No. 1 Oklahoma softball got back to action on Tuesday night putting their undefeated season on the line in a doubleheader against No. 21 Georgia in Athens.
The Sooners have had an incredible season to date and have looked to be next to unstoppable throughout the year, but to remain unblemished is something very difficult to do for a long stretch of time in college softball. Patty Gasso’s club found that out themselves splitting the doubleheader with the Bulldogs to take their first loss of the year and end their undefeated season bid at 33 straight wins to open the year.
The loss came in the first game of the evening in a very back and forth affair that needed extra frames to determine a winner. Getting the start for Oklahoma was ace pitcher Giselle Juarez who was effective over her five innings allowing just two runs and striking out seven.
The first run of the game would come from the Sooners in the second inning on a solo home run by Grace Lyons. After both teams came up empty in the third, the game remained 1-0 Oklahoma into the fourth inning.
It was that point that Juarez would run into her only trouble of the day allowing first a solo home run by Sydney Kuma to tie things up at 1-1. Then, in a very peculiar play, the Bulldogs’ Jaiden Fields launched an apparent two-run home run to give Georgia the lead but she inexplicably didn’t touch home plate when coming around the bases. Because of that, only one run counted and it was a 2-1 game through four frames.
What appeared to be one of the very biggest hits of the Sooners’ season would come later on in the sixth with Lynnsie Elam at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. With her team’s undefeated record in serious jeopardy, Elam sent a grand slam over the left center fence to give Oklahoma a 5-2 lead and seemingly put the dagger in the Bulldogs.
But, to Georgia’s credit, they kept battling. Fields would come through with a two-run single in the bottom half of the inning to trim the lead down to one. Then, after the Sooners added another run to their lead in the top of the seventh, Kuma and Sara Mosley would pick up run-scoring hits in the bottom half of the frame to knot things up at 6-6 and send the game into extras.
Both teams would be turned away empty in the eighth and Oklahoma would be again in the top of the ninth, needing freshman pitcher Nicole May to try and keep the game moving into a tenth inning. But, after picking up some key outs, May would not be able to quite to shut the door as Fields came through with another massive hit – this one a two-out, walk-off single to hand the Sooners their first loss of the 2021 season.
In the second game, Oklahoma played a lot like a team that took some frustration in suffering their first defeat of the year as they pounded the Bulldogs to the tune of a 12-3 run-rule victory.
Shannon Saile got the start and did a very nice job tossing three shutout innings allowing just a single hit. While she kept the Georgia bats quiet, the Sooners bats were having a field day.
Oklahoma put up five runs in the first across three hits from Lyons, Jayda Coleman, and Mackenzie Donihoo. They then tacked on three more in the second on bases loaded walks drawn by Coleman and Donihoo along with an RBI-single from Elam. The Sooners led 8-0 after two frames.
Gasso’s squad kept it rolling in the third with four more runs coming from the same group of Lyons, Coleman and Donihoo. Oklahoma held a commanding 12-0 advantage after only three turns at bat.
After an empty trip to the plate in the top of the fourth, redshirt sophomore Brooke Vestal would toss a scoreless inning to push the Sooners to just three outs away from the run-rule win. Sophomore Alanna Thiede would be called upon do that in the bottom of the fifth with the score still 12-0, and would run into some trouble allowing a three-run homer.
But, that wouldn’t be enough for the Bulldogs to extend the game as Thiede would hold things there for Oklahoma to get the 12-3 victory. Amazingly, it is the team’s 26th run-rule win of the season – which is beyond absurd.
The split doubleheader brings the Sooners’ overall record to 34-1 on the year. While it will certainly sting to have the zero in the loss column wiped away, it doesn’t have much effect on Oklahoma’s perception or their long term goals. They are still an elite team in every facet of the game and one loss in by no means changes that even slightly.
The Sooners will now take a couple days away from game action before starting a three-game weekend series with Texas Tech in Norman on Friday night.