Oklahoma softball: Sooners go after Big 12 championship sweep against Oklahoma State

A pair of Paiges made certain that Oklahoma softball would be playing in the final game of the Big 12 Softball Championship, contributing in back-to-back shutouts on Friday that sends the Sooners into one more 2017 Bedlam battle with Oklahoma State, a winner-take-all championship final on Saturday.

The Sooners (49-8) polished off Texas, the No. 4 seed and Texas Tech, the six seed, in Friday’s pool-play round by scores of 3-0 and 8-0, respectively. In shutting out the Longhorns and Red Raiders over a combined 14 innings, Patty Gasso’s defending national champions and 10-time Big 12 champion Sooners extended their scoreless-innings streak to 24.

Oklahoma ended the 2017 regular season with Nicole Mendes and Paige Lowary tossing a no-hitter against Oklahoma State in a 1-0 decision. The Cowgirls scored a total of two runs in the three-game Bedlam Series with the Sooners just last weekend.

Now Oklahoma State has earned a fourth game against its in-state rival – in Oklahoma City, just to make the setting that much more dramatic – with a chance to do something it hasn’t accomplished in its last 16 tries: beat the Sooners.

The Sooners scored in the opening frame in both of their games on Friday at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, the same venue in which Oklahoma won the Women’s College World Series a year ago by defeating Auburn. OU scored two runs in its first at bat against Texas, which proved to be all the Crimson and Cream would need to get by the Longhorns. The Sooners tallied a decisive single run in the first inning against Texas Tech en route to an 8-0 victory.

The first inning has been a telling frame all season long for the Oklahoma softball squad. The Sooners have outscored their opponents 75-11 in the first, their most productive inning. When OU scores first this season – which has generally been the case in the opening inning this season – it is 41-4.

The win over Texas on Friday was the fourth for the Sooners over the Longhorns in 2017. It marked only the second time in the history of Oklahoma softball that the Sooners have beaten Texas four times in the same season. National Player of the Year finalist Paige Parker won her 19th game of the year, going the distance and pitching a three-hit shutout, the 27th of her sensational career and her 68th complete game.

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Mendes  and Lowary, the same pair that combined for the no-hitter last weekend over Oklahoma State, were at it again in OU’s second game in the Big 12 Championship against Texas Tech.

Mendes, a freshman, started and went the first four innings, picking up her 16th win of the year with just one defeat. Lowary finished off the win, going the final three innings in recording her school-record sixth save of the season. The Sooner pair were nearly as effective against the Red Raiders as they were in the combined no-hitter last Sunday, yielding just two hits.

Here’s what you need to know about the Oklahoma wins on Friday as it prepares to face OSU for the tournament championship:

• Sophomore third baseman Sydney Romero hit a two-run home run in the first inning against Texas, providing all the runs the Sooners would need in a 3-0 win. It was her ninth of the season and 19th of her career. Four of Romero’s home runs have been hit at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Romero added another four-bagger in the second-game victory over Texas Tech.
• Paige Parker’s 3-0 shutout over Texas was her fourth of the season and the Sooners’ 18th in 2017.
• Parker is now fourth in Oklahoma history in career innings pitched (624).
• Nicole Mendes not only got it done with her pitching arm on Friday (the winning pitcher against Texas Tech), but also extended her hitting streak to 14 games and on-base streak to 28. She was three for seven in the two games on Friday.
• The Sooners powered up in the win over Texas Tech, hitting four home runs (second baseman Caleigh Clifton hit two, and Sydney Romero and Nicole Mendes had one each). OU hit seven home runs in a series sweep at Texas Tech this season.
• The Sooners are 41-18 all-time at the Big 12 Softball Championship. They have won the championship four times. This is the first Big 12 Softball Championship since the 2010 season.