Oklahoma sets another school record with Big 12 victory at Iowa State

Sooners improve to 24-0 for the first time in school history

John E. Hoover | Mar 27, 2021

AMES, IA — Anyone suggesting that Oklahoma might have its best softball team ever this season got a little support for their argument on Saturday.

The unanimous No. 1-ranked Sooners beat Iowa State 10-2 to improve 24-0 on the season — officially the best start in school history. Iowa State fell to 22-7.

Grace Green hit a pinch-hit home run — a two-out, three-run blast to left center field — to push the Sooners to a 10-2 lead in the sixth inning.

Grace Lyons drove in two runs on a first-inning single, and her two-out walk in the second brought in another run to make it 3-0. Taylon Snow’s single to left made it 5-0.

Lynnsie Elam hit a two-run home run in the fifth to extend the Sooners’ lead to

7-1.

After OU starter Shannon Saile struck out the side in the bottom of the fourth inning, she ran into trouble in the fifth — but the Sooners got out of it.

Carli Spelhaug led off with a home run to make it 7-2, but Saile induced a fly ball for the first out. After Mikayla Ramos walked, Saile struck out Milaysia Ochoa, then was replaced by Olivia Rains. Kinzie Hansen then threw out Ochoa trying to steal second to end the threat.

Saile finished with 11 strikeouts and allowed four walks and just two hits.

Jocelyn Alo didn’t have a hit but was issued four walks. Grace Lyons had two hits and three RBIs, Snow had two RBIs and Alo, Jayda Coleman and Tiare Jennings each scored two runs.

Game three of the series starts at noon Sunday.

Published Mar 27, 2021

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.