Oklahoma overcame a pair of four-run, first-inning deficits in both ends of a home doubleheader at Love's Field on Sunday to defeat No. 15 Mississippi State and complete a series sweep of its third top-25 SEC opponent.
With the sweep, the No. 4 Sooners (39-5, 13-5) moved into a second-place tie with archrival Texas, which they will face in a home series this weekend, in the conference standings. The sweep also ended a skid of back-to-back SEC series losses for the Sooners.
Sooners sweep Mississippi State in top-25 SEC softball series
Sunday's doubleheader couldn't have started out worse for Oklahoma. In the first game, five of the first six Mississippi State batters got hits off Sooner freshman starter Audrey Lowry, including a leadoff home run by Sierra Sacco. Lowry retired just one Bulldog hitter, giving up four runs on five hits, before being replaced in the circle by Isabella Smith.
The Sooners opened the home half of the first inning in the same way Mississippi State had, with Kasidi Pickering leading off the order by hitting one out of the yard. OU produced a couple of more runs in the inning to narrow the Bulldog advantage to 4-3 after one.
The pitchers on both sides took control after the explosive first, and the game remained close the rest of the way. OU scored a single run in the third to knot the game at four apiece, only to have Mississippi State regain the lead 5-4 with a run of its own in the top of the fourth.
The Sooners scored twice in the fifth inning, with Gabbie Garcia scoring what would be the winning run on a wild pitch.
The second game of the twin bill on Sunday started out as virtually a carbon copy of the first with Mississippi State scoring four times in its first at-bat, and the Sooners responding, this time with two runs of their own on a two-run jack by the freshman Garcia, her 12th of the season.
Game 3 of the series turned into a home-run fest with 13 of the 15 runs scored in the game coming off home runs.
A home run by Sacco of Mississippi State with two outs in the second inning increased the Bulldog margin to 5-2. Home runs by Hannah Coor and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas in the bottom half of the second, however, brought the Sooners even at 5-5.
A three-run blast by catcher Isabella Emerling in the fifth inning put OU out in front 8-5, and a solo home run by McEnroe-Marinas added an exclamation point to a 9-6 Oklahoma win and sweep of the Easter doubleheader, both games in dramatic come-from-behind fashion.
The Sooners started out the series on Friday with a 4-0 shutout over the Bulldogs. The game wasn't nearly as exciting or dramatic as Sunday's doubleheader.
OU scored twice in the first inning and two more in the third on a home run by Coor, and that was the scoring for the game as starter Sam Landry pitched a three-hit shutout and recorded six punchouts to pick up her 14th win to go with three losses.
Landry was a workhorse in the series, pitching 15.2 of the total 21 innings and earning a couple of wins along with a save in the first game of the Sunday doubleheader.
Next up for OU softball is a huge weekend series at home starting Friday against No. 3 Texas. The Sooners close out the regular season the following weekend with three games at No. 7 Florida.
Notable Sooner softball notes from the Mississippi State series
- Oklahoma is now 11-0 all-time against Mississippi State in softball.
- The Sooners have 13 shutout wins this season.
- Fifteen of Oklahoma's 39 wins this season have been of the come-from-behind variety.
- Before the series with Mississippi State, redshirt-junior Hannah Coor had not hit a home run this season. She hit two in this series.
- OU starter Sam Landry worked all but 5.1 innings of the three games with Mississippi State, recording two wins and a save. The Louisiana transfer has been the heart and soul of the Sooner pitching staff this season. She pitched complete-game wins in the first and third games of the Mississippi State series, giving her 12 for the season.
- Oklahoma is 11-4 against ranked SEC teams this season and 14-4 against ranked teams overall.
- OU is 13-4 when its opponents scores first this season and 19-2 in home games.
- The Sooners hit six home runs in the two games on Sunday, five in the second game alone. The five long balls in the second game of the doubleheader tied a season-best for one game. OU had five home runs in a win over Wichita State this season.