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Oklahoma softball: Sooners’ unbeaten streak snapped by No. 20 Georgia

By Chip Rouse

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 11: Kenny Litana #12 of Northern Illinois University hits the ball during a game between Northern Illinois and UNC Greensboro at UNCG Softball Stadium on March 11, 2020 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 11: Kenny Litana #12 of Northern Illinois University hits the ball during a game between Northern Illinois and UNC Greensboro at UNCG Softball Stadium on March 11, 2020 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images) /
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As the popular expression goes, “All good things must come to an end,” and that’s what happened on Tuesday to the 40-game winning streak of the No. 1-ranked Oklahoma softball team.

The Sooners (34-1) fell 7-6 in nine innings to 20th-ranked Georgia in the opening game of a rare midweek doubleheader.

Five of OU’s six runs in the game were provided by home runs by Lynnsie Elam and Grace Lyons. Elam’s was a grand slam in the sixth inning, her first as a Sooner. Oklahoma added a single run in the top of the seventh and took a 6-4 lead heading to the home half of the seventh.

Georgia rallied to score a couple of runs in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extra innings. The Bulldogs won the game two innings later, when the third hit of the game by Jaiden Fields scored pinch runner Jacqui Switzer from third with the winning tally. The loss was Oklahoma’s first of the season after 33 consecutive wins.

OU was one win away from tying the program record of 41 consecutive wins and just three shy of setting an all-time NCAA Division I record for the most consecutive wins to start a season.

Giselle Juarez started the opening game on the hill for the Sooners, going five innings and allowing two runs on three hits and striking out seven. Shannon Saile came on in relief in the sixth. Freshman Nicole May, the winning pitcher in OU’s 9-0 shutout of Texas on Sunday, finished out the final three inning and was charged with the loss, her first after recording 11 straight wins.

Head coach Patty Gasso was well aware the Sooners were walking into a trap, going on the road to play a top-20 opponent on a quick two-day turnaround, but she also felt it was a necessary trip.

"“We flat out got beat,” Gasso said in her postgame comments, “(but) we needed to feel what that felt like and learn from it…Taking this trip was important for us to learn.”"

Oklahoma quickly rebounded in the second game of the twin bill, scoring five runs in the first and three more in the second on a total of five hits to take a commanding 8-0 lead after two frames.

The Sooners cruised from there, adding four more runs on three hits on the way to a 12-3 run-rule victory. Three OU pitchers held the Georgia offense to just three runs on three hits. Saile started the game and was credited with her 10th win of the season after allowing no runs a just one hit over the first three innings.

Four Georgia pitchers gave up just eight hits but walked nine Oklahoma batters, contributing to the OU run total.

Oklahoma returns home for a three-game series this weekend at Marita Hynes Field.

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