Sooners hang on late to avert what would have been a historic loss to Arkansas

Inclement weather was expected later in the evening, but things at Oklahoma's Love's Field got stormy a lot sooner than anticipated on Friday night with No. 6 Arkansas charging out to a 4-0 advantage in the first three innings. In the end, the Sooners survived 8-7 to avoid a rare third consecutive loss.

Just when it looked as if the No. 1 Sooners were starting out this important SEC matchup and top-10 showdown with the carryover effect from their lethargic performance in Wednesday's Bedlam loss against Oklahoma State, some Sooner Magic arrived in the bottom half of the third that turned the course of the game.

Isabela Emerling's heroics get Oklahoma past Razorbacks

Kai Minor, one of the fabulous freshmen from OU's 2025 recruiting class, led off the third inning with a double to right center. Kendall Wells, another of the Sooners from that 2026 class, was then hit by a pitch, and after a flyout by Ella Parker, Gabbie Garcia walked to load the bases with one out. That's when Isabela Emerling stepped to the plate and delivered a grand slam home run to right field to put Oklahoma right back in the game and tied at 4-4.

It was Emerling's 15th round-tripper of the season and her ninth career grand slam, tied for third in NCAA history.

Arkansas regained the lead with a solo blast by Ella McDowell, one of her three hits in the game, to go up 5-4. But the advantage was short-lived when the Sooners pushed across a couple of runs on just one hit in the bottom half of the inning to go in front for the first time in the game, 6-5.

The Sooners padded their one-run lead with a couple of unearned insurance runs in the sixth, and it turned out OU would need all of it as a seventh-inning rally by a never-quit Razorback crew that fell just short.

Oklahoma starter Audrey Lowry struck out the first Arkansas hitter in the seventh. The next batter, Rhea Johnson, walked and that was followed by a foul out. Down to their final out, the Razorbacks got a single by McDowell, scoring Johnson. Then pinch-hitter Cam Harrison sliced a double down the right-field line for just her sixth hit of the season, scoring McDowell to cut the lead to 8-7.

Freshman Allyssa Parker was called out of the bullpen to replace the starter Lowry and record the final out. Parker got Arkansas' best hitter, Cal transfer Tianna Bell, to ground out to second, shutting down the Razorback rally and ending the game. Lowry came up one out short of a complete game, but picked up her 19th win against two losses. It was Parker's first career save.

Read more: Patty Gasso fueled an Arkansas program that can now threaten the Sooners

The win was the Sooners' 15th comeback victory of the season. In doing so, Oklahoma managed to avoid an extremely rare third consecutive consecutive loss. The last time an OU team coached by Patty Gasso lost as many as three games in a row was in 2011.

The 2011 Oklahoma softball team lost four consecutive nonconference games early in the season. The Sooners also suffered two other three-game losing skids that season. Since that time, OU teams have lost two in a row 19 different times. There also have been five seasons (2013, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023) in which the Sooners never suffered consecutive losses.

The victory was Oklahoma's 41st of the season against five losses and improved its SEC-leading conference record to 15-2. Arkansas dropped to 35-7 overall and 10-6 in conference play. The two teams have two games left to play in the series: Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both games are available for streaming on SEC Network+

Also of note from Oklahoma's series-opening win over Arkansas

• Isabela Emerling's third-inning grand slam was Oklahoma's 151st homer of the season, 10 away from tying the NCAA single-season record.

• Oklahoma has won 31 consecutive home games at Love's Field.

• The Sooners are 23-0 in the two season's the North Carolina transfer Emerling has hit a home run in a game.

• OU is 7-0 in one-run games this season.

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