Oklahoma softball loses series to Texas with 2-1 loss in series finale
By Chip Rouse
For the second day in a row, the No. 1-ranked Oklahoma softball team lost to Texas by a 2-1 score, snapping a 56-game streak of series wins against Big 12 opponents.
It was the second day in a row that the Sooners had lost to the Longhorns by a 2-1 score.
Texas first baseman Katie Stewart hit a two-run home run to left field off of OU starter Kelly Maxwell in the fourth inning, which was all the scoring the Longhorns needed to secure the victory,
OU had taken a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a solo home run to right-center field by Sooner freshman Ella Parker but that turned out to be the only run the Sooners would produce for the second time in as many days.
Kavan Teagan started for the Longhorns and gave up the lone Sooner run along with three hits. Estelle Czech came on in the fourth inning and shutdown the OU attack the rest of the way, allowing just three hits.
Maxwell, who pitched a complete-game, three-hit 5-2 victory over the Longhorns in the opening game of the series, started for the Sooners on Sunday. She allowed just three hits in 4.2 innings, including the two-run home run in the fourth, striking out six and walking one. She was charged with the loss, her first after 11 wins.
Parker had a home run and a single in the game and fellow freshman Kasidi Pickering had a double, accounting for three of the Sooners' six hits.
The back-to-back losses were Oklahoma's first since losing consecutive games to Washington and Wisconsin early in the season in 2012. The Sooners scored just seven total runs in the series, the second fewest runs in a series since the Big 12 moved to three-game series in 2012.
Before this weekend, Oklahoma had not lost a Big 12 series since 2011.
Despite the two losses at Texas, the Sooners remain in first place in the Big 12 with a 13-3 record, a game ahead of Oklahoma State and two games clear of Texas.
OU will complete its seven-game road trip with a game at Wichita State on Tuesday, followed by back-to-back weekend series back at Love' Field against BYU and Houston.