Oklahoma softball’s freshmen just keep impressing this fall

Oklahoma softball played its third intersquad Battle Series scrimmage of the fall on Thursday. Despite rain shortening the game before the final inning, the Sooners showed improvement on the already stellar offense by scoring 20 runs while the batters were divided into three teams.

Team Maxwell, with Nelly McEnroe-Marinas, Ella Parker, Abby Dayton, Gabbie Garcia and Allyssa Parker, won over Team Juarez with Isabela Emerling, Ailana Agbayani, Kasidi Pickering and Lexi McDaniel, and Team Stewart with Kendall Wells, Kai Minor, Tia Milloy, Chaney Helton and Sydney Barker.

Sooners play Battle Series 3

The first inning had Team Stewart and Team Maxwell tied with two home runs by Wells and McEnroe-Marinas. While this was the only run scored by the former, the freshman catcher extended her fall ball bomb streak to five games. Maxwell took the lead in the second inning when McEnroe-Marinas slugged a second homer off of freshmen RHP Berkley Zache, followed by single from Allyssa Parker for a three-run lead.

After trailing the other two teams in the past two innings, Team Jaurez bounced back with a two-run dinger hammered by McDaniel off sophomore LHP Audrey Lowry and overtook Team Stewart on the board. The freshman infielder slammed another double RBI homer in the fourth to put her team in the lead, but Team Maxwell fought back with double bombs by Allyssa Parker, who was the starting pitcher, and another by Garcia.

While the newest roster additions showed strong performances throughout the night, the final inning saw Pickering make the money shot with a grand slam to tie the game once more. One more powerful swing by Allyssa Parker added three runs to Team Maxwell before rain arrived at Love’s Field and ended the contest in their favor.

The six pitchers accounted for seven strikeouts, led by Lowrey who delivered three Ks on the mound.

The batting lineup was led by Allyssa Parker and Dayton, each with four hits at the plate, while the latter and McDaniel scored three runs each. The Sooners had 27 hits in total, and 20 runs were scored by 10 players.

Oklahoma softball has two games remaining in the fall, which will continue with Battle Series 4 on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT at Love’s Field.