OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso noticed something odd a short while before sophomore Ella Parker launched a towering, three-run walk-off home run to clinch a 4-3 victory over Tennessee on Day 1 of the Women's College World Series on Thursday afternoon.
Gasso looked up and watched a stream of fans leaving USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium prior to the bottom of the seventh inning.
With No. 2 seed Oklahoma just three outs from careening into a do-or-die elimination game, Gasso made sure her players saw it, too.
"I shared that with the team," Gasso said. "Not that that had anything to do with anything, but people thought we were done. One thing, if you're watching us through the season, we're never done."
Prior to Oklahoma's comeback, teams trailing by two or more runs entering the bottom of the seventh inning at the WCWS had been 2-120 since 2000, according to ESPN Research.
Smothered by Lady Vols right-hander Karlyn Pickens over the initial six innings, the four-time defending champions Sooners (51-7) rallied to prevail in a first-round bout between SEC heavyweights.
Parker's blast -- her second of the game -- sends Oklahoma into a Saturday date with No. 6 Texas (3 p.m. ET, ABC). The Lady Vols (45-16), who previously took a best-of-three series from the Sooners in March, now face an elimination game against No. 3 Florida on Friday night (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
"Obviously that was a gut punch," Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. "'I thought our team played really, really well. Proud of how we came out. We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We got to be ready to play tomorrow, and that's what we just talked about in the locker room."
Parker delivered a booming finish to an otherwise quiet pitchers' duel between Pickens and Oklahoma ace Sam Landry, who gave up one earned run and threw a career-high 139 pitches over seven innings.
The Lady Vols took a 3-1 lead when freshman infielder Amayah Dodge scored on a fielding error in the top of the third.
Tennessee then rode a masterful pitching performance into the late innings. A first-team All-American, Pickens navigated her way through a series of jams, allowing three hits while striking out seven through six innings. Her lone blemish to that point came on Parker's first-inning home run.
Pickens issued a lead-off walk to OU's Ailana Agbayani to open the bottom of the seventh. Three batters later, Kasidi Pickering's two-out single set the table for Parker's heroics.
Similar to her head coach, Parker had her eyes on the crowd ahead of the pivotal moment.
Parker said after the game that before she stepped into the batter's box, she scanned her teammates in the third-base dugout and the group of former Oklahoma players behind it, eventually locking in on Jocelyn Alo, the career home run leader in Division I college softball history.
Seconds later, Parker took an 0-1 pitch from Pickens and pounded an Alo-esque shot over the center-field wall, sealing the Sooners' fifth walk-off win in WCWS history.
"I just think it was really cool to have all these players that I looked up to -- either in the dugout with me or right against the fence in the front row," Parker said. "And I think I looked at Joce the last at-bat, and I was like: 'We got this ... we got this.'"
Parker's game-winning blast continued her late-spring postseason power surge.
Hampered by a lingering foot injury, Parker went 5-of-42 from March 2 to April 4 before regaining her form over the final week of the regular season. Including her two home runs Thursday, Parker's nine home runs since April 26 lead all Division I hitters over that span.
"This is a young lady still in pain," Gasso said. "She has really taken a mental turn onto how to be there, present for her team. ... 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."
As Oklahoma chases an unprecedented five-peat this spring, Parker etched the latest bit of heroics into the program's record books and perhaps set the tone for another title run.
"As long as we have one swing left," Gasso said, "we have life."