By Taylor Thomas
What a weekend for the sport of softball. That should be the biggest takeaway from a historic three days at the new Love’s Field. And also, a weekend where we saw history come to an end. While in the national media all you will hear about is the end of the Oklahoma Sooners unfathomable seventy-one game win streak, what should not be overlooked is the positives that we saw from this team, especially on a successful Saturday of play. While the team has suffered its first loss of 2024, the season of course still moves forward as OU will take on an up and coming Texas A&M Commerce team and look to rebound coming off of that loss on Wednesday at 6pm CT.
On Friday, we saw the long-awaited debut of Love’s Field with the Sooners taking on Miami (OH) in the first game of a doubleheader in the first game at the brand new palace, and it delivered a classic. The RedHawks came into the matchup with a very talented roster as mentioned last week, including the reigning MAC Player Of The Year in Jenna Golembiewski. While many would think it would be the Sooners that lead the country in home runs, it was (and still is) their opponent in Miami (OH) that now sits at fifty-one bombs on the year. Karli Spaid got the scoring started in the first against Nicole May and hit the first home run in the history of Love’s Field with a two run big fly. Holly Blaska went back-to-back with Spaid, and shocked the record crowd with a 3-0 lead before the Sooners came to the plate. Nicole May was able to settle in while not having her best stuff, as Oklahoma came back to tie things up at three in the 5th on an Alyssa Brito solo shot. Newcomer Riley Ludlam has made a name for herself in the clutch moment already, giving OU the lead 4-3 on a RBI single in the 6th. Jayda Coleman refused to let the rally end there, as she launched a two run home run to right field that was followed up by the freshman Kasadi Pickering to extend the Sooner lead to four just like that. Miami (OH) showed once again why they are a tournament dark horse, as Allie Cummins, Golembiewski, and Karli Spaid hit three home runs in a row to tie things back up at seven all. SJ Geurin was given the ball in replace of Karlie Keeney and continued to impress, giving the Sooners a much needed quick three outs. From there, two members of the historic senior class came through yet again as Rylie Boone got on base with a single. You couldn’t write a better script as Kinzie Hansen stepped to the plate and sent a line drive over the wall to give OU an emphatic first win in the stadium's history.
In Game two on the day, Oklahoma took on another talented opponent in the Liberty Flames out of the ASUN Conference. Unlike their first game of the day, the Sooners left zero doubt in this matchup as they cruised to an 8-0 run rule victory in five innings. Kasadi Pickering continued to impress, as the freshman sent a solo home run over the wall to give OU a 1-0 lead. Kelly Maxwell was dominant in the circle as she allowed just two hits across the five innings of work while striking out seven Liberty batters. Both teams were held scoreless until the fourth inning as Riley Ludlam reached on a fielder's choice and later came around to score on a wild pitch. Oklahoma continued their scoring in the inning and plated three more runs on RBI’s by Cydney Sanders and Jayda Coleman that pushed the lead to 6-0. Maxwell yet again silenced the Liberty bats in the top half of the fifth, and from there, Alynah Torres sent the crowd home early on a walk-off two RBI double in the fifth that gave Oklahoma a convincing 8-0 victory to wrap up the first day at Love’s Field.
Oklahoma came out Saturday and continued to flex their muscles, as they continued the trend of run rule victories picking up two more wins against both RV Louisiana-Lafayette and Liberty again. In the win against ULL, the Sooners lived off of the extra base hit as they recorded seven doubles as a team, three of those to the same spot in left-center field by Alyssa Brito as OU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning behind Brito, Ella Parker, and Tiare Jennings RBI’s. Yet again, Riley Ludlam’s name popped up on the box score as she sent her first home run at Love’s over the fence to extend the lead to four and was followed up by the second RBI double by Brito. The Sooners would tack on two more runs in the second to take a commanding 7-0 lead and had the run rule in their sights. Sophomore Kierston Deal dominated again, throwing four scoreless innings before handing the ball to Paytn Monticelli who scattered two hits in the fourth before retiring the side. After her third double, Brito came around to score on the pinch hit RBI by freshman Maya Bland to give OU their second consecutive 8-0 run rule victory.
Liberty took on Oklahoma in their second straight matchup in as many days, and this one was similar to the last one. OU extinguished the Flames quickly in this game in a dominant 15-3 run rule victory, this time riding the long ball that was started by Cydney Sanders and Tiare Jennings in the second inning to give the Sooners a quick 4-0 lead. Sanders had a huge day going 2-2 with 4 RBI, while Jayda Coleman was back in the leadoff spot and recorded a 3-3 day with 2 RBI. In total, Oklahoma had seven different players that recorded an RBI in the victory as Nicole May bounced back in a big way giving up one hit over her three scoreless innings. Karlie Keeney threw a scoreless inning before giving way to Kelly Maxwell who closed the door after getting into some trouble and gave OU a 15-3 victory.
As you know by now, the Ragin Cajuns’ handed OU their first loss in over a calendar year as they took advantage of three costly Sooner errors late in the game and escaped with a 7-5 upset victory that will surely be the upset of the year in softball. Kelly Maxwell struggled with command early, giving up five hits and three runs in 3.2 innings of work as she clearly did not have her best stuff. It took till the fourth inning for Oklahoma to muster some offense off of ULL starter Chloe Riassetto, who went all eight innings in the circle in the victory. Kinzie Hansen sent a two run shot over the wall to cut the lead to 3-2 as OU handed the ball to Karlie Keeney for the remainder of the game. While Keeney was good over the final four innings of work, the OU defense made some extremely costly mistakes both on the basepaths and in the field as they allowed three unearned runs in the eighth inning after coming back to tie things up on an RBI in the seventh by Riley Ludlam to give ULL a 7-4 lead. Cydney Sanders was able to cut back into the deficit with a solo shot in the home half of the eighth, but Riasetto was able to induce the final two outs to shock the softball world with the upset victory.
If you are a softball diehard like me, you might recognize the Sooners next opponent in the Lions of Texas-A&M Commerce. While the Lions come in with a 5-16 record, the team made headlines in their 1-0 loss to No. 15 Missouri as both pitchers recorded a no-hitter (yes, that’s correct). Julia Sanchez silenced what is a very good Missouri lineup, as the Tigers scored on a sac fly in the first inning after a walk and wild pitch. Texas-A&M Commerce will come into Norman looking to pressure the Sooners with their aggressive style of play that has them near the top of the country with forty-two stolen bases as a team already this season. With this matchup being the first mid-week game of the season, I expect the Lions to throw Sanchez in some capacity along with Anissa Arredondo who comes in with a 3.73 ERA over thirty innings this season as Oklahoma looks to rebound after having their historic win streak snapped. You can catch the matchup on ESPN+ with the first pitch scheduled for 6pm CT on Wednesday, March 6th.
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