Jocelyn Alo and her Oklahoma teammates wasted no time bouncing back in a big way Monday at the Women’s College World Series, and now the defending national champions are headed to the finals against Big 12 rival Texas.

“No one beats the Sooners twice,” said Alo, the record-breaking slugger from Hauula, after leading Oklahoma past UCLA 15-0. The Bruins had beaten the Sooners 7-3 right before that blowout to force a survive-and-advance game for both teams.

In the second game, Alo went 4-for-4 with two home runs and seven RBIs, including a grand slam to cap the Sooners’ five-inning mercy rule knockout at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The only other teams to beat Oklahoma (57-3) this year — both fellow Big 12 members — then battled for the other spot in the finals. Unseeded Texas had to beat Oklahoma State twice to advance, and did so, with a dramatic 6-5 comeback in the second game.

The Sooners and Longhorns start a best-of-three series for the championship Wednesday (2:30 p.m. on ESPN).

Alo had just one hit, a single, in nine at-bats during a three-game regular-season series that included a loss to the Longhorns. But she homered and went 2-for-3 with three RBIs in Oklahoma’s 7-2 win Saturday that sent Texas to the losers’ bracket of the WCWS.

It also sent the Sooners unscathed to Monday’s semifinals against UCLA. But “if necessary” became necessary when the Bruins won the first game.

There was no panic for the Sooners and college softball’s all-time home run queen after the most lopsided of their three 2022 losses.

“Definitely just reassuring us,” Alo said of coach Patty Gasso’s between-games speech.“She’s not going to yell at us before a game. … She’s just reassuring us and letting us know we’re good. It’s just about how we come out the next game, and it was all positive affirmations.”

It worked.

Alo and Tiare Jennings hit three-run homers in the first two innings and Oklahoma never let up.

Alo, the two-time college national player of the year and all-time career home run leader who starred at Campbell High, launched a mammoth shot beyond the left-field fence, giving Oklahoma a 6-0 lead in the second inning. Another run came across when she singled in the fourth, with the runner scoring on an error. Her grand slam highlighted the eight-run knockout punch in the fifth.

“It’s insane,” Alo said in a postgame interview with ESPN. “It’s my last World Series. I’m just trying to leave my mark.”

Alo now has 32 homers this season and has upped her record career total to 120. She’s 8-for-12 with three homers and 10 RBIs in Oklahoma’s four WCWS games. And she has raised her batting average from .497 to .509.

Alo also scored in the first after doubling in front of Jennings’ blast.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma pitcher Hope Trautwein allowed just two hits in the five-inning complete-game victory.

UCLA finished its season at 51-10. The Bruins beat Oklahoma in the finals of the 2019 WCWS for their 12th national championship. The Sooners knocked UCLA out of the 2021 Series on their way to beating Florida State in the finals for Oklahoma’s fifth NCAA crown.

Maya Brady hit two of UCLA’s three homers and drove in five runs in the first game. UCLA took the lead in the first with Delanie Wicsz’s two-run homer and never lost it. The Sooners struck back immediately, as leadoff batter Jayda Coleman homered. But Megan Faraimo then retired Alo on a fly to center, the first of nine Oklahoma outs in a row.

Brady, a niece of NFL great Tom Brady, hit a three-run homer in the third to expand the lead to 5-1.

Alo singled up the middle to start the fourth inning and scored on Grace Lyons’ homer to cut UCLA’s lead to 5-3.

Holly Azevedo, in relief of Faraimo, struck out Alo with Coleman on first and two out in the fifth to maintain the two-run lead.

Brady’s second homer, in the seventh, accounted for the final score.