No. 7 Tennessee walk off No. 9 UCLA to keep WCWS title hopes alive

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Laura Mealer delivered a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning to give seventh-seeded Tennessee a 5-4 win over ninth-seeded UCLA in a Women's College World Series elimination game on Sunday.

The Lady Vols (47-16) will take on Texas on Monday, needing to beat the Longhorns twice to advance to the best-of-three WCWS championship series. Tennessee won two of three against Texas in the regular season.

The Bruins' season ends at 55-13.

Taylor Pannell led off the bottom of the ninth with a double off the top of the wall in left. After an infield pop-up for the first out, UCLA intentionally walked Sophia Nugent and McKenna Gibson to load the bases before Mealer drove home Pannell on Taylor Tinsley's 2-2 pitch to end the game.

UCLA was down to its final out in the seventh before Jordan Woolery kept the game alive with a single to left-center.

Then Megan Grant jumped on Karlyn Pickens' first pitch, driving it out to right-center to tie the game 4-4.

But the drama wasn't done.

Grant missed home plate initially, stepping over it, and on-deck hitter Alexis Ramirez grabbed Grant's arm amid the celebration around the plate until Grant touched home.

But after a review that lasted nearly 15 minutes, umpires ruled that Grant had missed the plate and been assisted but that the play wasn't reviewable.

Pannell finished 3-for-4 with a home run and three runs scored. Pickens (25-10) went the distance for Tennessee, striking out seven.

Woolery went 4-for-4 with a double for UCLA, while Jessica Clements added two hits.