Oklahoma softball: Wisconsin ends OU win streaks; forces one more game
By Chip Rouse
As the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.” A couple of Oklahoma baseball streaks came to a crashing conclusion on Sunday afternoon with Wisconsin upsetting the No. 1 seed Sooners 2-1 in the NCAA Norman Regional.
The Wisconsin win forces a winner-take-all regional final game, to be played on Sunday evening, with the winner advancing to the Super Regionals next weekend.
It was the first Oklahoma loss after an NCAA-record 41 consecutive wins, dating back to late February, and the Sooners first home loss at Marita Hynes Field in 49 games spanning over two seasons.
Oklahoma jumped out in front in the opening inning when leadoff hitter Sydney Romero blasted a solo home run to left field to put the Sooners up 1-0. That turned out to be the only Oklahoma run, however, as Wisconsin starter Kaitlyn Menz shut down the Sooners the rest of the way.
A walk and a hit batter to open up the Wisconsin sixth proved disastrous for the Sooners. Both runners advanced a base on a perfectly executed double steal. Then consecutive squeeze bunts brought home the two base runners, and just like that, Oklahoma found itself trailing, 2-1, for the first time in over a month.
Junior Mariah Lopez started the game for OU and worked into the fifth inning before yielding the circle to part-time starter Shannon Saile. Sailed faced only two batters before being removed for Giselle Juarez, who just 24 hours before fired a complete-game, 4-0 no-hitter against the Badgers.
The three OU pitchers held Wisconsin to just four hits in the game, but that was all the Badgers needed to stave off elimination and force one more game against the Sooners for all the marbles. Romero had two of the four Oklahoma hits in the game.
Oklahoma suffered just its third loss of the season to go with 51 wins. Wisconsin is 42-13 for the season.
If the Sooners defeat Wisconsin in the Norman Regional championship final on Sunday night, they will remain at home to host one of the eight Super Regionals next weekend. The winner of the Norman Regional will play the winner of the regional final between 16-seed Northwestern and Louisville