Bedlam Softball Hits Norman On Wednesday

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April 22, 2002

NORMAN, Okla. - After Oklahoma (38-12, 11-2 Big 12) won a thrilling game one of the Bank of Oklahoma Bedlam Series presented by Ford earlier this season, Oklahoma State (27-18, 6-7 Big 12) will be looking to return the favor on the Sooners' home field on Wednesday in game two. The series finale is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch at the OU Softball Complex and will also serve as Oklahoma's final home Big 12 Conference contest of the season.

Pom pons will be given away to fans attending the game, which is sponsored by the Bank of Oklahoma and Oklahoma's Ford dealers.

The game will be televised by Cox Communications throughout Oklahoma. Brian Brinkley and Nancy Teahea will be the talent for the game.

It's Bedlam Time Again!
Oklahoma will be looking to win its second straight Bedlam Cup on Wednesday as they go for the series sweep in The Bank of Oklahoma Bedlam Series present by your Oklahoma Ford Dealers. Oklahoma won the first annual Bedlam Cup awarded to the sport last year with a two-game regular season sweep of Oklahoma State. The Sooners also defeated the Cowgirls in the Big 12 Tournament Championship game at the end of the season to claim the program's third Big 12 title.

Last year, the Sooners shut out the Cowgirls in all three meetings and outscored them 25-0. OSU currently owns the lead in the series at 62-47, however, the Sooners have rattled off 19 wins in the last 24 meetings.

Oklahoma State won the overall sport Bedlam Cup last year and currently lead the overall series this year, 7.0-6.0.

Last Time Out
Reigning Big 12 Player of the Week Heather Scaglione hit a two run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift No. 11 Oklahoma to a 2-0 win over Kansas in softball action Sunday afternoon at the OU Softball Complex. The freshman catcher's blast broke the scoreless tie as both starting pitchers, Kirsten Milhoan (6-4) for Kansas and Jennifer Stewart (16-5) for Oklahoma, limited the two teams to three hits in the game. The win gave OU its fifth Big 12 Conference series sweep of the season.

Scaglione (1-for-3) sent her opposite field shot to right field to plate junior rightfielder Jennifer Stump (0-for-1) who had drawn a one-out walk. Up until Scaglione's home run, Milhoan and Stewart battled it out through the first five frames. Stewart scattered her three hits and struck out five, while only walking one batter. She faced one batter over the minimum in two innings and completed her third game in her last four starts to give her a total of 12 on the season.

Milhoan had a rocky start to her outing as she loaded the bases in the first inning with no outs and got out of the jam by throwing two Sooners out at home plate and getting the final batter of the inning to ground into a force at third base. After getting two hits in that inning, the Sooners did not get another hit off of Milhoan until Scgalione's home run. She finished with five walks no strikeouts.

Scouting Oklahoma State
Since losing to Oklahoma at the beginning of April, Oklahoma State (27-18, 6-7 Big 12) has lost six of their next 11 games during the month. The Cowgirls' struggles seem to have stemmed from the lack of productivity from their bats. In those six losses since the Bedlam contest, OSU has been shutout three times and has not scored more than two runs in the other three losses. The team's batting average and on base percentage rank next to last in the league at .241 and .313, respectively.

Sophomore outfielder Jade Lindley leads the team offensively. Her .312 batting average and .708 slugging percentage top the team and she is followed closely behind by junior catcher Ryan Realmuto who is hitting at a .304 clip and has nine home runs, 10 doubles and 23 runs scored.

The Cowgirls are led in the circle by junior lefthanded pitcher Lauren Bay. Bay is OSU's ace and leads the staff in ERA (1.06), wins (18), complete games (23), innings pitched (190.2) and strikeouts (271). In the first game against the Sooners this season, Bay no-hit the Sooners through 5.2 innings before running into trouble in the sixth and seventh innings. The Sooners were able to tag Bay for six earned runs over the two innings and served her with one of her 10 losses on the season.

Looking Ahead To Baylor
The 23rd-ranked Baylor Bears (45-14, 10-6 Big 12) have been one of the most dangerous teams this season in the Big 12 Conference. Sitting in fourth place in the league, Baylor has taken at least one game in each of its conference series this season except from league-leading Texas.

The Bears' pitching has been the key to success to their season. Baylor's pitching staff owns a league-best 0.86 staff ERA and has the conference's ERA leader on its roster in freshman Cristin Vitek. Vitek sports a 0.72 ERA and is tied for fourth in the league in wins with a 17-6 record. She has also fanned 177 batters in 166.0 innings pitched on the season. Not to be outdone, sophomore righthander Katie Decker ranks fourth in the Big 12 in ERA with a 0.88 and has recorded double-digit wins herself with a 10-6 mark this year.

Baylor's offense has provided the pitcher's with adequate run support throughout the season. At 4.02 runs per game, BU's 237 runs on the season only trails OU's conference-high runs total of 276. The Bear's top two hitters, sophomore shortstop Kelly Levesque and junior outfielder Sarah Caudle, rank among the Big 12's top 15 individual batting averages. Levesque leads the team at .347 and has also posted a team-high 35 runs scored and 58 hits. Despite the absence of a home run on the season, Caudle, who is hitting .333, has hit a team-best 15 extra base hits.

Levesque and Caudle are also two of the team's best base stealers as they are two of six team members with 11 or more steals. Baylor's 102 team stolen bases ranks second in the league.

Diamond Notes
* Since opening the season with three straight errorless games, last weekend's errorless series for Oklahoma against Kansas marked only the third time this year that the Sooners put together a string of two games without an error. OU has only committed five errors over the last six games (one of their best stretches of the season).

* OU's 6-5 win earlier this season over OSU gave the Sooners their 12th victory in a row in the series which marks the longest winning streak in the series for either team.

* Senior leftfielder Christy Ring, who owns the team's best on base percentage at .443 and ranks fifth in the Big 12 Conference in the category, has reached base safely in 15 of the last 16 contests. On the season, Ring has only been kept off base in six games.

It Was Bedlam!
Oklahoma picked up a thrilling game one victory over Oklahoma State in the first game of the Bank of Oklahoma Bedlam Series presented by Ford on April 2 in Stillwater. Down 5-1 entering the top of the seventh inning, the ninth-ranked OU softball team rallied for five runs to defeat OSU 6-5 in front of a Cowgirl Stadium record crowd of 1,289. After being no-hit by OSU starting hurler Lauren Bay (14-8) through 5.2 innings, the Sooners tagged Bay for the winning runs on four hits in the pivotal seventh inning with the clinching hit coming courteousy of freshman catcher Christina Enea (2-for-4). Freshman Kami Keiter (8-4), OU's third pitcher of the game, pitched the final 4.1 innings for the win and retired 13 of the 14 batters she faced, including the last 13-straight.

With Oklahoma State carrying a 5-1 lead into the top of the seventh inning and Oklahoma down to their final three outs, the Sooners mounted the winning rally. Junior shortstop Kelli Braitsch (0-for-2) and freshman catcher Heather Scaglione (0-for-2) drew consecutive walks to lead off the inning before junior centerfielder Erin Evans (1-for-3) plated Braitsch and aggressive baserunning by Scaglione scored another as she just beat the throw home to make it a 5-3 ballgame. Keiter placed the second straight double into left field and moved Evans to third base, still with no outs in the inning. Sophomore second baseman Kaycee Clark (1-for-2) tied the game as she collected the first two RBI's of her career on a single up the middle to plate Evans and Keiter.

Following Clark's hit, the Cowgirls looked as if they were going to close out the inning as Bay quickly recorded two outs. Enea then disappointed the home crowd as she hit a single to left field to score Clark from third base for the winning run.

Break Out The Brooms
Oklahoma completed its fifth Big 12 Conference series sweep of the season last weekend after taking both games of the two-game set against Kansas. The Sooners have the opportunity to accomplish seven league series sweeps for the third year in a row by defeating Oklahoma State on Wednesday and Baylor for two games over the weekend. OU's other victims this season have been No. 22 Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Missouri.

The key to the Sooners' sweeps have been on the offensive end where Oklahoma has outscored its opponents 50-15. In the circle, OU's pitchers have combined for a 1.13 ERA in the wins.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Bedlam Softball Hits Norman On Wednesday

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