OU Softball: Kasidi Pickering's Late Blast Powers Oklahoma Past Missouri

The Sooners took the series in bounceback fashion thanks to Pickering's swing and Sam Landry's steadiness in the circle.

Kasidi Pickering / John E. Hoover

Kasidi Pickering swung at a riseball late in Sunday’s tie game at Missouri, and Oklahoma exhaled.

The swing produced a go-ahead, two-run home run well over the center field fence in the top of the sixth inning, sparking a 5-1 victory and tilting the three-game series in the Sooners’ favor after they had dropped Saturday’s middle game 3-1.

That defeat was OU’s first of the season and halted a 31-game winning streak. So Patty Gasso's bunch started a new winning streak on Sunday.

The Sooners labored a bit at the plate for a second straight day, but unlike Saturday, when they stranded 10 baserunners, they came through when it counted. 

Nelly McEnroe-Marinas launched her 10th home run, and third of the series, to tie the game at 1-1 leading off the top of the fourth inning. 

Nellyville 💥 pic.twitter.com/Bq6ZkL6Mbd

— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) March 23, 2025

Isabela Emerling and Hannah Coor struck for two-out RBI hits in the top of the seventh to give OU some 5-1 insurance.

The big blow, though, was Pickering’s in that sixth inning, when she stepped in two batters after Abigail Dayton’s one-out single to center. 

Missouri starter Marissa McCann had struck out Pickering looking in the first inning and then swinging in the fourth. This time, McCann left a riser out and over the plate, and Pickering made her pay with her ninth homer of the season.

KP IN THE CLUTCH 💣

3-1 Sooners! pic.twitter.com/ER8ujdl2ed

— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) March 23, 2025

With staff ace Sam Landry in control, top-ranked OU could feel good about moving to 29-1 overall and 8-1 in the SEC. 

Missouri fell to 18-15 and 1-5, and 0-2 against Landry. 

The lanky right hander was dominant in Friday night’s series opener, allowing but one hit in an 8-0 shutout. Sunday, Landry gave up two infield singles, a double to the right-field wall, and Julia Crenshaw’s one-out homer to left in the bottom of the third inning.

Landry pitched around the double and two singles without any worry, and responded to Crenshaw’s home run by allowing one hit and two baserunners over her final four-plus innings.

The well-deserved outcome made Landry 9-0 on the season.

McCann fell to 7-6 despite a much better outing than Friday, when OU touched her for seven runs in just over four innings of work. She worked 1-2-3 innings in the first, third and fifth, but the long ball eventually got to her just as it did Friday.

McEnroe-Marinas and Gabbie Garcia took McCann deep in the series opener. Sunday, it was McEnroe-Marinas and Pickering. 

OU will try to ride Sunday’s late-inning momentum into its next game Wednesday at Wichita State. The Sooners defeated the Shockers 8-1 in Norman on Feb. 23.

Tennessee, No. 7 in the latest softball polls, comes to Love’s Field for a pivotal SEC series next weekend.

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