Oklahoma softball marches through Fall Festival Tournament
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball opened its eight-game fall schedule on Friday and Saturday, sweeping all four games in its annual Fall Festival Tournament.
The two-time defending national champions opened up the tournament on Friday with a six-inning, 10-0, no-hit shutout over Trinity Valley (Oklahoma) Community College. Three Sooner pitchers (Mariah Lopez, Nicole Mendes and Paige Lowary) combined to strike out nine with no walks in a perfect-game performance.
Oklahoma allowed just one run (a 9-1 win over Temple College, out of Edmond, Oklahoma, in game two on Friday) in its four wins over the weekend, outscoring its challengers by a combined score of 32-1.
The Sooners shut out both of its opponents on Saturday, 3-0 over Seminole State College and 10-0 over Northern Oklahoma in five innings.
Sooner pitchers allowed just seven hits total in the four games while striking out 32 and yielding just two bases on balls. Left-handed senior Lowary closed out three of the OU wins, pitching a total of 6.1 innings and striking out 14 batters with no walks.
Sophomore Parker Conrad, who, like Lowary the year before, transferred from Missouri, started two of the games (one on both days) and gave up no runs on three hits over 6.0 combined innings. She struck out seven and walked just one in her two outings.
The Sooner hitting stars in the four games included junior left fielder/designated hitter Fale Aviu, who was four-for-seven at the plate with two home runs, and junior third baseman Sydney Romero, with five hits in nine plate appearances and four runs batted in.
Junior first baseman Shay Knighten, the Most Outstanding Player in last season’s Women’s College World Series, was four-for-seven in the four games and drove in a team-hit six runs, including a grand slam in her only official plate appearance in OU’s 10-0 win over Northern Oklahoma.
The Sooner softball squad, which returns 16 players from last season, will play four more games as part of its fall schedule, beginning with North Central Texas College on Oct. 18. A double header is scheduled with the University of Arkansas on Oct . 29, and the Sooners will play North Texas on Nov. 3. All four games will be played at Marita Hynes Field in Norman.