With a whopping eight-run first inning, Oklahoma softball showed why it’s ranked No. 1 in the country in a 14-0 victory over KU on Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma.
Junior right hander Nicole May started for the Sooners and was credited with the win on Saturday in the second game of the three-game series. It was OU’s 44th victory of the season and their second straight win over the Jayhawks by mercy rule.
May lowered her ERA for the season to a staggering 0.41, and the Jayhawks didn’t get a single hit on Saturday against her or freshman left-hander Kierston Deal, who pitched one inning of relief for May in the fifth. Kansas had just one baserunner in the entire game: freshman outfielder Aynslee Linduff, who was hit by a pitch in the second inning.
The Sooners opened the game red hot at the plate, and KU freshman right hander Lizzy Ludwig had a disastrous start. Ludwig recorded just two outs and was pulled midway through the first inning after giving up seven hits, seven earned runs and a walk.
Oklahoma’s first two batters singled to put two runners on with no outs in the first, and sophomore infielder Cydney Sanders gave the Sooners their first run of the game with a single into right field. Junior utility Alyssa Brito kept the momentum going for OU with a single of her own, and redshirt senior utility Haley Lee drove in a two-run single immediately after that. Just like that, the Sooners were up 4-0 with only one out in the first inning.
Lee would later score on a Kansas error, and junior outfielder Jayda Coleman hammered a three-run shot into left field, her second home run of the series, to push the Sooners’ lead to 8-0. After Coleman’s homer, Kansas sophomore Katie Brooks took over for Ludwig and finally got the Jayhawks out of the first inning.
But the scoring picked back up in the third inning for Oklahoma when senior catcher Kinzie Hansen smacked a two-run shot into right-center field. The Sooners scored one more run in the third off a sacrifice fly to center field, making the score 11-0.
In the fourth inning, the Sooners piled on three more runs on a homer from redshirt senior utility Grace Green, which put the final score at 14-0.
Kansas didn’t have it any easier in the first game on Friday, which OU won 8-0. Sophomore right hander Jordy Bahl pitched a five-inning shutout for the Sooners and allowed just four hits.
The Jayhawks’ starter on Friday, junior left hander Kasey Hamilton, kept the Sooners scoreless in the first inning but quickly ran into trouble in the second. She gave up a leadoff walk, and then the Sooners smacked three straight home runs — a two-run long ball from redshirt senior infielder Grace Lyons and then solo shots from Brito and Hansen.
Junior right hander Savanna DesRochers then came in to relieve Hamilton, but she couldn’t keep Oklahoma from scoring for long. In the fourth inning, Coleman knocked a solo home run off DesRochers to push the score to 5-0.
The Sooners would need just three runs in the fifth inning to end the game via mercy rule, and that’s exactly what they got. Hansen ripped an RBI single into left field and Bahl pinch-hit in the fifth inning and knocked two runs past home plate after a two-run single into right field.
All told, DesRochers allowed six hits, four walks, four earned runs and four strikeouts in the 3.2 innings she pitched.
Bahl secured her first career walk-off and added two RBIs to her day after also pitching five shutout innings, allowing four hits, no walks and striking out seven batters.
Oklahoma moved to 44-1 (14-0, Big 12) for the season after the two shutout wins, and the Jayhawks fell to 22-23 (4-10 Big 12). The Sooners will try to complete the series sweep Sunday at 1 p.m. in Norman, Oklahoma.
