Photo credit Josh Gateley/OU Athletics
For the second weekend in a row the Big 12 championship is going to be a Bedlam affair. Just six days after the Sooners and Cowgirls settled the regular season championship in Stillwater the two will face off again, this time for the conference tournament championship.
Oklahoma punched its ticket by repeatedly sending the ball out of the park against the Red Raiders in Friday’s tournament finale. After knocking off Baylor in a 10-2 run-rule earlier in the day, the Sooners picked up where they left off when they faced Texas Tech to determine the winner from Pool A. Six of OU’s twelve hits against the Red Raiders left the field of play as they pelted Tech for an 8-2 final.
Lynnsie Elam and Kinzie Hansen each homered twice in the game with Jocelyn Alo and Tiare Jennings getting in on the action as well. Elam’s first dinger put the Sooners on the board in the top of the second inning. Hansen’s first shot came in the fourth and evened OU up to a 2-2 tie with Tech. Elam would then blast her second of the game later in the fourth. Her two-run shot to left field put Oklahoma up for good, at 4-2, but the Sooners were far from being finished.
Alo hit a solo home run to center field in the top of the fifth to make it a 5-2 score in favor of Oklahoma. Then, in the sixth, Hansen knocked her second of the game, scoring Alo as well, to push it to a 7-2 lead before Coleman sent a solo home run over the fence in left field to cap the scoring. Hansen’s sixth inning home run was her fourth of the day after she went deep twice against Baylor as well.
From the pitching circle Giselle Juarez improved to 16-1 on the season after throwing five innings where she struck out five batters and gave up two runs. Nicole May threw the final two innings, giving up just one hit and striking out four of the seven batters that she faced.
The Sooners and Cowgirls will play each other at 3:00 (CT) on Saturday afternoon for the tournament championship. The game will be televised on ESPN 2.
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