Kelly Maxwell

Redshirt senior pitcher Kelly Maxwell during the NCAA WCWS game against UCLA on June 1.

 Aden Choate/OU Daily

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kelly Maxwell delivered the start of her life.

This morning, Maxwell revealed she had an impactful conversation with head coach Patty Gasso, and it was followed by a complete game shutout in Oklahoma’s 1-0 win over UCLA in the Women’s College World Series.

The Sooners and Bruins are used to facing off against each other this time of year. OU came into Saturday with a 3-4 record against the Bruins at the WCWS but has eliminated UCLA in two of the last three tournaments.

In her second start in three days, Maxwell dominated the Bruins offense, who came into Saturday’s matchup with the Sooners boasting a 14-game winning streak. 

“She has been going through a lot,” Gasso said after Saturday’s win. “This was a big game for her, so it was getting it off of her. This has been hanging on her since she got here.”

Maxwell would strike out 11 Bruins and only give up two hits in 116 pitches. She is now 21-2 with a 1.77 earned run average. In the NCAA tournament, Maxwell has taken it to another level. She improved her record to 3-0 and has struck out 28 batters in 24.2 innings.

“It was definitely faith oriented,” Maxwell said. “Just go out there and be free and trusting my team.”

Despite Maxwell’s heroics on Saturday, she was only one part of the win for the Sooners.

In the third inning, Alynah Torres lost a fly ball in the sun that hit her in the face. Torres was taken out of the game and was replaced by sophomore Avery Hodge at second base.

After Maxwell put up another scoreless inning, Tiare Jennings led off the bottom half of the inning looking to do damage.

On the first pitch that UCLA pitcher Kaitlyn Terry threw in the third, Jennings found a pitch she liked. 

She lined a ball to center field that just cleared the wall and glove of UCLA center fielder Janelle Meoño and gave the Sooners a 1-0 lead. It was Jennings’ 23rd of the season and 96th of her career.

“I knew that I’m just gonna be confident in myself,” Jennings said. “Alynah went down, and I was like ‘No, I gotta get this party started’, but Kelly was dealing, and our team was fighting on defense.”

The Sooners might’ve had a slip up in the offensive production on Saturday, but it was just enough as they kept riding off Maxwell’s dominant outing to pull out a gritty win.

Unlike Thursday’s offensive outburst against Duke where every starter reached base for the Sooners, it was only Jennings who recorded a multi-hit day for the Sooners offense. In games where Oklahoma has scored five or less runs, the Sooners are now 11-5 on the year.

“Today our defense did a really nice job,” Gasso said. “Fortunately, we got that big hit, but there were moments when I felt like we were putting good swings, and they were making good plays.”

Next, the Sooners will face the winner of Alabama against the loser of Florida/Texas on Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN.

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