Jayda Coleman got the victory started with a play nobody remembers, nobody wrote about and the NCAA left on the cutting room floor

Oklahoma's run-rule victory over Duke began on the bases, not in the box

Oklahoma center fielder Jayda Evans lunges to make a grab that saved at least two runs in the fourth inning against Duke on Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City. (Morgan Givens/OU Athletics)

THE HOME OFFICE, Okla. — It is the play nobody’s talking about, writing about, belaboring or celebrating and it had more to do with Oklahoma’s Women’s College World Series opening 9-1 victory over Duke than any other Thursday afternoon at Devon Park.

Yes, the Sooners hit three home runs, all two-run shots, all in the space of six batters over two different innings.

Yes, they made sparkling plays in the field, one of them from our protagonist, who’s been written about for her fourth-inning sort-of-diving catch, yet not for her role in the previous half inning when she led off the bottom of the third with a smacked single to center field.

We’re talking about Jayda Coleman, Sooner center fielder and top-of-the-order batter, whose one-bagger happened to chase Duke starter Cassidy Curd, hastening Jala Wright’s emergence from the Blue Devil bullpen.

As it turned out, that choice from Duke coach Marissa Young wound up being an awful one, for it was Wright who allowed five of OU’s nine runs, and still it was not Coleman’s single that turned the tide for the Sooners, but something she did two batters and 12 pitches later.

What happened is this:

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