No. 2 Sooners open Regionals with 8-0 win against Boston U
NORMAN— No. 2 Oklahoma Softball (46-7) opened up NCAA Regional play with an 8-0 run-rule win of Boston University (39-18) in the opening round of the NCAA Norman Regional Friday, May 16.
Five different Sooners tallied at least one RBI, while Sam Landry and Kierston Deal combined to spin five scoreless frames.
A crowd of 4,040 at Love’s Field watched the Sooners put together the convincing victory. The game-clinching hit came on a solo home run from catcher Corri Hicks in the fifth inning, her third homer of the season.
Prior to Hicks’ blast in the fifth inning, OU had gone station-to-station the first four innings, scoring seven runs via six singles and four walks.
The No. 2-seeded Sooners (46-7) will now face Cal (36-19) at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Bears advanced with a 1-0 victory over Omaha in Friday’s opener. “They play a hard style of softball, that’s for sure,” OU Hall of Fame coach Patty Gasso said of the Bears. “They’re fearless.”
The OU-Cal winner will play in Sunday’s championship round needing one victory to advance to next week’s Super Regional.
“Pretty good all-around game for us,” Gasso said. “Tried to get a lot of opportunities for some athletes who have been waiting their turn, giving opportunities for those guys who work really hard in practice. I want them to feel what it feels like on the field. It’s different. I asked them in the locker room just now, ‘How many of you have played in a college regional up until now?’ I think six or seven hands went up, so not a lot.”
The Sooners entered the game having hit 102 home runs this season while becoming the first program to hit at least 100 home runs in six straight seasons.
“Corri just lit that ball up really well,” Gasso said of her team’s only non-single. “I thought we wasted the first inning (going scoreless). There were just too many feel (at-bats) going on. Once we knocked that out, then we could start to see balls getting hit hard.”
Boston opened the game leaving four runners on base in the first two innings as OU starter Sam Landry surrendered two hits and one walk. Those would be the only hits Landry allowed in her three innings of work.
First baseman Sydney Barker, second baseman Ailana Agbayani and left fielder Abigale Dayton hit back-to-back-to-back singles in the bottom of the second to load the bases. Catcher Isabela Emerling was hit by a pitch to give OU a 1-0 lead. Center fielder Hannah Coor then lined up the middle for two RBIs to chase BU starter Kasey Ricard and push the Sooners’ lead to 3-0. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas drove in two more runs with a single to center to give OU a 5-0 advantage.
Barker opened the third inning with line-drive single to right then scored on Agbayani’s sacrifice bunt that was fielded by the third baseman and thrown into right field. A second error on the same play came when the right fielder threw the ball between third base and home plate and into the OU dugout. The Sooners made it 7-0 when Tia Milloy drew a bases-loaded walk.
Hick’s game-clincher came two innings later.
