Oklahoma softball: Sooners run-rule Cowgirls 10-2 for Big 12 tourney title
By Chip Rouse
A two-run single by Joceyln Alo in the bottom of the sixth delivered a 10-2 Oklahoma softball win over Oklahoma State and the Big 12 Tournament championship.
It was the Sooners’ fourth consecutive Big 12 Tournament championship and gives them a sweep of both the 2021 regular-season conference championship and and the tournament title. It was the third time in the Big 12 era that OU has swept both conference titles in the same season.
In four games against Oklahoma State in less than a week, the Sooners have won three times, including three in a row. The run-rule victory in the Big 12 Tournament championship game was OU’s 31st in 47 games this season. That is an Oklahoma softball record. The previous record was 25 set in 2013 and 2019.
Alo had three hits in five plate appearances drove in three runs and scored twice for the Sooners. Tiare Jennings was three-for -four with two RBI and two runs scored.
Junior catcher Kinzie Hansen hit the only home run in the game for OU, a solo shot leading off the third, her fifth in three games. She slugged a pair of home runs in each of the Sooners two wins on Friday.
Shannon Saile started the game for OU and pitched into the fifth inning, allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Freshman Nicole May entered the game in relief with two outs in the fifth and got the final out in the inning after Oklahoma State had scored two runs.
Oklahoma State’s two runs scored on solo home runs in the fifth inning by Kiley Namoi and Alysen Febrey, and Haley Busby came within inches of clearing the fence in the same inning were it not for a spectacular catch above the center field fence by freshman Sooner center fielder Jayda Coleman, who also made a diving catch in the sixth inning.
The Sooners improved to 45-2 on the season and will have to wait until 8 a.m. CT Sunday on ESPN to find out whether they will be the No. 1 or 2 overall seed in the 2021 NCAA Softball Championships and where and who they will play in the NCAA Regionals.
Texas Tech, an 8-2 loser to OU on Friday, defeated No. 3-seeded Texas 5-1 to take third place in the Big 12 Tournament, and Iowa State knocked off Baylor 3-1 in the fifth-place game.