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Oklahoma softball: Sooners extend win streak to 25 straight with sweep of Baylor

By Chip Rouse

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 22: General View of Easton Stadium during the game between the UCLA Bruins Softball team and the USA Softball team on April 22, 2008 at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 22: General View of Easton Stadium during the game between the UCLA Bruins Softball team and the USA Softball team on April 22, 2008 at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /
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No. 2-ranked Oklahoma softball improved to 35-2 on the season and 6-0 atop the Big 12 with a three-game sweep of Baylor over the weekend.

And the Sooners did so in their usual take-no-prisoners style, taking the final two games in the series by outscoring Baylor by the combined score of 24-0. Both games were shortened by run rule to five innings. Factoring in a 7-5 win in the opening game of the series on Friday, OU outscored the Bears 31-5 over the three games.

The three-game home sweep at Marita Hynes Field gives Oklahoma 48 consecutive home wins, which breaks a record that had stood for 17 seasons. It also gives the Sooners 31 consecutive wins over Big 12 opponents.

Game one in Oklahoma’s home conference-opening series was much more competitive. Giselle Juarez won her 15th game of the season (she has yet to lose), going five innings and giving up five runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in a 7-5 OU win. Senior third baseman Sydney Romero led the way on offense with three hits, including a triple and her 14th home run of the season.

Mariah Lopez pitched a three-hit, five-inning 8-0 shutout on Saturday for her 13th win of the season, and a trio of OU pitchers blanked the Lady Bears on four hits in a 16-0 demolition in the final game of the series on Sunday. Shannon Saile started and worked the first three innings. She was credited with the win. She also earned the save in Friday’s victory, her Big 12-leading fourth of the season.

Four Sooner hitters collected two or more hits and Oklahoma pounded out 15 hits off of three Baylor pitchers in Sunday’s run-rule victory. Romero had three hits in four trips to the plate, scoring three times and driving in three runs in the game.

Romero batted .600 for the weekend with six hits in 10 plate appearances. She drove in six runs and scored five times.

The big bats in OU’s shutout win on Saturday were home runs by senior first baseman Shay Knighton, her sixth of the season, and freshman Grace Green. Green’s two-run blast in the bottom of the fifth, her ninth of the year, ended the game. Between them, they accounted for six of the Sooners’ eight runs.

The Sooners are on the road for two straight weeks, beginning Friday with a three-game series at Kansas (14-24, 2-4). The following weekend is a Red River Showdown over Easter weekend against Texas. The Texas series will run Thursday through Saturday.

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