Oklahoma Softball: Sooners Dominate McNeese Again
Whether it’s home run queen Jocelyn Alo or Oregon transfer Alyssa Brito or patient junior Rylie Boone, Oklahoma’s offense is inevitable.
That trio combined for four home runs on Saturday as the No. 1-ranked Sooners roughed up McNeese State 11-0 in OU’s third game of the Houston Classic at Cougar Stadium.
Pitcher Hope Trautwein threw a five-inning no-hitter to push the Sooners to 8-0 on the season. It was OU’s sixth run-rule victory of the season. Trautwein struck out eight and walked just one.
Alo hit two bombs — her first multi-home run game since March 2021. It was Brito’s first home run since joining the Sooners.
And it was Boone’s second home run of her career.
“She’s got three dimension to her game,” OU coach Patty Gasso said of Boone on Thursday. “She easily has the power to hit it over the fence. She can chop it and beat it out, bunt it and beat it out, slap it, she can do a lot of things, which makes her dangerous in the bottom of the lineup. She’s a tough out.”
Boone has been a patient backup for most of her career, a valued utility player who excelled at running the bases and putting pressure on opposing pitchers.
But so far this season, she’s started seven of the Sooners’ eight games and has contributed a .462 batting average with six hits, four RBIs, five runs scored, one double and Saturday’s homer.
“I really appreciate her patience,” Gasso said, “but know that she knows that she needed to get a little bit better and have a little more confidence. And then as she’s gaining that, she had an injury that set her back.
“So she’s been kind of going through her own bumpy road as well. She’s finally 100 percent physically, and it’s showing. She’s laying down bunts, she’s having some timely hits, she’s so good on defense.”
Oklahoma showed its offensive prowess, patience and versatility as the Sooners scored just about every way possible in the first two innings.
In the first, Jana Johns drew a bases-loaded walk to score Tiare Jennings for a 1-0 lead, Kinzie Hansen hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Jayda Coleman to make it 2-0, Taylon Snow ripped an RBI double to left-center to score Alo for a 3-0 lead, and Grace Lyons delivered a sacrifice bunt to score Johns and put the Sooners up 4-0.
Jennings started the first-inning outburst with a single up the middle, and Jayda Coleman reached on a bunt single to third. Alo loaded the bases with a sharp single down the right field line to set up Johns’ RBI walk.
In the second, Alo smashed a two-out, two-run home run to score Rylie Boone and give OU a commanding 6-0 lead. Boone had reached on a single up the middle, and after Jennings and Coleman flied out, Alo hit a first-pitch offering over the fence in right-center field.
Armed with a 6-0 lead going into the third inning, Boone hit a two-out homer to score Lyons and Snow for a 9-0 lead. That was followed by Brito’s solo shot to left-center to lead off the fourth, and Alo followed that with a solo blast to right-center that made it 11-0.