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Oklahoma softball: Sooners secure 7th straight Big 12 title

By Chip Rouse

BEIJING - SEPTEMBER 05: A general view of the match between US and Japan at ISF XI Women's Fast Pitch Softball World Championship at the Fengtai Softball Stadium on September 5, 2006 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)
BEIJING - SEPTEMBER 05: A general view of the match between US and Japan at ISF XI Women's Fast Pitch Softball World Championship at the Fengtai Softball Stadium on September 5, 2006 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images) /
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Oklahoma softball made fast work of Oklahoma State on Wednesday night and clinched its seventh straight regular-season Big 12 championship.

Senior Paige Parker pitched a no-hitter, her first of the season, in leading the Sooners to an 8-0 shutout in game one of their 2018 Bedlam softball series with Oklahoma State. The game was shortened by run rule after five innings, the 18th-time this season an OU victory has been decided in that manner.

Parker walked the first Oklahoma State batter she faced, the Cowgirls’ Vanessa Shippy, who leads the Big 12 in on-base percentage, but retired the next 15 hitters in succession.

Four Oklahoma home runs provided seven of the Sooners’ eight runs. Senior Nicole Pendley started the scoring with a solo home run leading off the second inning, and freshman Eliyah Flores drove in two more in the inning with her first collegiate home run, OU added one more run in the inning to open up a 4-0 lead.

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Junior third baseman Sydney Romero hit her 12th home run of the season in the fourth, a solo shot, and junior first baseman Shay Knighton concluded the Sooner scoring with a three-run round-tripper to left center, completing a four-run fourth inning.

The victory gives the Sooners 11 regular-season titles in the Big 12 era to go with five Big 12 postseason tournament championships. OU is now 45-3 for the season, which represents the fewest number of losses through 48 games in program history.

No. 3 OU and No. 22 Oklahoma State will resume their Bedlam series on Friday night in Stillwater. The series finale will be on Saturday back in Norman.

Here are some other numbers that matter from Wednesday night’s championship-clinching Oklahoma victory:

2 – No-hitters by the Oklahoma pitching staff this season. Mariah Lopez and Paige Lowary combined for a 9-0, no-hit win over Baylor on March 30.

5 – Five of Oklahoma’s nine hits in Wednesday’s win over Oklahoma State were extra-base hits.

6 – Career no-hitters tossed by Paige Parker in her Oklahoma career.

16 – Number of Big 12 wins this season without a loss, an OU program record for consecutive conference wins to begin a season.

18 – Consecutive Oklahoma wins over Oklahoma State.

23 – Oklahoma extended it streak of consecutive regular-season wins over Big 12 opponents to 23.

23 – Number of Oklahoma wins (out of 45 total) this season that have been by shutout.

28 – Consecutive OU home wins at Marita Hynes Field, dating to last season.

50 – Number of no-hitters by Oklahoma pitchers in program history.

114-13 – Oklahoma’s conference record in the past seven seasons.

115-17 – Paige Parker’s career record as a pitcher at Oklahoma.

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