Sooners Sweep Texas A&M Aggies to Win Super Regional
With another run-rule win over Texas A&M, the No. 1 ranked University of Oklahoma softball team reached one of its goals: a berth in the 2013 Women’s College World Series, which will start Thursday at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, with the Sooners playing the University of Michigan in its opening game
Transfer Shelby Pendley, who certainly has been one of the difference makers for OU this year, bounced back from an 0-for-2 performance on Friday with a pair of homers and five RBI as OU won 8-0 in five innings over the 16th seeded Aggies (42-18) to sweep the Super Regional in two straight games.
While Pendley provided the power on offense, left-hander Keilani Ricketts provided the all-important power pitching with her 16th shutout of the season in improving her record to 31-1. She struck out seven, allowed only three hits and didn’t issue any walks. In the two-game sweep, Ricketts was 2-0 with a 1.27 ERA, fanned 20 batters and walked just one in 11 innings of pitching.
This marks the third consecutive year the Sooners have advanced to the WCWS and the eighth overall in the program’s history. Including regionals and super-regionals, OU is peaking, having outscored the opposition, 59-8 with four wins via the run-rule.
"I am just extremely proud of this team and the things that it has accomplished this season to give us another chance to fight for a national championship, and being one of the final eight teams in the country is quite an accomplishment," Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso said. "To have to do it going through a team like Texas A&M, who has had a phenomenal season, with some very good hitters and a pitcher who fights her tail off on the mound, I just really respect them and their coaching staff. They were a good test for us and they made us better."
"There’s a lot of pressure and expectation on her," Gasso said of Ricketts. "Everyone is calling her the greatest pitcher to play the game or one of the best. She’s a pleaser. She wants to make everybody happy. She does put some unnecessary pressure on herself at times. To see her exhale and go back to what she knows, I felt that this weekend." The win was No. 129 of Ricketts’ career, tying Hofstra’s Olivia Galati for 10th most in NCAA Division I history.
"I feel like we were just trying to focus on giving them a good mix because they came out jumping really aggressive the first inning and they were going at pitches I was trying to get ahead on last game," Ricketts said. "We were just trying to give them a good mix every at-bat.”
Oklahoma got on the board in the first inning thanks to Pendley’s first home run of the day, a solo shot to right center. Pendley did it again in the third inning, blasting her second shot of the day. Sophomore Lauren Chamberlain reached on a one-out single to center field. Fellow sophomore Georgia Casey then walked before Pendley launched a long three-run blast to right field. It was her eighth career multi-home run game and her fifth this season. She has recorded 41 career home runs, 22 of which have come this season. "I struggled yesterday and I just came into today with a different approach," Pendley said. "The first one was a rise-ball and the second one was a drop-ball. I was swinging at a lot of pitches in the dirt, and I just wasn’t confident yesterday in my swing."
Oklahoma then broke the game open with a two-out rally in the fourth inning, tacking on four more runs. The team has now scored 200 of its 444 runs with two outs this season, or 45 percent. After a groundout and lineout, senior Brianna Turang kept the inning alive with a single up the middle. Chamberlain walked to extend her school record to 59 this season. Casey was hit by a pitch to fill the bases before Pendley drew a walk on a full-count to make it 5-0. Ricketts tacked on two more runs as she pulled an RBI double down the line, while junior Brittany Williams singled through the right side to score Chamberlain and bring in the game’s eighth run.
"This series definitely gave us confidence going into the World Series and we have reached one of our goals, which was to get to the World Series," Ricketts said. "It’s exciting because it’s a tough route to get to it. We’re just trying to focus on taking it one game at a time which has been good for the postseason so far."
