NORMAN — Oklahoma is one win away from clinching a spot in next weekend’s Super Regionals. 

OU downed the California Golden Bears behind a pair of home runs by Kasidi Pickering.

Her first came in Oklahoma’s first at-bat of the afternoon, then she returned to hammer a grand slam in the fourth to essentially end Saturday’s contest.  

The 2-seeded Sooners finished off the 11-2 run rule victory in the top of the fifth at Love’s Field.

Oklahoma (47-7) gets to take the rest of the day off, while California (36-20) will have to battle out of the loser’s bracket on Saturday night. 

Patty Gasso started Sam Landry in the circle for the second straight day, but the big offensive day made things easy on OU’s pitching staff. 

Still, Cal put up a good fight against Landry. 

The Golden Bears totaled seven hits off the Oklahoma ace, but the right-hander was able to strand runners in each of the first four innings to ensure Cal couldn’t battle back into the game. 

Pickering needed just three pitches in the first to put the Sooners on top. 

Cal immediately bounced back, however. 

Left fielder Kaylee Pond bounced a home run off the foul pole in right field on the first pitch of the second inning to pull the Golden Bears back level with Oklahoma. 

OU’s offense then plated four runs in the bottom of the second without an extra-base hit. 

Cydney Sanders and Isabela Emerling put two aboard with walks and one out, then Cal starter Annabel Teperson hit Abby Dayton. 

Oklahoma then got back-to-back-to-back singles from Pickering, Ella Parker and Sydney Barker, which each plated a run.

Barker’s single came off new Golden Bears pitcher Anna Reimers, then she plunked Gabbie Garcia to put OU up 5-1.

Reimers finally battled back with a pair of strikeouts to end the threat, and her offense got back to work in the top of the third. 

The Golden Bears tallied three straight singles, the last of which by Acacia Anders plated a run to cut OU’s lead to 5-2.

Landry hit Pond to load the bases, but the Sooners rung up a double play to limit the damage to the lone run.

Cal loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the fourth, but Anders bounced out to third and OU was able to keep its 5-2 lead intact. 

Barker’s second walk of the afternoon quickly turned into a run in the bottom half of the inning after Garcia hit her 17th home run of the year, which leads the team.

After Garcia’s bomb, a walk, a hit batter and a single loaded things up for Pickering’s grand slam.

Freshman left-hander Audrey Lowry entered for Landry in the fifth, and she closed the game out in the circle.

The Sooners will now wait for the loser’s bracket to work itself out to find out their opponents for tomorrow’s regional final, which starts at 1 p.m. 

Omaha and Boston University will battle in the day’s first elimination game at approximately 3:30 p.m., and the winner of that will turn around and immediately take on Cal. 

Whoever emerges to take on Oklahoma in Sunday’s regional final will have to beat the Sooners twice to advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals. 

One win for OU will push it through to next weekend’s festivities.

NORMAN — Watch as Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso, outfielder Hannah Coor and third baseman Nelly McEnroe-Marinas spoke to the media following OU’s 8-0 win over Boston University after five innings at Love’s Field on Friday night.

The Sooners moved into Saturday’s winner’s bracket contest against Cal after the Golden Bears beat Omaha 1-0 on Friday.

Saturday’s contest is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Sam Landry started in the circle, and she quickly worked through three innings. She allowed two hits and a walk, while finishing with four strikeouts.

Kierston Deal took over for Landry in the fourth and she closed out the game for the Sooners.

OU’s offense plated runs in the second inning and a pair of runs in the third.

The Sooners walked the game off with a home run by freshman catcher Corri Hicks. It was her third long ball of the season.

McEnroe-Marinas and Coor both led OU with two RBIs each, and Tia Milloy and Isabela Emerling also added RBIs to help the offensive explosion in the second inning.

Boston University will take on Omaha in the Regional’s first elimination game on Saturday night at Love’s Field.

You can also watch the press conference on Youtube.

DENVER — The Denver Nuggets weren’t going down at home.

Following consecutive late-game collapses in losses to Oklahoma City, the Nuggets closed strong Thursday night for a 119-107 Game 6 win over the Thunder. The win ties the Western Conference semifinal series at 3-3 and sends it back to Oklahoma City for a winner-take-all Game 7 with a berth in the Western Conference finals at stake.

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Gassed and worn down by a deep and relentless Thunder roster, the Nuggets lost Games 4 and 5 after holding leads of at least eight points in the fourth quarter of each game. They entered the fourth quarter of Thursday’s game with a 90-82 advantage.

This time, they held on for the win as Denver didn’t have to lean almost strictly on Nikola Jokić down the stretch. Julian Strawther provided a big burst off the bench, and the Nuggets got a balanced effort from their starting unit, including a strong game from Jamal Murray, who was questionable with an undisclosed illness in the hour before tipoff.

Murray sets tone while playing sick

Murray opened Denver’s scoring with a four-point play after being fouled on a 3-pointer and finished the first quarter with 11 points, quelling concerns that he wouldn’t be a factor in a closeout game for the Nuggets.

“I kind of was watching the first six minutes like is this real, can he do it?” Nuggets coach David Adelman said after the game. “That’s Jamal Murray. It’s almost like the worse it is, the better off it’s gonna be. What a tough-minded man.”

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Murray cooled off and made just 1-of-5 shots in the second quarter. But he picked things back up in the third quarter as the Nuggets mounted a 32-21 run to seize control of the game.

Murray finished as Denver’s second-leading scorer with 25 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. And he never had a doubt that he would play.

“I woke up feeling it,” Murray said. “Went to the clinic, got tested for a couple different things, was negative. Happy about that. But I was always gonna play in my mind.”

No fourth-quarter collapse this time

Playing with a shallow bench, Nuggets coach David Adelman leaned on Jokić for the entire fourth quarter of Tuesday’s 112-105 loss as the three-time MVP was Denver’s only reliable source of offense. That wasn’t the case Thursday night.

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Jokić spent the first 4:07 of the fourth quarter resting on the bench as Adelman gambled that his supporting cast would fend off Oklahoma City. That supporting cast delivered. When Jokić returned to the game, Denver had extended its lead to 97-86.

The reward was a rested Jokić for the stretch run of the game, and the Thunder never challenged Denver’s lead again. A Ball Arena crowd that was previously anxious after watching Denver blow a 71-63 lead in Sunday’s Game 4 loss erupted.

“Last game I kind of kicked myself for not taking one of them out,” Adelman said of playing Jokić and Murray for the entire fourth quarter of Game 5. “Nikola seemed body-language wise like he wanted to sit for a second.

“The beautiful thing was I had four timeouts again. I know it didn’t work out last game. That does let you control your substitutions. Those guys held water to start that quarter.”

Strawther provides bench support Denver desperately needs

One of those guys who held water was little-used reserve Julian Strawther, who’d entered Thursday averaging 2.4 points in 7.3 minutes per game while making appearances in seven of Denver’s previous 12 playoff games.

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Strawther was the star of the third-quarter rally that allowed the Nuggets to take control of the game that was tied at 78-78 with 3:58 left in the quarter. The Nuggets closed the quarter on a 12-4 run sparked by eight points from Strawther, whose 3-pointer with 1:37 left in the quarter was the first off the bench by the Nuggets.

He hit another with 36.1 seconds remaining to extend Denver’s lead to 88-80.

Strawther’s offensive outburst and defensive effort earned Adelman’s trust to keep him in the game for 10 more minutes in the fourth quarter as the Nuggets thwarted any hope of a Thunder rally.

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Strawther rewarded Adelman’s trust with another big 3 down the stretch while playing high-leverage minutes.

“That’s the moment that you dream of when you was a little kid,” Strawther said. “Come into the game, having all the guys believe in you and find you in your spots and just being able to make an impact on the game.”

When the game was done, Strawther had tallied 15 points while shooting 4 of 8 from the field, including a 3-of-4 effort from long distance. It was the surge off the bench this Nuggets team has desperately sought late in this series.

“Julian’s gonna get credit for scoring 15 points,” Adelman said. “I thought he held water defensively, too. That was a big deal.

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“You want to keep an offensive player out there. But they have to be able to handle their own on the other end and he did. We didn’t have to change dramatically defensively because he sat down, moved his feet and guarded.”

Support for Nikola Jokić

While Strawther led the bench unit, four different Nuggets starters scored in double figures. Jokić led the way with 29 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 1 block while shooting 9 of 14 from the field. But again, it wasn’t all on him.

Christian Braun added 23 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Coming off a 1-of-7, 3-point effort in Game 5, Michael Porter Jr. put up a considerably more efficient 10 points on nine shots while hitting 2-of-5 attempts from long distance.

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It added up to a much-needed balanced effort after players not named Jokić shot a combined 1 of 15 from the field in the fourth quarter of Denver’s Game 5 collapse. Jokić spoke about his teammates after the game.

“He was amazing,” Jokić said of Strawther. “He had big points, big moments in the game. … It was a great game for him.

“I think CB played really good. Jamal played really good. Our defense was really good, I think. I think that’s why we won the game.”

The Nuggets won the game from long distance and on the boards. They shot 12 of 32 (37.5%) from 3 compared to an 11-of-40 (27.5%) effort from the Thunder. And they secured a 52-40 rebounding advantage, including an 11-7 edge on the offensive glass.

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 32 points and six assists. Chet Holmgren (19 points, 11 rebounds) and Lugentz Dort (10 points) were the only other Thunder starters in double figures. All-Star forward Jalen Williams struggled from the field with 6 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists on a 3-of-16 shooting night.

Concern for Aaron Gordon

Aaron Gordon was the only Nuggets starter to fail to reach double figures in a five-point effort. And he appeared to sustain a hamstring injury in the game’s final minutes. He clutched his left hamstring after chasing a loose ball in the game’s final two minutes and left the game with 1:10 remaining.

Adelman said after the game that he didn’t know Gordon’s injury status. Gordon said in the Nuggets locker room that he feels “OK.”

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“I feel OK. We’ll see,” Gordon said of his status moving forward. “I’m gonna start the recovery process now and make sure I’m getting ready for Game 7. Not entirely sure what happened.”

Denver’s Game 7 experience edge

The series now shifts back to Oklahoma City on Sunday 3:30 p.m. ET, when the Nuggets will play in a Game 7 for a third consecutive series. They lost in the second round last season in Game 7 to the Minnesota Timberwolves and beat the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of these playoffs.

In fact, the Game 7 will be the seventh for the Nuggets since Murray and Jokić teamed up in Denver, dating back to the 2019 playoffs. But it will mark the first time they’ve played one on the road. They’ve won four of their previous six Game 7s.

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The last time the Thunder played in a Game 7 was in the first round of the 2020 playoffs in Gilgeous-Alexander’s first season with the team. The Thunder lost that series to the Houston Rockets in the NBA bubble.

The winner of Sunday’s game will advance to face the Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals, which begin on Tuesday.