Kelly Maxwell pitching, OU home runs pace way to victory
That’s a little more like it for OU softball. Maybe not super smooth at all times at the plate, but no problems in the circle.
Because even as OU continues to get the offense under control and back to being dominant, Kelly Maxwell has it locked down as the ace of the staff.
Maxwell was her usual brilliant self to help the Sooners to the 8-0 five-inning, run-rule victory against visiting BYU on Thursday night at Love’s Field.
“Command. Early in the count, attacking early,” head coach Patty Gasso said. “You know if she gets 10 strikeouts or three strikeouts, as long as we keep the ball in play in the infield or our outfielders can run down anything.
“So if the ball is being kept in the yard I feel really good about our opportunities, our chances to win and she’s just created a lot of ground balls to Brito and Tiare and just keeps feeding our infielders. So I thought she was really good tonight.”
Each time Maxwell pitches, you’re not sure if you’re about to see something special. Maxwell was perfect through the first 4.1 innings and wasn’t too bad after that.
She got some help from senior Jayda Coleman. Coleman blasted a three-run opposite field home run in the bottom of the second to allow OU fans to breathe a bit.
Freshman Kasidi Pickering added a solo shot in the third.
It was OU’s first foray back into the Big 12 since last weekend at Texas. That series loss was the first one for OU since 2011, and the 40-game conference winning streak was snapped. Time to begin a new one.
After scoring one run in each of the final two games in Austin, you could see the Sooners still rounding themselves back into form.
The fifth was the best sign. OK, they might be back again. Base hit after base hit until the big bomb. A three-run shot by Cydney Sanders sent everybody home. It was 4-0 entering the bottom of the fifth, and OU wrapped it up with the four-spot.
The passing the bat mentality was back.
“So Ella started it off hot with the first pitch and then everyone just kept building off of that,” Sanders said. “And she kind of set my at-bat up a little bit because there was like runners on first and third, so I only knew that I’d have a couple options of pitches so she really like set my at-bat up. I appreciate Ella for that a lot. Same with Kas, obviously.
Maxwell pitched all five innings, allowing one hit, walking one and striking out five. She is now 12-1 this season.
Back home and now time to be who OU is, said Gasso.
“Our goal is to get ourselves back under control and really come back attacking and dominating,” Gasso said. “We need to start peaking, and we talked about that. This is a good chance for us to build off of that.”
The weekend
The three-game set continues with BYU. No. 1 OU (37-3 overall, 14-2 Big 12) will host the Cougars on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Games can be watched on ESPN+.
