Oklahoma Softball: Sooners Outlast Utah to Remain Unbeaten
For the second straight outing, the Oklahoma Sooners had to come from behind Sunday to remain perfect.
Closing out the weekend at the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs, CA, aggressive base running in the fourth inning lifted the Sooners over the Utah Utes 2-1.
Heading into the weekend, the No. 1-ranked Sooners (15-0) had been mostly untested. But in their final two games of the Mary Nutter Classic, OU had to play from behind for the first time all year.
On Sunday, it was the Utes who struck first.
In the top of the third inning, Utah second baseman Aliya Belarde slapped a ball at OU shortstop Grace Lyons, who was unable to wrangle the ball and fire it over to first base in time, allowing the Utes to plate Haley Denning and take a 1-0 lead.
The Sooners would have a response in the bottom of the fourth.
Oklahoma started the inning off strong, but it appeared a couple of base running errors would derail the inning.
Pinch runner Hannah Coor over ran third base after she thought the ball had been thrown up the left field line, resulting in an out, and then Jana Johns was thrown out at home off Taylon Snow’s hard-hit ball into right field, leaving runners on the corners.
But Snow was able to slide under a tag at second base on a double steal call from Patty Gasso, which allowed Grace Lyons to steal home.
Then, Rylie Boone came up big with an RBI single of her own to plate Snow to put OU up 2-1 and give the Sooners their first lead of the game.
Oklahoma appeared to be poised to build on the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning before a stunning defensive play by Utah.
Jayda Coleman started the inning off with a single, and the Utes walked Jocelyn Alo to bring Tiare Jennings up to the plate with runners on first and second and no outs.
Jennings got a good look at the delivery from Utah pitcher Halle Morris, but she rocketed the ball straight at third baseman Julia Jimenez who turned a picture-perfect 5-4-3 triple play to end the threat.
True freshman pitcher Jordy Bahl didn’t need any extra run support, however, as she entered in relief of Hope Trautwein to close out the victory.
The duo combined to strike out 11 Utah batters, only allowing two hits and one walk, and the only Ute run of the day was unearned.
Alo’s chase for history will now head to Norman, as the Sooners host the Minnesota Golden Gophers up next in their home opener.
The contest is scheduled for March 7, and first pitch from Marita Hynes Field is slated for 5 p.m.
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