No. 1 Oklahoma softball returned to action on Tuesday night after a week off to do battle with No. 25 Wichita State at their place in Wichita, Kansas. As have many of the Sooners games have been this year, it wasn’t very competitive.
Getting the start for Oklahoma was Shannon Saile (13-0) who continued her fantastic season with four shutout innings allowing just one hit. The Shockers were unable to muster much of anything against her throughout the evening, only collecting three runs in the fifth inning off of freshman Nicole May.
After an empty opening inning, the Sooners would get the bats going in the second putting up four runs on a bases loaded walk by third baseman Jana Johns, a two-run single by left fielder Mackenzie Donihoo and an RBI knock from second baseman Tiare Jennings.
πππ₯π₯ ππ‘ππ§ π @kkenzienncole with the 2-RBI single and is SAFE at second! The next at-bat Tiare brings another run in π
T2 | OU 4, WSU 0 (2 OB, 2 outs) | πΊ ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/7SksMnVAtT
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) May 4, 2021
Oklahoma wouldn’t add in the third but would score two more runs in the fourth highlighted by an RBI double from Jennings to make the score 6-0. The Sooners would then explode in the fifth inning making it a complete laugher with an eight-run frame.
Right fielder Rylie Boone got it started with a run-scoring single followed by an RBI double from Donihoo. Jennings would then knock in two more before shortstop Grace Green put the exclamation point on the evening with a grand slam to make the score 14-0 in favor of Oklahoma.
π₯ ππ πππππ ππππ π₯@grace_10_green with the pinch-hit blast to make it 14-0, #Sooners! π€
πΊ ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/mgp7ST8I7U
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) May 5, 2021
Wichita State would try to avoid the run-rule in the bottom half of the frame scoring three runs off of May, but that wouldn’t be enough as the Sooners held on to win it 14-3. The win moves them to an absurd 40-1 on the season and is their seventh in a row since taking their first loss of the year to Georgia two weeks ago.
This team continues to make good teams look bad, as the Shockers entered with a very impressive record as a definite NCAA Tournament team coming up later this month. But, like so many others, they were simply no match for Patty Gasso’s incredible club.
Oklahoma will now return to the state of Oklahoma for the remainder of the season, beginning with Bedlam in Stillwater starting on Friday night.