Oklahoma softball: Sooners overcome 6-run deficit to win No. 35

Trailing by six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Oklahoma softball 25-game winning streak appeared to be on life support.

Only this bunch of scrappy, refuse-to-lose Sooners was just getting started. A seven-run outburst in what turned out to be Oklahoma’s last at bat erased a 6-0 Wichita State advantage reversed what was shaping up to be a major upset and seized victory out from under a shocked group of Wichita Shockers.

Four consecutive walks to OU hitters to start the sixth inning opened the floodgates for the nation’s No. 2-ranked team. A three-run home run by senior catcher Lea Wodach brought the Sooners to within one, and a two-run single by freshman Jocelyn Alo capped the scoring and the improbable comeback tp preserve the nation’s longest active win streak.

The home run by Wodach and Alo’s single were Oklahoma’s only two hits in the seven-run explosion.

Entering the contest, OU had only given up 34 runs in 36 games this season. The six runs scored by the Shockers, all coming in the third inning off of Sooner ace Paige Parker, represented OU’s largest deficit of the season. It also was the most runs given up by Oklahoma in a game all season long.

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Parker was 19-1 coming into the game with a nation-best ERA of O.30, but this wasn’t her day.

Mariah Lopez came in in relief of Parker and pitched 3 1/3 innings to get the win, her 11th of the season without a loss, and senior Paige Lowary pitched a clean final inning to pick up her fifth save.

“This was not a good game,” said Sooner head coach Patty Gasso to reporters after the game, acknowledging a blinding flash of the obvious.

"“But we’re a good team because a good team can know in their lowest points that they’re never out of it.”"

Junior third baseman Sydney Romero had three of OU’s seven hits in the game, going three for four at the plate to raise her team-high batting average to .465.

Not only did the win extend the Oklahoma win streak to 26 games, it also improved the Sooners’ number of consecutive wins at home to 21 and also was their 35th consecutive victory over Wichita State.

OU is now 35-2 this season. Wichita State, a new member this season of the American Athletic Conference, dropped to 22-15.

Kansas comes to town this weekend for a three-game series at Marita Hynes Field.