Three runs was the difference in three softball games over the weekend between previously unbeaten South Carolina and top-ranked Oklahoma.
The Sooners (22-0) got a good taste over the weekend of what the softball landscape is going to be like in the SEC -- much like football, basketball, baseball and just about every other team sport -- as 10th-ranked and previously undefeated South Carolina made the trip to Norman for the SEC opener for both teams.
Entering the weekend series, the Sooners and Gamecocks were the only undefeated teams in Division-I softball. All three games lived up to that billing with two of the games featuring offensive firepower and a plethora of runs, and the series finale delivering a stingy pitching dual.
At the end of the weekend, however, it was Oklahoma that escaped with a still unblemished season record, while South Carolina left town with a crooked-number three in the loss column.
South Carolina, one of 13 SEC teams ranked in the top 25 of the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll last week, gave the four-time defending national champions Sooners all they could handle. All three of the contests could easily have gone the other way.
Oklahoma fell behind 5-1 early in Game 1 on Friday night but responded with a pair of two-run home runs in the second and fifth by catcher Isabella Emerling and a three-run blast by freshman shortstop Gabbie Garcia in the third inning to put the Sooners in front 8-6. Hannah Coor stroked a game-winning two-run double down the left-field line in the bottom of the eighth.
The Sooners still had to survive a three-run ninth inning scare on a home run by South Carolina's Lexi Winters, but Isabella Smith retired the next three hitters to close out the game and earn her sixth win of the season,
The game orignally scheduled for Saturday was moved to Sunday as part of a doubleheader. Oklahoma put a five-spot on the scoreboard in the first inning of the opening game on Sunday on back-to-back-to-back home runs by Nelly McEnroe-Marinas, Garcia and Cydney Sanders. Marinas' was a three-run blast.
That advantage didn't last long as South Carolina turned to the long ball to score two runs in the second and five more in the fourth to take a 7-6 lead. The two teams went back and forth, with the Gamecocks extending their lead to 8-6 with a run in the fifth, and OU striking back with a second three-run home run from McEnroe-Marinas in the home half of the inning to regain the lead, 9-8.
Natalie Heath went yard for the second time in the game for South Carolina after two were out in the sixth to deadlock the game at 9 apiece.
Back-to-back walks issued to Ella Parker and Kasidi Pickering to open the bottom of the seventh inning put two Sooners on with no outs. Garcia promptly delivered a double to the gap in left-center, scoring Parke with the winning run and a second straight 10-9 Oklahoma win.
The second game of the Sunday twin bill was a much different type of game. After combining for 19 runs on 20 hits in the opening game of the doubleheader, there were just three runs and five hits total in Game 2.
OU scored a pair of first-inning runs off of South Carolina starter Joni Hurd, who also gave up five runs in the first inning of the first game, and the Sooners made that stand up behind a brilliant complete-game performance by freshman left-handed starter Audrey Lowry. Lowry allowed just one run on three hits and struck out two in posting her fifth win without a loss.
The Sooners have a midweek road contest at Tulsa on Wednesday before traveling to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the No. 10 Razorbacks (20-3) in OU's first-ever SEC road series.
What we learned from the South Carolina series
- Oklahoma is now 6-0 this season against ranked teams. The Sooners have scored double digits in six of their 22 games. OU has won 25 consecutive games dating back to last season.
- Freshman Gabbie Garcia hit home runs in Games 1 and 2 of the series, giving her home runs in five consecutive games and six for the season. Garcia had five hits in the series and has hit safely in nine straight games.
- Nelly McEnroe-Marinas hit a pair of three-run home runs on Sunday, She became the fifth Sooner to have a multi-home run game this season.
- Oklahoma hit seven home runs in the South Carolina series, giving OU 46 for the season, third-best in Division-I softball.
- Prior to the series with South Carolina, Oklahoma had not played in a one-run game this season. Now the Sooners have played in three.