Softball: Weekend Sweep In Lawrence

By Taylor Thomas

Another weekend filled with more milestones took place yet again up north in the state of Kansas as the No. 1 ranked Oklahoma Sooners swept the No. 24 ranked Jayhawks this past weekend to move to a record now of 36-1 on the season. With the postponement of the Wichita State game this past Tuesday, one could easily have thought that this Sooner team would show some signs of rust in the weekend series, as their last full week off came over a month ago. Of course, none of those signs were shown by this team as they dominated the Jayhawks 6-1 in Game 1, followed up by a 17-0 victory in Game 2 before finishing off the sweep by a score of 7-1.

Kelly Maxwell was in the circle again on Thursday, and gave the Sooners another dominant performance, as she fell just one out short of recording the 7-inning no hitter in the 6-1 victory. The senior struck out 9 in the complete game effort and was in control from start to finish as she used the early run support to settle in. Tiare Jennings got it started just 5 pitches into the game as she sent a bomb over the left field wall to give OU an early 2-0 lead. Cydney Sanders followed that up one inning later with a 2-run home run of her own to around the same spot before Kasadi Pickering recorded an RBI single to stretch the lead to 5-0 after the second. Alynah Torres continued her hot streak and blasted a solo shot to right center field that gave OU a commanding 6-0 lead in the third inning, and it was the Kelly Maxwell show from there on. Maxwell gave up a solo home run to Campbell Bagshaw with two outs in the 7th before retiring the next batter to give the Sooners a 6-1 victory. 

Game 2 was wildly different from the other two on the weekend as Oklahoma rolled to a 17-0 run-rule victory in 5 innings. Jayda Coleman led off the game with one of her two home runs on the day, the first one which moved her into the Top 10 in Sooner history in hits. After putting up three runs in the first, the Sooner bats would use some small ball to extend their lead to 10-0 after a seven run second inning that saw this lineup bat around. Tiare Jennings blasted another solo home run in the third before Coleman hit her second of the contest for another 2-run shot that was followed up by Alyssa Brito in the 4th to make it a 14-0 lead. The trio at the top of the lineup of Coleman, Jennings, and Brito combined for 6 hits, 4 home runs and 6 RBI in the dominating performance to lead the Sooners to another victory. In the circle, Nicole May was as efficient as you can be, throwing just 33 pitches in her 3.1 innings of work before giving way to SJ Guerin and Paytn Monticelli who combined for the final 1.2 innings with 4 strikeouts as OU cruised to the run-rule victory. 

In the final game of the weekend, Oklahoma finished off the sweep with a 7-3 victory. Once again, it was the trio of Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, and Alyssa Brito that powered the Sooner offense. Both Jennings and Brito sent the ball over the wall in the first inning to give OU a quick 3-0 lead before Coleman hit her fourth home run of the weekend with a solo shot in the second inning. Brito recorded another RBI on a single in the fourth, before Kinzie Hansen got back in on the action after battling a knee injury over the past few weeks to extend the lead to 6-0. Kierston Deal got the start in the circle and gave up just one hit over 2.1 innings and was followed up by Karlie Keeney who also recorded 2.2 innings of scoreless ball herself. The Jayhawks would scratch across a few runs late on SJ Guerin and Paytn Monticelli before Patty Gasso sent Nicole May out to record the final two outs, and gave Oklahoma a 7-3 victory.

With the three game sweep, Oklahoma extended their record to 36-1 and now hold a three game lead in the Big 12 Standings in front of both Texas and Oklahoma State, who also got together this past weekend in Stillwater in a Top 10 matchup that saw the Cowgirls take the series two games to one. Next up for the Sooners? A trip to Austin, Texas and burnt orange territory to take on our good friend Mike White and the No. 6 Texas Longhorns in what should be an incredible weekend for the sport of softball.