Oklahoma Softball: Sooners Run Rule Kansas
Somehow, NCAA home run queen Jocelyn Alo had never hit a home run in her career at Kansas.
Alo took care of that Saturday afternoon in Lawrence.
Alo mashed her 23rd home run of the season and the 111th of her decorated career – but her first at KU – as Oklahoma defeated Kansas 19-0.
With the win, No. 1-ranked OU improved to 44-1 overall and 13-1 in Big 12 Conference play, while KU fell to 15-30 and 2-12.
OU won Friday’s game 7-0. Game three of their series starts at noon Sunday at Arrocha Ballpark.
Alo’s homer came in the second inning and gave the Sooners a 3-0 lead.
Oklahoma loaded the bases in the first inning but scored only one run. Alo drew a one-out walk, moved to third on Tiare Jennings’ single to right and scored on a wild pitch.
Alo, however, didn’t mess around in the second inning. After Jayda Coleman drew a two-out walk, Alo blasted a two-run homer over the wall in right-center field for a 3-0 OU lead.
Lyons opened the third inning with a hard single to right, then stole second base. Alyssa Brito reached on an infield single, and Taylon Snow moved both runners with a groundout to second base. Jana Johns was hit by pitch to load the bases but Kinzie Hansen grounded into a double play to end the inning.
OU loaded the bases again in the fourth inning – and finally blew it open this time – when Coleman and Alo drew back-to-back walks with one out and Jennings slipped a single through the infield. Lyons drove in Coleman with a deep sacrifice fly to center for a 4-0 lead, and Alo came home from third on an errant throw to second base by catcher Shelby Gayre. Snow’s two-out triple under the glove in right field scored Jennings and Brito to put the Sooners up 7-0 and forced a pitching change.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Lyons delivered an RBI single to right field to plate Rylie Boone for an 8-0 lead, and Brito smacked a two-run single to left to score Turiya Coleman and Jennings for a 10-0 Oklahoma lead. Johns then added two more with a three-run double to the wall in left-center field to make it 12-0.
Lynnsie Elam then obliterated a pitch off the building beyond right field for a two-run home run that put the Sooners in front 15-0.
Boone restarted another rally with a single, and Sophia Nugent followed with an RBI double to the wall in right field for a 16-0 lead.
The hit parade continued when Jennings launched another satellite off the structure beyond center field for a three-run blast that scored Alo and Coor and put the Sooners up 19-0.
Hope Trautwein (13-0) opened in the circle for the Sooners and gave up a single in the first inning and a walk in the third but the nation’s leader in earned run average (0.10) was mostly dominant as usual and got plenty of help from her defense.
Trautwein, who allowed just one earned run in her first 18 appearances this season, got a visit from pitching coach Jen Rocha after giving up a couple of one-out singles in the bottom of the fourth. But Trautwein induced two infield popups to end the threat and maintain the shutout. She finished four innings, gave up three hits, allowed one walk and recorded a season-low one strikeout.
Nicole May came in to pitch the fifth inning. Boone finished the game in style with a diving catch in right field.
Following Sunday’s series finale with KU, the Sooners return home next weekend for a three-game conference series against No. 6-ranked Oklahoma State – the final series of the regular season.