NORMAN, Okla. — Three-time defending national champion Oklahoma is one win away from going back to the Women’s College World Series.

Alyssa Brito went 3 for 3 with two homers and the second-seeded Sooners beat No. 15 seed Florida State 11-3 in six innings in Game 1 of the best-of-three Norman Super Regional on Thursday night.

Kasidi Pickering had two hits for the Sooners (53-6), who got 11 hits from eight players.

Sooners coach Patty Gasso said this was the best she has seen her team hit this season.

“Top to bottom, it’s hard to breathe when you’re facing these guys, when they’re really feeling it,” she said. “It’s probably the first time in a long while that I felt top to bottom, we were taking really great swings and now it looks really good.”

Oklahoma ace Kelli Maxwell (20-2) went the distance for the win. She gave up three runs on four hits in five innings. Gasso said she was glad to see Maxwell fight through some tough innings. Florida State left eight runners on.

“It’s a victory,” Gasso said. “Nobody knows probably what I’m talking about. But for Kelly to stay through that and fight through that and throw over 100 pitches — that’s a victory for her.”

Florida State loaded the bases in the first with two outs but did not score against Maxwell.

Oklahoma’s Tiare Jennings hit a homer in the first, the 95th of her career. That tied her for second in school history with Lauren Chamberlain and moved her into a tie for third in Division I history.

Oklahoma tacked on a run in the second, but Florida State’s Devyn Flaherty singled in the third to knock in two runs and tie the score.

Brito’s solo shot in the third highlighted a three-run inning that put the Sooners up 5-2.

Florida State got two on with no outs against Maxwell in the fourth and again failed to score.

Florida State starter Ashtyn Danley lasted just two innings after giving up five runs on six hits. Brito took new pitcher Emma Wilson out of the park in the fourth for a two-run blast that gave the Sooners a 7-2 edge. Kinzie Hansen followed with a two-run shot to make it 9-2.

The Seminoles won the national title in 2018 and lost to Oklahoma in the championship series in 2021 and 2023. That’s why Gasso expects Florida State to play better on Friday in Game 2.

“I don’t expect that we’re going to have a game like we did today because they’re too competitive,” Gasso said, “They’re too well coached. They’ve been here before. They know what this feels like. They’re going to fight.”

In the Los Angeles Super Regional, Maya Brady hit two solo homers to help No. 6 UCLA beat No. 11 Georgia 8-0.

Brady went 3-for-4 and scored three runs and Jadelyn Allchin had three hits and scored twice for the Bruins

Kaitlyn Terry (21-1) threw a four-hitter. She struck out five and threw 93 pitches.

A new Venetian Islands, Florida property has hit the market for $26 million — and it’s not even a megamansion. The waterfront home, at 310 W. Dilido, is almost cozy at just 5,787 square feet.

“The Venetian Islands aren’t known for large homes, but this one has five bedrooms and an ideal layout,” said listing broker Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman.

“It’s also on the Gold Coast, the Billionaires’ Row of the Venetian Islands,” Goldentayer added. “It has southern exposure with downtown [Miami] views. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, owns in the islands, as does Justin Korsant, CEO of firm Long Light Capital. The Venetian Islands are a chain of manmade islands in Biscayne Bay between South Beach and downtown Miami. 

The new construction waterfront home was completed this year.

Details include a chef’s kitchen, and a main bedroom suite with white oak floors, lots of storage, a spa-like bath and a terrace. There’s also an elevator and a roof area. 

Outside, there’s a pool, a covered lanai, a summer kitchen and a dock with 60 feet on the water. 

Four Venetian Islands properties have traded in the last 90 days for more than $20 million, including 416 W. San Marino Drive, which Korsant just bought for $23 million — even though it is still under construction, said Goldentayer, who also repped both sides of that deal. 

Florida’s top legal officer on Wednesday said the state will investigate Starbucks, the multinational chain of coffeehouses, for its diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

“So many of these DEI policies that have been pushed in corporate America that were meant to address and prevent discrimination are now pushing policies and programs and initiatives that may in fact be unlawful employment practices, in fact becoming discriminatory themselves,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said, while appearing on Sean Hannity’s radio show, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis guest hosted.

Moody filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, which she said would launch a “full investigation.” The decades-old commission is meant to enforce the Florida Civil Rights Act and address discrimination issues.

“We’re going to make sure that this quota for hiring and programs that cause every employee to determine whether they are the problem based on the color of their skin, whether that violates Florida’s anti-discrimination laws,” Moody said.

The governor, an opponent of DEI programs who signed a bill last year banning such initiatives at state universities, thanked her for the work: “You should treat people as individuals, judge them based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin or their ethnicity or anything like that.”

Both the Commission on Human Relations and Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Over the past few years, Republican lawmakers across the country have sought to dismantle DEI programs in higher education and in the corporate world. Since last year, some 85 anti-DEI bills have been introduced in 28 states, with 13 becoming law, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Conservative groups argue that the initiatives are discriminatory to those not benefitting from them, while supporters say programs are tackling systemic inequality.

More: Trump tried to crush the ‘DEI revolution.’ Here’s how he might finish the job.

DEI under siege: Why more businesses are being accused of ‘reverse discrimination’

Starbucks has a DEI page on its website

In the complaint, Moody accused the company of having policies that “appear on their face to discriminate on the basis of race.”

She pointed to a portion of Starbucks’ website that mentioned the company’s “annual inclusion and diversity goals of achieving BIPOC representation of at least 30 percent at all corporate levels and at least 40 percent of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025.”

She also brought up how executive bonuses were tied to DEI goals, which was also mentioned.

Starbucks promotes on a separate webpage a commitment to diversity and inclusion, saying it has anti-bias curriculum, pay equity and that it was working to “enhance our efforts in reaching a broader pool of candidates and reaching talent that brings new perspectives and experiences to improve our business and workplace.”

But the company’s investors earlier this year in a non-binding vote approved a plan to drop executive bonuses correlated with DEI goals.

Meantime, a federal appeals court recently OK’d a block on a key provision of Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act.”

That provision restricted businesses’ diversity practices and trainings, blocking concepts that could make employees feel “personal responsibility” for actions committed in the past — such as discriminatory ones — by someone of the “same race, color, sex or national origin.”

More: Florida Gov. DeSantis hosts Sean Hannity’s radio show, warns of threat from the left

Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY