OU Softball: Oklahoma Makes Emphatic Statement With 18-0 Run Rule Over Kentucky

The Sooners ended their earlier offensive struggles with a definitive victory against the No. 17-ranked Wildcats.

Nothing wrong with Oklahoma’s bats that a little stiff competition can’t fix.

While the OU lineup struggled for much of the home opener against winless Illinois-Chicago, the Sooners wasted no time getting the sticks going in the nightcap against No. 17-ranked Kentucky.

No. 1-ranked OU routed the Wildcats 18-0 on Friday night at Marita Hynes Field.

OU improved to 15-1 while Kentucky dropped to 10-4-1.

"The first game we played we were just… I’m not going to say flat. I’m gonna say soft. We were soft," OU coach Patty Gasso said after the Kentucky game. "We didn’t come out and fight the way we needed to. It was slow. It was just not what I was anticipating or expecting from a team that just had a good weekend. 

"So I was a little down on this team when we came into the locker room and just kind of talked about the importance of having to make a drastic change in order to have success against Kentucky. And they answered the call bigger and badder than I ever thought."

Oklahoma outfielder Jayda Coleman said she knew even before the contest with UIC was over that the Sooners would have a big response in Game 2.

"To be honest I knew it was going to turn right from the locker room," she said after the game. "We knew that we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do and I think we just kind of needed a reset. Sometimes it’s really hard mid-game to kind of just flip it. 

"But I knew in the middle of the (UIC game) that we were going to… that we were going to come out the next game."

While the offense found itself, senior pitcher Alex Storako pitched a no-hitter as OU logged its 10th run-rule victory of the season.

The no-hitter was Storako's second of her career, with her only other hitless game coming on March 5, 2022 in a 1-0 victory over Drake in eight innings.

"It was really exciting," Storako said of celebrating the no-hitter with her team after the game. "But when you don’t feel completely on and you’re able to trust your defense like that and your defense makes those kind of plays it’s really fun to be in the circle.

"And when I can get pumped up in the circle and provide that energy that we can sometimes be missing, I’m all for that."

Much like last weekend, when the Sooners were faced with a talented opponent — Sunday it was a 14-0 victory over then-No. 1 UCLA — they simply rose to the occasion.

Earlier Friday, in a 5-0 victory over UIC in the first game of a doubleheader, OU managed just one run and two hits over the first four innings and finished 7-for-24 (.292) at the plate against the Flames.

But through their first four innings against the one of the SEC’s top teams, OU hitters had scored 18 runs on 13 hits, including six home runs, and batted 13-of-24 (.542).

In the first inning, Coleman led off with a double to left and scored when Tiare Jennings delivered an RBI single. Kinzie Hansen singled to left and stole second, and Jennings and Hansen came home on Jocelyn Erickson’s single up the middle to give the Sooners a 3-0 lead.

The lead swelled to 7-0 in the second inning as OU launched the first of six home runs on the night.

Rylie Boone drew a one-out walk, and Jennings moved her to third with a two-out infield single. After Haley Lee walked, Hansen blasted a grand slam to straightaway center, her third home run of the season.

In the fourth inning, the Sooners poured it on with home runs from Coleman (a leadoff shot to center), a tape-measure shot by Sophia Nugent (a three-run blast over the scoreboard in left), a deep ball from Cydney Sanders (a solo shot off left fielder Hallie Mitchell’s glove at the wall), a line drive rip from Quincee Lilio (a solo shot to left-center) and another mash from Hansen (a three-run blast to left-center).

The bombs by Nugent, Sanders and Lilio came in back-to-back-to-back at-bats. It was Sanders’ first home run as a Sooner (she hit 21 last year at Arizona State), and Lilio’s first career college homer. For Hansen, it was her fourth home run in two games.

Gasso praised the power Coleman added to her game in the offseason, but Coleman said it was still a relief to finally see her hard work paying off during games.

"I feel like the last couple weekends I’ve been hitting the ball hard," she said. "Just sometimes they don’t get out. So it’s nice when it just barely goes over the fence a couple of times. But I don’t really change anything. Just low line drives, hit the ball up the middle."

The fireworks continued in the fourth as Jordy Bahl drew a bases-loaded walk that put the Sooners up 14-0, and Lee’s groundout scored Boone from third for a 15-0 lead.

Hansen made it 18-0 with her second big ball of the night.

With so much offensive fireworks, Storako (5-0) had a stress-free night in the circle.

Storako threw her fifth complete game of the season and allowed only one baserunner all night with a hit batter, while striking out seven.

The Sooners and Wildcats meet again Saturday at 3 p.m., and OU hosts UIC again Saturday night at 5:30.