OU softball loses second game of season, 40-game conference win streak snapped
It simply wouldn’t be OU and Texas without a little drama, a little controversy. And Round 2 of this mega-softball series goes to the Longhorns.
A wild ending that sees OU thrown out at the plate for the final out and drop a 2-1 contest against the Longhorns on Saturday night in Austin.
It is just OU’s second loss of the season and snaps a 40-game Big 12 conference winning streak for the Sooners.
Texas led 2-1 with two outs in the top of the seventh when Rylie Boone crushed a double. Pinch runner Maya Bland was coming around from first to score when she was thrown out at the plate.
OU head coach Patty Gasso asked for a review, looking for an obstruction call. The ruling on the field was out. The ruling after the review was still out. And the celebration was on for UT.
After OU looked dominant Friday, you could tell this was going to be a tight one throughout. The Sooners were able to get one in the top of the first on an RBI single from Tiare Jennings.
However, OU would only register three hits after the first inning.
Texas scored two in the bottom of the fourth, and a crazy bottom of the sixth kept it at just two. UT had the bases loaded with zero outs when a two-run single turned into the runner being out at second base and no runs scored after a successful review from Gasso.
Karlie Keeney, the fourth pitcher of the night for OU, got out of the jam to allow the Sooners a chance for some heroics.
With two down in the top of the seventh, Kinzie Hansen had a clean single and Bland was asked to run. Boone came through with the shot, but Bland was gunned down, leaving Jayda Coleman in the on deck circle without the chance to make something happen.
Senior Nicole May picks up her first loss of the season, now 11-1. She pitched 4.2 innings, allowing the two runs on five hits with six strikeouts.
OU 5, Texas 2 (Friday)
The confidence for Kelly Maxwell has been increasing with each Friday night performance and this might have been her best yet, at least through the first six innings. One hit allowed with 10 strikeouts.
But then Texas mounted a charge in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring two runs. The Horns brought the tying run to the plate, but it was another nice OU defensive play to wrap it up. And Maxwell never flinched.
A groundball that deflected off Alyssa Brito, and Tiare Jennings was ready to make the play from shortstop and secure the victory.
Maxwell is now 11-0 this season. She threw 114 pitches and tied her season high with those 10 strikeouts.
Offensively, Jayda Coleman was one of the best players in the country last weekend and kept it going against the Longhorns. She drove in one run on a single in the third. And then she put the separation with a three-run bomb in the fifth.
She is simply seeing the ball so well and waiting for her pitch. That patience has been paying off for the team all season.
Wrapping it up
One more showdown between the top-5 clubs. The rubber match. No. 1 OU (35-2 overall, 13-1 Big 12) is at No. 4 Texas at 1 p.m. Sunday on the Longhorn Network.
