Oklahoma softball: Oregon stops Sooners win streak at 30
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball survived a 1-0 scare at Tulsa on Tuesday, but the Sooners weren’t as fortunate against No. 4 Oregon.
The Sooners managed just one hit off of Oregon pitcher Megan Kleist, as the Ducks snapped OU’s 30-game win streak in posting a 5-0 victory on Thursday in a battle of top-five teams.
Nicole Pendley worked a walk in the second inning off Kleist but was caught attempting to steal second, and freshman Jocelyn Alo beat out an infield single in the third, only to be eliminated on a double play. Those were the Sooners only base runners in the game.
Oklahoma came into the game with the nation’s fourth best team batting average, and starting pitcher Paige Parker with a 21-1 record and the third-best ERA in NCAA Division I. Parker gave up three runs on three hits in three innings of work, and Mariah Lopez, with a 13-0 record this season, came on in relief in the fourth inning and didn’t fare much better, allowing a couple more runs on seven hits.
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Oregon had little difficulty getting on base, producing 11 hits off of Sooner pitching and stranding eight base runners. The biggest damage was done by Oregon senior shortstop DJ Sanders, who collected two hits, including a home run, and drove in three of the Ducks five runs.
Oklahoma, now 39-3, had not lost a game since Feb. 24 (a 2-0 loss to Arizona in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, California), and the defeat also ended the Sooners consecutive-game win streak in true road games at 37.
The 5-0 loss was the widest margin of defeat of OU’s three losses this season and the second time the Sooners have been shut out.
Head coach Patty Gasso told the Oklahoma City Oklahoman earlier this week the reason the three games in Oregon are on the schedule (the Sooners now move on to play on Friday and Saturday at Oregon State in Corvallis) is because when the 2018 schedule first came out a couple of years ago it had an open date for this weekend. The Sooner head coach did not want her team to have a weekend off this far into conference play and felt that scheduling a quality opponent, even if it meant going on the road, would help the Sooners get ready for postseason competition.
One way to look at Thursday’s loss at Oregon: The Sooners’ may have lost this battle, but in the end it could help them win the war, with a shot at extending a more important streak — a third consecutive national championship.