The Florida State Seminoles leave Oklahoma City with their heads held high. FSU fell to Oklahoma 3-1 on Thursday as the Sooners completed a sweep in the Women’s College World Series finals to win the program’s third consecutive national title.

Seminoles head coach Lonni Alameda recognized that her squad ran into a buzzsaw in the best-of-3 WCWS finals.

“Congratulations to OU,” Alameda said after the game. “They’re just firing on all cylinders. It’s pretty cool. I think a lot of people were texting me throughout, like a lot of people don’t like that one team’s winning all the time. I get a little vibe sometimes of, like, take down the machine.

“We gave our best for that, but they’re really good. Oklahoma does a really good job. They do a good job in all cylinders from recruiting to developing to meeting the NIL, development of program and team. It’s really an honor to compete against the highest level. We talked about that today.”

Florida State turned to star pitcher Kathryn Sandercock in the do-or-die game. Sandercock said the Sooners are tough outs. She managed to get out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs early in the game, but Oklahoma took the lead on back-to-back solo homers in the 5th inning and added an insurance run later.

“Yeah, incredible lineup. Great team,” Sandercock said. “It’s tough, the bases loaded, no outs, all the momentum was on their side. We were able to get out of it with no runs. What an awesome moment. What amazing defense. That was so, so fun.

“I mean, they’re tough outs. They keep you on your toes the entire time, which is great. For me as an athlete, like, I’m very competitive and I’ve always wanted to put my skills to the test. Everything that I’ve worked on for the past five years, showing up today. Being able to put that to the test against one of the hardest lineups in college softball was such a fun challenge.

“I gave up a couple solo shots, they got another run across. They’re a good ballclub. It’s tough to face them.

“But I’m really proud of myself and really proud of the team, just what we were able to do today, the fight we showed, how we stayed in it, stayed in it. That’s what we’ve been saying all season long, stay in it.”

Alameda was also proud of the Noles’ effort on Thursday night. The head coach also acknowledged the “what if” of Oklahoma OF Jayda Coleman going over the wall to rob a potential 3-run home run in the 3rd inning.

“You know, strategically we wanted to match up Kat with whoever,” Alameda said. “Thought we’d have a chance. We had some information on (Oklahoma pitcher) Jordy (Bahl). Jordy is good. So it was our best chance to get to Game 3. I felt we got some good information yesterday. Our rookies that were in that environment came back today and they were different. I thought we had a great game.

“Coleman doesn’t rob that home run, who knows. It’s a game of inches. If Max’s ball is two inches on Game 1 down the right-field line, it’s a different game, too. I think the softball gods weren’t with us this time around.

“We laid it out there. I’m really proud of them. It feels really good to know that you bounce back and you’re able to do what we did. Kat led us the whole way there. It was pretty special to see that and end her career there.”

The full postgame press conference can be viewed below: