Softball Sweeps Worth Invitational

March 9, 2008

Oklahoma 9, McNeese State 0

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Oklahoma	2	5	2	0	0	x	x	9	7	1
McNeese St.	0	0	0	0	0	x	x	0	1	1

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Smith (2-1)	3	1	0	0	1	5
L - Shumaker (0-5)	1.2	4	7	7	4	0

Batting Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	TB
OU - Flores	2	2	2	4	0	8
OU - Long	2	2	1	3	1	2

Sooner Softball Central

2008 OU Softball Media Guide

NORMAN, Okla. - Recording four home runs, including two by Amber Flores, the No. 9 Oklahoma softball team closed out the OU Worth Invitational with a 9-0 five-inning run-rule victory over McNeese State Sunday afternoon.

The Sooners owned a perfect 4-0 record in the home tournament and improved to 21-5 while McNeese State fell to 7-22.

"I really liked how we attacked this weekend," head coach Patty Gasso said. "One of our goals was to keep two-out rallies alive and bring more runners across the plate and I thought we did a great job of that this weekend. Our team really bought into that over the weekend and that is what I'm most excited about."

The offense was stellar in the OU Worth Invitational as the Sooners hit nine home runs in four games and owned a team batting average of .344 while holding opponents to a .101 average. Flores was stellar in the four-game tournament as she pounded a team-leading four home runs and nine RBI on the weekend.

In addition to Flores two home runs and four RBI against McNeese State, Savannah Long added three RBI. Wendy Trott recorded her third home run of the day after pounding two home runs in the first game of the day against Drake. Susan Ogden also added a solo home run in the contest.

"As I have been all year, I was really pleased with our effort in the circle," Gasso said. "It was great to see all of the pitchers get in a rhythm in the circle and take control of the game."

The OU staff only gave up one run in the four games this weekend and recorded 33 strikeouts in 22 complete innings.

Senior Jadyn Smith received the win against McNeese State Sunday as she improved to 2-1 after only allowing one hit in three complete innings and striking out five. Lauren Eckermann came in for relief of Smith in the final two innings against McNeese State and was solid as she retired all six batters she faced and struck out four of them.

For the fourth straight game OU scored in the first inning as Long walked with one out and Flores followed that with a two-run homer to left field that gave the Sooners the 2-0 advantage after the top of the first as OU was the designated visiting team.

OU loaded the bases with two outs in the second following a fielder's choice by Trott, an infield single by Iver McDonald and walk by Traci Dickenson. Long stepped to the plate and delivered a double off the left centerfield wall that scored three runs and extended the Sooner lead to 5-0. Flores followed that with her second home run of the day, a two-run shot over left field that stretched the advantage to 7-0.

Flores became the 35th Sooner to tie the OU single game record with most home runs in a game (two). It also marked her team-leading eighth home run of the season.

Ogden added to the offense in the third as she pounded a one-out solo home run to right center field. Trott followed that with her third home run of the day, a solo homer to left center field as the back-to-back home runs extended the Sooner advantage to 9-0. The momentum continued as freshman Dani Dobbs connected on a double to centerfield, marking her first hit of the season. However, Oklahoma couldn't plate another run as the next two batters were retired.

The home run knocked McNeese starter Katie Shumaker out of the game as she was replaced by Carmen Sitting. The reliever was able to get the final out of the inning to end the top of the second.

Shumaker took the loss and fell to 0-5 after giving up seven runs on four hits in 1.2 innings of work.

Next, the Sooners hit the road for their final non-conference tournament of the season. Prior to heading to the Capital Classic in Sacramento, the Sooners will face No. 21 Fresno State in Fresno, Calif., at 7 p.m. (CT) Thursday night. The Sooners will open tournament action on Friday with a 12 p.m. (CT) contest against Colorado State in Sacramento.

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