady introduced herself to the softball world in 2023 at the WCWS against OU. She made the Sooners work when she was a freshman at Stanford. Now she has Tech one win away, in its initial WCWS appearance, from the championship series.

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