Oklahoma softball: Sooners never challenged in three-game sweep at Mississippi State
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma softball machine kept humming over the weekend, setting down two opponents in a three-game sweep in the Bulldog Invitational and added another perfect game in the process.
The top-ranked Sooners did not allow a run until third inning of their third and final game in the series hosted by Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi, posting a 13-0 perfect-game victory over Southeastern Louisiana and a 7-0 shutout win over host Mississippi State on Friday. They followed that with a 9-3 win over Mississippi State on Saturday.
Oklahoma (20-1) did all its damage in a 9-run second inning on Saturday, sending 14 batters to the plate. The Sooners pounded out nine hits in the inning, the big blow being a two-run homer by Alyssa Brito, her second two-run blast of the weekend and her fifth of the season, that finished off the scoring.
Mississippi State scored a couple of runs in the third and a solo run in the seventh, the only runs the Bulldogs scored in their two games with OU.
Jordy Bahl faced the minimum 15 batters over five full innings, allowing no runs and no hits and striking out eight in the Sooners 13-0 run-rule win over Southeast Louisiana. OU put this game away in the first three innings, scoring four in the first inning, four more in the second and a five-spot in the third.
The Sooners collected 17 hits in the shutout against Southeast Louisiana in the opening game on Friday, including three each from Lee Haley and Brito. Haley got the scoring started for OU with a two-run homer in the first inning, and Sophia Nugent blasted her fourth home run of the season with a three-run knock in the second.
Nicole May was in the circle for the second game on Friday and shut down Mississippi State on two hits while her teammates scored seven times on nine hits. Haley and Brito both had a pair of hits, and Brito hit a two-run fence-clearing blast in the seventh. May earned the complete-game win, her sixth win of the season without a loss.
Bahl started the game against Mississippi State on Saturday but was taken out of the game in the third inning when she opened the inning by issuing back-to-back walks to the first two hitters followed by a pair of singles. Michigan transfer Alex Storako pitched four innings in relief, allowing no runs on three hits, and picked up her sixth win of the season. Freshman Kierston Diehl finished off the win, pitching the seventh inning.
Oklahoma’s weekend of work included outscoring its opponents 29-3 and outhitting them 38 to 9. Something that is becoming a regular weekend occurrence.
The Sooners were scheduled to play a fourth game in the tournament, with Omaha on Sunday, but the game was cancelled due to inclement weather. Instead, Oklahoma added a game on Monday, back at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, against South Dakota State. That game will be followed by a regularly scheduled home game on Tuesday with Florida State.
Oklahoma has seven more nonconference games scheduled before the start of the Big 12 portion of the schedule. The Sooners open the Big 12 season March-24-26 with a weekend series at Iowa State.