OU Softball: Oklahoma Throttles Wichita State in Wire-to-Wire Victory

NORMAN — All of the snow and ice that had ran through the Sooner State was in the rearview mirror as Oklahoma took routed Wichita State 8-1 in their second game of the Norman Tournament on Sunday at Love's Field.

On an afternoon that felt more like it was a day in the middle of April than the end of February, the Sooners got the bats going early and did not look back as they pounded the Shockers.

Sam Landry got the start for the Sooners. The right hander hurled 5 2/3 innings, struck out 10 batters, gave up three hits, one walk, gave up one run.

“That’s a good hitting team," coach Patty Gasso said. "Wichita is a good hitting team. We always struggle with them.”

The Sooners got on the board early after lead off walks to Abigale Dayton and Ella Parker put Oklahoma in position to do some damage early. A flare single by Kasidi Pickering drove in Dayton to take an early 1-0 lead. Both Parker and Pickering would make it home after a variety of errors by the Shockers defense allowed the Sooners to hold a 3-0 lead.

“We scored in some unconventional ways that maybe they weren’t happy about," Gasso said, "and we brought the momentum into our dugout.”

Isabela Emerling joined the party when she launched a ball over the center field wall into "Gasso's Garden" off of Wichita State pitcher Chloe Barber to make it 4-0. Emerling had been hitless in her last 14 at bats before that home run.

Sam Landry's strikeout of Catelyn Beckerley in the top of the fourth inning was strikeout number 500 of her career between her time at Oklahoma and her prior stop at Louisiana.

Tia Milloy drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth inning and took matters into her own hands when she stole second base and moved in scoring position. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas poked a pitch just inside the foul line into right field that rolled all the way to the wall and allowed Milloy to score to a make it a 5-0 lead.

“When she (Milloy) gets on, we can run," Gaso said. "She is what we’re looking for. A freshman who looks like they're having fun playing softball.”

Emerling was inches away from her second home run of the day as she crushed a ball of off the right-center field and drove in McEnroe-Marinas to make it a 6-0 lead.

The Shockers were finally able to get on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning after a mammoth home run by left fielder Ellee Eck made it a 6-1 ballgame.

Oklahoma would get that run back after a leadoff walk to Cydney Sanders as Chaney Helton pinch-ran and scored when Ailana Agbayani and Tia Milloy ripped back to back RBI singles down the right field line to grow the Sooners' lead back to 8-1.

Freshman Audrey Lowry entered the game with two outs in the top of the sixth inning. She threw 1 1/3 innings. gave up zero hits and no walks.

Up next, Gasso's team returns to action Monday afternoon for a doubleheader at Love's Field as they will take on Bowling Green at 11 a.m. and Abilene Christian at 2 p.m,