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OU Softball: Oklahoma Run Rules Hofstra in Hot Start to the Weekend

Ella Parker's excellent start to 2025 continued on Saturday with a two-homer performance against Hofstra.

Ryan Chapman

Oklahoma's Ella Parker
Oklahoma's Ella Parker / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Ella Parker’s sensational start to the season showed no signs of slowing down on Saturday. 

The star sophomore homered twice for Oklahoma, powering the No. 3-ranked Sooners to an 8-0 win over the Hofstra Pride in five innings in Waco, TX. 

Parker also added an RBI single and helped another run come across with a bit of heads-up baserunning.

So far in 2025, Parker is 16-for-26 at the plate with three home runs, 12 RBIs, five doubles, five walks and she’s been hit once. 

Final Box Score
Final Box Score / OU Stats

OU’s offense hummed, and Patty Gasso also got another strong performance in the circle to match. 

Isabella Smith shut out the Pride in her three innings of work, striking out three and allowing three hits. Smith has yet to allow a run this season for the Sooners. 

Abby Dayton continued to do her job as OU’s leadoff hitter on Saturday. She drew a full-count walk to open the game, which became a run two pitches later. 

After taking one pitch, a ball, Parker belted a two-run shot to bring the first two runs of the game across the plate. 

In the second inning, Gabbie Garcia had to get aboard twice. 

She initially beat out a throw for an infield single, but shortstop Sydney Barker, who had reached base after wearing a pitch, left first early. 

So Barker became the first out of the inning and Garcia had to return to the box, but she singled straight up the middle to get back on first. 

Garcia then moved over to second on a pitch that got away from Hofstra catcher Olivia Malinowski, and Dayton then drew her second walk of the day to bring Parker back to the plate. 

Parker added another RBI to her tally with a single, which brought Garcia home and moved Dayton over to third.

Gasso then called for Parker to try and steal second, and when Hofstra threw down to get Parker out, the sophomore coaxed the Pride infield into a rundown to give Dayton the chance to take home. Dayton did, putting OU up 4-0, and Parker wore a big smile back to the dugout after getting tagged out as she did her job and helped get another run on the board. 

Third baseman Nelly McEnroe-Marinas’ one-out walk in the third inning was turned into a run when second baseman Ailana Agbayani looped a double into the left field corner to extend the Sooners’ lead to 5-0.

Barker then made up for her mental mistake on the bases in the second inning by bouncing a triple off the top of the wall for her fifth RBI of the year to give Oklahoma a 6-0 advantage headed to the bottom of the third. 

Smith worked around a pair of hits from Hofstra in the third and closed the frame with back-to-back strikeouts. 

Parker added her second home run of the day with a solo effort in the fourth, and then reliever Paytn Monticelli took over for Smith in the circle in the bottom of the inning. 

A hit batter and an error by Cydney Sanders at first put a pair of runners on for Monticelli to work around, but she battled back with two strikeouts to end the fourth.

Oklahoma scored in an unorthodox manner in the top of the fifth. 

Freshman Tia Milloy struck out with runners on first and second, which would have been the third out of the inning, but Hofstra dropped strike three. Milloy beat out the throw to first, and Agbayani took off went from second, rounded third and darted straight home to score and push the game into run rule territory with OU up 8-0.

Monticelli returned to close out the game in the fifth, and she fired another pair of strikeouts to bring her total up to four in the win.

The Sooners reset and immediately take on No. 24 Baylor to close the day’s schedule before meeting both Hofstra and the Bears again on Sunday. 

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is managing editor at Sooners On SI and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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