Softball Nets Gasso's 700th Career Win

NORMAN, Okla. The No. 9 Oklahoma softball (44-13, 12-6) clinched a second-place finish in the Big 12 and the 700th win of Patty Gasso's coaching career on Sunday afternoon when it defeated No. 25 Nebraska (32-18, 8-8) by a score of 4-0.

The Sooners are currently ahead of third-place Baylor, but the two teams both have six losses and could conceivably end up in a tie for second place. The Sooners own the tiebreaker with the Bears and are guaranteed the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

“This win was huge,” said OU head coach Patty Gasso. “The Big 12 is stronger than ever and we can take pride in where we finished. This is the strongest league, from top to bottom, in Big 12 history and everybody beat up on each other all season. We survived and are in good standings for the tournament.”

Seniors Kami Keiter and Christina Enea basically sealed the Sooners 12-6 conference record on their own.

Box Score | Big 12 Tourney Bracket

Christina Enea accounted for all four of the Sooners runs with a two-run single in the first inning and two-run homer in the fifth. The four RBI day is one shy of her career high and bumps her weekly total to seven.

Enea drove in all three of OU's runs in a nine inning defeat of Oklahoma State on Wednesday.

Keiter turned in one of her best pitching performances of the season. She tossed a two-hit shutout (11th of the season) and struck out 10 batters. It marked the third time this season she has struck out at least 10 batters in a game. She improved her season record to 26-5 and snapped out a recent slump.

“We sent Kami Keiter out there as a senior and told her to get us a win,” said Gasso. “She responded with one of her best starts of the year. She is getting back to the form we expect from her and that is a positive sign with the postseason just around the corner.”

The work of Keiter and Enea helped seal the 700th win of Gasso's heading coach career, which includes a previous stint at Long Beach City College. Her career record is 700-233-1. Earlier in the season she won the 500th game of her OU coaching career with a 11-1 thumping of Lipscomb on Feb. 18. Her OU career record is 538-175-1.

OU will close the regular season with Senior Night against North Texas on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The softball program will honor seniors Keiter, Enea, Jessica Leslie and Heather Scaglione after the game.

OU's first game of the Big 12 Tournament will be Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. on Field 4, which is adjacent to the main field at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. The Sooners will play the winner of the play-in game between the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds. Right now that match up would be (7) Kansas and (10) Texas Tech, although the standings will not be final until the conclusion of Big 12 play next weekend.

Game Notes: Junior Kristen Vesely's 29th stolen base moved her into third place on the school's single season list ... Today's game marked the 18th time the Sooners had shutout an opponent, Oklahoma's last shutout was April 18 versus Baylor.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Softball Nets Gasso's 700th Career Win

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