Oklahoma softball: Sooners hold off Cowgirls for 9th straight Big 12 crown
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball’s 11 regular-season Big 12 championships in 24 Big 12 seasons is now 12 in 25 and nine straight.
After losing the series opener on Friday for just their second loss of the season, the Sooners rebounded over the weekend, winning the final two games of the series and claiming the 2021 Bedlam softball series two games to one with an 11-8 victory in the rubber game on Sunday.
If you just quickly glanced at the final box score, you’d think Sunday’s game was a slugfest. Their were five home runs in the game (three by OSU and two by OU), but most of the scoring was the result of fielding errors by Oklahoma State and walks and hit batters by OU pitchers.
Of the 19 combined runs in the game, only 11 were earned. Each team had seven hits.
Oklahoma got on the scoreboard first as it has all three games, with a six-run second inning, The Cowgirls’ countered with a six-spot in the third. Both both took about 30 minutes of playing time.
The top-ranked Sooners flirted with squandering an eight-run lead early in the contest, but freshman pitcher Nicole May came on in relief in the third inning with two out and the bases loaded and shutdown the Oklahoma State offense, allowing just one run the rest of the way.
OU took advantage of three Oklahoma State errors to score six second-inning runs and take a 6-0 lead.
The Cowgirls scored a single run in their half of the second, but the Sooners widened their advantage to 9-1 on a three-run home run to left field in the third frame by fifth-year senior Nicole Mendes, her second in two days and seventh of the season.
Oklahoma Stated rallied in their half of the third, scoring six times on five walks and two hit batters, and all of a sudden OU’s eight-run lead was down to two, 9-7, heading to the fourth inning.
Both teams plated single runs in the fourth to make the score 10-8 in favor of the Sooners. Oklahoma pushed across another run in the top half of the fifth, courtesy of OSU’s fourth error, and that was the final run scored in the game as May allowed just one run on three hits over the final 4.1 innings, struck out four and allowed no free passes.
True freshman Tiare Jennings, batting in the cleanup spot for OU for the second straight game, blasted a solo home run in the fourth, her 23rd of the year. Grace Lyons and Mackenzie Donihoo both had a pair of hits for the Sooners and another freshman, Jayda Coleman, drove in three runs.
Friday night’s OU starter Giselle Juarez started the game on Sunday for the Sooners, and for the second game in a row, the fifth-year senior failed to make it out of the third inning. Shannon Saile entered the game in relief of Juarez and fought control problems. The Big 12’s ERA leader (1.04) walked four batters, two with the bases loaded, hit a batter and allowed two earned runs on no hits.
Oklahoma State’s pitching ace, Carrie Eberle was knocked out of the game after two innings and after giving up six runs (none of them earned) on four hits. She re-entered the game in the fifth, in relief of Logan Simunek, who allowed five Sooner runs on three hits.
While Oklahoma’s consecutive win streak was stopped at 47 games on Friday, the Sooners were able to extend their consecutive win streak in Big 12 series to 60 with the two-to-one series win over the Cowgirls.
OU will go into next week’s Big 12 Championship as the No. 1 seed. The Sooners have won 12 Big 12 Tournament championship, including the last nine.