Oklahoma softball: Sooners win 4 of 5 in season-opening home series
By Chip Rouse
A five-run fifth inning against Northwestern on Sunday provided all the scoring the Oklahoma softball team needed as the Sooners won four of their five games in the Courtyard Marriott Tournament at Marita Hynes Field to open the home schedule.
It was OU’s second win over Northwestern in the three-day tournament. The Sooners defeated the Wildcats 8-3 in the first of two games on Friday. They followed up that win with a 4-2 victory over Abilene Christian and a doubleheader sweep.
Despite scoring a pair of runs in the first inning against North Texas, OU was not able to build on the early lead and dropped a 4-3 decision in the first of two games with the Mean Green on Saturday. The Sooners rebounded in a big way in the second game, however, collecting 17 hits, including three home runs, in a 15-8 victory.
Junior center fielder Jocelyn Alo had four of the Sooners’ 17 hits and four RBI in Game 2 on Saturday, including a home run, and freshman first baseman Kinzie Hansen went three-for-three at the plate and clubbed the first grand slam home run of her career in keying the Oklahoma victory. The game started out much different than the way it ended, with North Texas scoring four times in the first inning in Saturday’s nightcap.
The Sooners’ quickly erased North Texas’ early advantage with three in the third, six in the fourth and four more in the sixth to go up 13-6.
Senior right-handed pitcher Shannon Saile had a busy weekend. She logged 18.1 innings in the circle, picking up two wins, a loss and a save, appearing in all five games. She started two of the games, including a complete-game, five-hit, 10-strikeout performance in the Sooners’ 5-1 win over Northwestern in the final game of the weekend.
The Sooners will remain home the next two weeks. After a midweek game with Wichita State on Wednesday, Oklahoma will host four teams next weekend (Mercer, Utah, Murray State and Missouri State).