OU Softball: Oklahoma Squanders Key Chances, Drops Bedlam Series

The Sooners dropped a Big 12 series to Oklahoma State for the first time since 1997 after sixth inning implosion on Saturday.

BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

NORMAN — Saturday’s massive Bedlam tilt hit a speed bump almost immediately. 

Four pitches into the game, lightning struck near Love’s Field. It ushered in a three hour and 24 minute delay as rain blanketed Norman. 

Once the weather cleared, Oklahoma starter Nicole May and Oklahoma State’s Ivy Rosenberry settled into a pitcher’s duel. 

The game opened up in the late stages, and a five-run outburst from the Cowgirls in the sixth inning proved to be the difference. 

No. 4 Oklahoma State took the series over No. 2 Oklahoma with a 6-2 win.

It marked the first time OU had lost a home series since dropping two games to Texas in 2006, and it was the Cowgirls’ first conference series victory over the Sooners since 1997.

With defeats to Oklahoma State and Texas, it was also the first time the Sooners dropped multiple conference series since 2006 when OU also lost to Nebraska and Missouri. 

"We’re just not playing complete games," Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said after the loss. "There’s places in the game where the pitchers are very very good and then it’ll collapse. Our defense can do the same at times. Our offense is doing the same. There’s shining lights and then it just fades and we’re just not playing complete games. We’ve got to clean it up." 

Final Box Score /

The Cowgirls (44-8, 21-5) nearly scored the game’s first run in the top of the third inning.

Rosie Davis snuck a two-out single straight up the middle, and the ball rolled slow enough to Jayda Coleman that the OU star came up thinking she had to fire the ball home. 

OSU coach Kenny Gajewski, well aware of Coleman’s cannon, prudently held Jilyen Poullard up at third. 

The decision made sense, except Coleman bobbled the transfer from her glove to her throwing hand, a move that could have allowed Poullard to make it home. 

Instead, May escaped the bases loaded jam with an easy grounder in the next at-bat, keeping the contest scoreless. 

A freshman delivered for Oklahoma (45-6, 21-5) to break the deadlock in the fourth. 

Outfielder Kasidi Pickering singled, and Patty Gasso didn’t hesitate. She waved Alyssa Brito home from second, setting up a bang-bang play at the plate. 

Oklahoma State centerfielder Jilyen Poullard got the throw to the plate on time, but the ball came in high forcing catcher Caroline Wang to reach up and snag it before bending to tag Brito. 

Brito’s slide was called safe, and after Gajewski didn’t hop out of the dugout to challenge the tight call, the Sooners took a 1-0 lead into the fifth. 

The lead didn’t last long, as Wang crushed a two-out bomb to level the game back at 1-1 in the top half of the inning. 

Oklahoma squandered a huge chance in the fifth inning. 

The Sooners loaded the bases with one out, handing the keys over to Brito. 

OU’s All-American third baseman got up 3-0 in the count, but Lexi Kilfoyl battled back and threw three straight strikes. 

Alynah Torres drew a walk to put OU up 2-1, but Pickering struck out and OSU escaped with minimal damage dealt. 

"We’ve got to clean it up," Gasso said. "We’re facing a very good team that’s got very good pitching. 

"... We don’t make excuses whatsoever. We know what we have to do. We just need time to figure it out to get it done and we don’t have a lot of time left. So that is the goal to find where we need to go and how to get there."

Free of the threat, the Cowgirls chased May out of the game. 

Claire Timm and Micaela Wark belted back-to-back bombs to end May’s day, putting OSU up for the first time on Saturday and forcing Gasso to bring Kelly Maxwell out of the bullpen. 

May's outing was her longest of the season, but Gasso brushed off any notion of regret for leaving the senior right-hander in to start the sixth.

"She threw really well," Gasso said. "... That was Nicole May. It's hard to sustain a full game as a pitcher, that's why you don't see it very often but as long as she was feeling good, we wanted to do it. We just wanted to do it.

"So we're learning things about our pitching staff that we need to have nailed down going into postseason so if we have to figure it out now, it's better to figure out now than when your season could be ending."

The Cowgirls quickly put runners on the corners with no outs, and Poullard looped a shot over the left field wall to put OSU up 6-2.

There was no response from the Sooners, who went down in order in the sixth, and Karlie Keeney took over for Maxwell to try and limit the damage in the seventh. 

May allowed eight hits, a walk and three runs in her five innings of work, also striking out four batters. Maxwell gave up a pair of hits and three runs to her former team in her lone inning of relief. 

Keeney kept the score at 6-2 headed into the bottom of the seventh, but the Sooners were unable to stage a series-saving rally.

Texas clinched at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title after the Longhorns demolished Texas Tech and OU fell. 

The Sooners could tie for their 12th-straight regular season crown with a win over OSU in the series finale and a Texas loss, but OU will lose the tiebreaker to both Texas and Oklahoma State for seeding in next week’s Big 12 Tournament. 

With their backs against the wall to avoid a sweep, Torres said the team has to look within to break out of the rut and find their best form of the year.

"We put the work in. I don't think it's anything physical with us," Torres said. "I think it's just all mental and when it opens, it's physical. But I just think we need to grind. We need to punch back."

Game 3 between the Sooners and the Cowgirls will start at 3 p.m. tomorrow, and the game will air on ESPN2.