By Michael Kinney
Heading into their weekend series with Texas, No. 1 Oklahoma had pretty much mauled almost every team they had faced. With a NCAA-leading 22 run-ruled victories, there wasn’t much to not be impressed about.
However, one thing the unbeaten Sooners didn’t have on their resume was quality wins over highly ranked teams. But facing the seventh-ranked Longhorns in a three-game series OU would get their chance to close that door as well.
That is exactly what the Sooners did as they swept the Longhorns out of Norman. In three games they outscored UT by a combined score of 30-3 and registered another three run-ruled wins.
“Well, again, it was, ‘Are you too rested or untested?’” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “That kind of really stuck on a lot of our players. Part of it could be home field advantage. Part of it is knowing that we’ve got to continue to prove what we’re doing. We’ve lost a lot of games to weather. We’ve lost some to COVID. We are just fighting to prove to whoever is watching that we’re a good team that deserves strong consideration for postseason hosting and so forth.”
Oklahoma closed out the series Sunday with a 9-0 victory in five innings. The outing was a capsule of the entire weekend as dominated Texas in every facet of the game.
Freshmen Tiare Jennings and Jayda Coleman, along with seniors Lynnsie Elam and Jana Johns all went yard in Sunday’s finale to bring OU’s season home run total to 102.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Nicole May collected her 11th win as she pitched 4.1 shutout innings with one walk and four strikeouts. She scattered six UT hits on the day.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jennings brought the game into mercy-rule territory with her 20th home run of her freshman season. The two-run round-tripper was her third of the weekend, hitting homers in every game of the series.
Coleman led OU at the plate, finishing a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs scored and three RBIs. Senior Jocelyn Alo continued her tear in the batter’s box, going 2-for-3 with one run scored while Jennings finished 1-for-3 with two runs batted in.
The Sooners (33-0) will make a quick turnaround to play a doubleheader in Athens, Ga., Tuesday April 20 at No. 20 Georgia. They will return home Friday to open another three-game series against Texas Tech. It will be the final home games of the regular season for OU.
“We’re not going to try to do more or play more to try to prove to anybody who we are,” Elam said. “We were ready to show that we are tested, and if they don’t think that we are tested, then we’ll show them that we are.”
Copy by Michael Kinney Media
Photo provided by OU Athletics