Photo credit Ty Russell, OU Athletics
If playing up to an Olympic standard is a goal for Oklahoma Softball then all of the boxes have been checked off this weekend. The Sooners completed a 3-0 sweep of Team Mexico on Sunday afternoon with a 12-3 win in a run-rule shortened game.
Three OU players hit home runs and Jayda Coleman went 3-for-3 from the plate with 4 RBI to spark the Oklahoma offense and four Sooner hurlers made an appearance in the circle to face Mexico’s batters. Former Sooner star Sydney Romero recorded her first hit of the series when she knocked a double down the left field line to leadoff the game. Two batters later Chelsea Gonzalez knocked Romero home with a single to left center. The run gave Team Mexico its first lead of the series but it didn’t last long.
The Sooners erased the 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the first when Tiare Jennings led off Oklahoma’s at bat with a bomb over the wall at right-center field. OU added five more runs in the at bat to take a commanding 6-1 lead after the first.
Oklahoma added two more runs in the bottom of the second when a double from Coleman brought home Kinzie Hansen and Grace Lyons. However a pair of home runs by Team Mexico in the top of the third put the game back to a five-run Sooner lead at 8-3.
It was in the fifth inning that the Sooners delivered the knockout blow with four runs crossing home plate on a pair of home runs. Jana Johns sent the ball over the left field fence for a solo homer and then Grace Lyons sent a three-run blast out the same direction so bring the game to an end at a 12-3 run-rule decision.
“G” Juarez picked up her second win of the exhibition series by tossing the first two innings of the game. She struck out three batters and allowed just one run off four hits. Nicole May, Macy McAdoo, and Olivia Rains followed Juarez in the circle.
Oklahoma travels to Ames next weekend to open up conference play against Iowa State.
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