OKLAHOMA CITY — With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Ella Parker stepped to the plate.

The Sooners, trailing Tennessee 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, had two base runners on. They had managed just four hits against Tennessee ace Karlyn Pickens, as the offense struggled the entire game.

But the energy inside Devon Park rose as Parker approached for one last showdown with Pickens. Parker had hit a solo home run in the first inning, and she had a chance for an all-time moment.

“I looked at Maya Bland and she said, ‘God’s got you. He’s our fourth man in the fire,'” Parker recalled.

Parker delivered. The true sophomore sent Pickens’ pitch to dead centerfield.

Parker’s walk off, three-run home run gave the Sooners a 4-3 win to open the Women’s College World Series Thursday at Devon Park.

In one swing, Parker completely flipped the game.

“You give us one extra strike or one extra pitch and we’re going to find something out of it,” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “Usually Ella’s on the end of that. So (I’ve) been really proud of her and those big moments of really locking it down, locking in.”

Parker is no stranger to big moments. She was named to the WCWS All-Tournament team during last year’s national championship run. She was named as a First Team All-American on Wednesday.

But this moment particularly stood out as a special one for Parker and the Sooners.

Parker — who leads the Sooners in batting average (.416) — has dealt with a leg injury for much of the season. She typically wears a boot during pregame warmups. That pain contributed to some uncharacteristic struggles through a lot of the SEC slate.

It became clear that the injury wouldn’t fully heal this season, and the focus instead turned to pain management.

“This is a young lady still in pain,” Gasso told OUInsider. “You (look) at it and think, ‘Oh, she is swinging great.’ She has really taken a mental turn onto how to be there present for her team… But when we get back to the hotel, she’s going to be hurting, extremely.

“She’s been really handling it like no one I’ve seen. It’s really, really been tough for her. But, again, she really truly says it from the heart, it’s for the team.”

That’s what makes her performance against Tennessee so meaningful.

In her first at-bat, Parker sent a home run to right field that helped cut Tennessee’s early two-run lead. The home run was only the seventh that Pickens had allowed all season. It was one of only three OU hits through the first six innings, as Pickens had simply kept OU’s offense off base.

But Ailana Agbayani opened the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff walk. Kasidi Pickering advanced her to third with a single. And with that walk off, Parker erased the team’s struggles and again provided evidence that the Sooners are never truly out of any game.

“I just remember rounding the bases with my team’s arms wide open and starting to get really teary-eyed and really emotional,” Parker said. “And it was really, really cool to have them with us this whole time. And we never got out of it. We kept the faith until the end. And just being able to run into them was, like, really, really, really awesome.”

Despite her injury, Parker has elevated her play during the postseason. In the closeout game against Alabama during last weekend’s Super Regional, she batted 3-for-4 and a home run.

She credits her teammates with helping her through those struggles earlier in the year.

“Just learning more to invest in my teammates,” Parker said. “And I know my teammates have my back, and I know I have theirs. Being able to really pour into them helped me, I guess, lock in. Just being able to have them and know that they’re my backbone is something I started to learn more about.”

The Sooners always have belief that they’re never out of a game. With moments like Parker’s walk off, it only enforces that belief. And that belief has the Sooners chugging along in the winner’s bracket.

“It’s just keeping the faith,” Parker said. “Just knowing that you’re never out of it until it’s over.”

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