Home sweet home
Oklahoma softball is getting a well-deserved break, and the Sooners are doing it after the only way the know how with one dominating performance after another.
The No. 1-ranked Sooners concluded a 5-0 weekend with a 7-1 victory vs. No. 19 Auburn on Sunday afternoon at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
“Just a really complete game,” head coach Patty Gasso said.
Complete game as complete performances are starting to become the norm once again as OU finishes the first part of its season. The next time the Sooners take the field will be at Iowa State to begin the quest for another Big 12 championship.
The goal, of course, is to end up back in Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series, and the Sooners showed how comfortable they are in their home away from home.
What’s working right now is a powerful combination in the circle with Alex Storako starting things and Jordy Bahl finishing it off.
It’s what OU used Tuesday in the big win vs. No. 6 Florida State, and Gasso went with the one-two punch again vs. the Tigers.
Storako went five innings, giving up two hits and striking out 11 to move to 10-0. Bahl closed it out in the final two frames, not allowing a hit with two strikeouts.
“Almost unfair,” said Gasso about what Storako and Bahl can do together. “Glad they’re on our side.”
At the plate, this was another huge weekend from leadoff hitter Jayda Coleman. She punctuated the five-game set going 4-for-4 with a two-run home run and scoring three times.
Coleman is now hitting .507 this season with seven home runs and 23 RBIs.
“She is becoming one of the smartest, thought-process hitters,” Gasso said.
Ten games in 10 days, and Gasso said she knows her team is exhausted. Tired bodies, tired legs but always finding a way to win now at 27-1 overall and a 19-game winning streak.
“We set the foundation,” Gasso said. “Now it’s about something.”
OU outscored its opponents 48-3 in the five games. Tiare Jennings and Kinzie Hansen also hit home runs Sunday.
No. 1 OU 14, No. 19 Auburn 0 (5)
Three home runs in the first inning (Coleman, Jennings, Hansen) set the tone, and Grace Lyons launched a three-run home run. Lyons, the OU captain, hit two home runs in her return to action after missing the previous two weeks.
Bahl was solid in five innings, striking out nine.
No. 1 OU 16, Weber State 0 (5)
This was a little more like it. Gasso said the team had to fight its way through Friday’s games, but the Sooners were doing what was expected Saturday.
OU had eight extra-base hits, including a two-run home run by Sophia Nugent. Haley Lee, Alynah Torres and Nugent all drove in three runs.
No. 1 OU 2, No. 24 Northwestern 1
Gasso mentioned Bahl and Storako because of what they did Sunday, but Gasso knows she has another ace in the circle at any time with Nicole May. You can’t put up 10, 15 runs every single time out, and that’s OK when you have May.
She did allow her first earned run of the season but was brilliant in throwing a complete game with 10 strikeouts.
No. 1 OU 9, Weber State 1 (5)
This was the Alyssa Brito show. When Gasso says on any day, any player can be the star, this is an example of that. Brito hit two two-run home runs