Sooners sweep Houston in Big 12 play
NORMAN — The Oklahoma Sooners softball team swept a home Big 12 series from the Houston Cougars over the weekend at Love’s Field.
NORMAN — The Oklahoma Sooners softball team swept a home Big 12 series from the Houston Cougars over the weekend at Love’s Field.
The Sooners won 8-0 on Friday night, then defeated the Cougars 10-2 on Saturday night and ended the series with a 5-0 victory on Sunday afternoon.
In the opener, senior second baseman Alynah Torres homered and drove in four for the second-ranked Sooners to become the first NCAA team to reach 40 wins in 2024.
The Sooners (42-4 overall, 18-3 Big 12) recorded their 20th shutout and 24th run-rule win with the blanking of Houston (23-23, 3-18).
Senior shortstop Tiare Jennings moved into fourth in program history with her 293rd career hit, going 2-for-3 on the night with a run scored. She now shares fourth place with Houston head coach and former OU standout Kristin Vesely and needs 27 hits to reach Sydney Romero for third.
Graduate catcher Kinzie Hansen led the Sooners with three hits, going 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Jennings, Torres, who was 2-for-2, with a home run, four runs batted in and two runs scored, Jayda Coleman, who was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, and Riley Ludlam, who was 2-for-3, each added multi-hit efforts in the win.
Kelly Maxwell struck out five across five scoreless innings of work, improving to 14-1 on the year.
In Saturday’s win, four Sooners recorded multi-hit games.
Hansen, Alyssa Brito, Kasidi Pickering and Rylie Boone each recorded two-hit nights as OU posted crooked numbers in the first and third innings to down Houston.
Senior right-hander Nicole May struck out four over 4.1 innings of three-hit ball to earn her 12th win of the spring.
In the series finale, sophomore left-hander Kierston Deal matched her career-high of 10 strikeouts.
With the win and a Texas victory in Lawrence, Kan., over Kansas, OU will enter the second-to-last week of conference play a full game ahead of the Longhorns in the Big 12 standings.
OU will open a three-game Big 12 series at Central Florida today in Orlando, Fla., with a 5 p.m. first pitch.
