No. 3 Oklahoma Hosts Kentucky in Final Tuneup Before Texas

NORMAN — There’s no place like home.

No. 3 Oklahoma is excited to get to spend an entire weekend at Love’s Field after spending much of the last two weeks on the road.

The Sooners first traveled to Memphis before rolling to Oxford for a three-game series with Mississippi.

How to Watch Oklahoma vs. Kentucky

Game 1: Thursday, 6:30 p.m., SEC Network+
Game 2: Friday, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
Game 3: Saturday, 11 a.m., SEC Network+

OU then trekked to Baton Rouge to battle LSU, before finally returning to Love’s Field to roll past Wichita State on Tuesday night.

Oklahoma senior Isabela Emerling acknowledged that the consecutive weekends spent on the road take their toll, but at this stage in the year, you have to find a way to push those thoughts to the side.

“It's just not letting those outside factors get too big,” Emerling said on Tuesday. “And acknowledging that when you're feeling tired, not suppressing it. Acknowledge it, kind of take it for what it is and then get over it.”

One emotional lift for the team has been the return of associate head coach and pitching coach Jennifer Rocha.

Patty Gasso’s longtime assistant rejoined the program for the LSU series, and on top of getting back into her typical work flow, she’s just excited to get back to working with her pitching staff.

“I think they've done well,” Rocha said on Tuesday. “Again, I think we have a really young, inexperienced 'Oklahoma' staff. And so this is really their first season. (Kierston Deal) is our most experienced pitcher on our staff. Two transfers coming in, and a young Audrey Lowry still and Berkley (Zache). So just getting them reps. I think they got a lot of good reps early in the season. I think we're trending up right now, to answer your question shortly.

“We're trending up, and still a lot of room to grow. So they're doing a lot of good things right now. So I'm anticipating that we're only going to continue to get better.”

Oklahoma’s (35-3, 8-1 SEC) pitching staff will have to contend with a Kentucky lineup this weekend that has plenty of pop.

The Wildcats (22-16, 1-11) are hitting .288 as a team, but they’ve launched 46 home runs.

But OU’s power has been overwhelming at Love’s Field.

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In Tuesday’s victory over the Shockers, Oklahoma moved to sixth all-time for home runs in a season after just 38 games.

Freshman phenom Kendall Wells set the SEC single-season home run record in the win, and she has the NCAA freshman record of 30 bombs — which is shared by Jocelyn Alo (2018), Lauren Chamberlain (2012) and Kelly Majam (2010) — in her sights.

“Kendall came in more ready than any hitter I've ever seen, and that is what we're witnessing right now,” Gasso said on Tuesday.

Thursday’s series-opener will get going at 6:30 p.m. at Love’s Field, but the start time for Friday’s contest has been brought forward to 1 p.m.