OU Welcomes Kansas for Big 12 Home Opener

March 29, 2012

Oklahoma (27-4, 3-1) vs. Kansas (23-7, 2-4)
Game 1	Friday, March 30 - 7 p.m.
Game 2	Saturday, March 31 - 2 p.m.
Game 3	Sunday, April 1 - 12 p.m.
Location	Norman, Okla. \| Marita Hynes Field
Tickets	OU Athletics Ticket Office
TV/Radio	N/A
Online	Live Webcast on Oklahoma All-Access \| Live Stats
Game Info	Game Notes \| OU Twitter

NORMAN, Okla. --No. 7 Oklahoma (27-4, 3-1) hosts its first Big 12 home series of the season as Kansas (23-7, 2-4) comes to Norman for a three-game showdown that begins Friday at 7 p.m., continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and wraps up Sunday at 12 p.m.

Oklahoma enters the weekend having won 18 of its last 19 games including three of four Big 12 games while Kansas has lost four of its last seven. The Jayhawks were swept by Missouri in its opening Big 12 play before winnings their series against Oklahoma State, 2-1. OU won its series at No. 15 Baylor, 2-1, before opening the first leg of Bedlam with a 4-0 win Wednesday night over Oklahoma State.

The Big 12's top team in terms of pitching, Oklahoma is led in the circle by the one-two punch of Keilani Ricketts (15-4) and Michelle Gascoigne (11-0). The two rank third (11.4) and fifth (10.8), respectively, in strikeouts per seven innings. Ricketts has 196 strikeouts on the year with 15 complete games.

At the plate, Georgia Casey and Jessica Shults are tied for the team lead as each holds a .432 batting average. The two are part of seven who are batting over .300 and contribute to a league leading 46 home runs. Four different Sooners have at least five home runs led by Big 12 leading Lauren Chamberlain. The freshman has 12 on the year and also leads the Big 12 with 39 RBIs.

Kansas ranks fifth in the Big 12 with a team batting average of .291 and is led by Maggie Hull with an average of .374. Hull is one of seven Jayhawks batting over .300 and is tied for the team lead with five home runs.

Kansas is sixth in the Big 12 with a team ERA of 2.31 while Alicia Pille leads KU in the circle with an ERA of 1.84 and record of 11-4. Pille is one of three Jayhawks with at least 40 innings pitched joining Kristen Martinez (5-1) and Morgan Druhan (7-2).

The City of Norman and OU are hosting the annual Medieval Fair this weekend beginning Friday at Reaves Park across the street from the OU Softball Complex. Estimated attendance of this event over the next three days is expected to go over 100,000. Please keep this in mind when attempting to get to the OU Softball Complex this weekend and allow plenty of time for potential traffic delays.

Only those attending Oklahoma Softball games will be allowed to park in the parking areas commonly used for home softball events.

THE SERIES
• Oklahoma leads the series, 49-41, including a 25-13 edge in Norman.
• OU swept last year's series, 13-5 and 12-6, and have won the last four games and the last 17 games in Norman.

PROMOTIONS
• Friday night is Bi-Lingual Bingo night while Saturday is Allee Allen Day as the Sooner senior will be honored. The first 250 fans can pick up a free Allee Allen poster. Sunday is another Season Ticket Holder Sunday where randomly selected season ticket holders will win prizes throughout the game.

FUTURE SCHEDULE
• Oklahoma hosts second straight Big 12 series as Texas Tech comes to town beginning on Thursday, April 5.

SEVENTEEN STRAIGHT
Oklahoma's 17-game winning streak, its longest of the season and the longest since the 2003 squad won 18 straight, ended on Sunday in a 1-0 loss at Baylor. Under Patty Gasso, OU has 18 winning streaks of at least 10 games including three of at least 23 and six of at least 15 wins.

SCORING IN BUNCHES
During the 17-game winning streak, the Oklahoma team got it done at the plate and in the circle. Nothing illustrates that more than the fact the Sooners outscored their opponents 124-11 during the streak.

Five of the last 13 games have been run-rule wins while OU has shutout eight of the last 14 opponents with the other six scoring just one run each. In the last 14 games, OU has outscored its opponents 102-6.

HITS PARADE
Oklahoma has registered at least seven hits in every game but six this season and have hit double digits in the category on six different occasions including twice at the Judi Garman Classic with a season-high 19 hits against DePaul before collecting 18 against Virginia.

OU is 24-1 in the games it records at least seven hits with the only coming to Georgia when the Sooners out hit the Bulldogs, 7-4, but fell 3-2. Oklahoma has split the six games below seven hits.

GASSO HITS 1,000 WINS
Oklahoma Head Coach Patty Gasso hit a major coaching milestone as she hit the 1,000-win mark as her No. 7 Sooners defeated Virginia, 9-1, at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif. Gasso now stands at 844-273-2 at Oklahoma and 1,004-334-3.

Counting just NCAA Division I wins, Gasso entered the 2012 season 29th all time and has already moved up a spot to 28th.

RICKETTS SETS CAREER STRIKEOUTS RECORD
Keilani Ricketts needed just one appearance in the 2012 to capture the Oklahoma career strikeouts record. The junior pitcher entered the season with 798 strikeouts in her first two seasons and Norman and struck out 16 in her season debut versus UNLV to surpass the previous record of 805 set by Jill Most from 1994-97. Ricketts ended the opening weekend at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic with 36 strikeouts and 834 on her career.

With 196 strikeouts on the season, Ricketts now has 992 career strikeouts and is fourth in Big 12 history in the category (page 6). The junior is 160 strikeouts from moving up to third on the Big 12 career list. Cat Osterman of Texas (2002-03, 2005-06) holds the Big 12 career record in the category with 2,265 career strikeouts.

RACKING UP THE Ks
Keilani Ricketts didn't stop racking up the Ks after reaching the OU career plateau. After striking out 14 Baylor batters on March 23, the junior now has 11 double-digit strikeout games on the season.

Ricketts has racked up 48 career games with at least 10 strikeouts and has eight games with at least 15 strikeouts including one game this season, 16 at UNLV, and the school record, 19 last season versus Iona.

ONE AWAY FROM PERFECTION
Keilani Ricketts was just one out away from her first career perfect game against North Texas. Two straight walks were called for North Texas batters with two outs before Maddelyn Fraley's single broke up Rickett's no hitter in the bottom of the seventh.

The game was the first of four one hitters that Ricketts now has on the season.

Ricketts did it again in OU's first game versus LSU, retiring the first 19 batters before giving up her only hit with one out in the seventh. Ricketts recorded her third one-hit game of the season in OU's 14-0 five-inning win over Indiana on March 9 as the Hoosiers got one hit in the second.

OU's win over Oklahoma State on March 28 gave Ricketts her fourth one hitter as the Cowgirls recorded their lone hit in the second inning.

THE FIRST 48
After not allowing a run against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, Keilani Ricketts enters the weekend having not given up a run in 48 straight innings. The last time Ricketts gave up a run? You'd have to go back to the fifth inning of OU's 4-2 win over Iowa on March 4.

Since then, Ricketts has recorded seven starts (all wins) while earning an eighth win after coming in as relief against Penn State. In her last eight appearances, Ricketts has allowed just 24 hits and has struck out 64 batters.

FIRE POWER
Pundits knew going into the season that OU had an ace in the circle with Keilani Ricketts. The question was if Ricketts would be the lone star in the circle.

With Ricketts and classmate Michelle "Gas Can" Gascoigne. who is 11-0 on the year, the Sooners have a one-two punch combination that rivals that of Manny Pacquiao. Gascoigne has given up just eight runs and 30 hits on the year in 60.1 innings of action of fire power.

The two rank third and fifth, respectively, in strikeouts per seven innings with Ricketts recording 11.4 per seven and Gascoigne striking out 10.8 per seven.

Senior Kirsten Allen has proven a solid third option, throwing a one hitter against Austin Peay and striking out 17 in 14.1 innings of action for the season.

HUNTING FOR GOOSE EGGS
Seventeen times this season, Oklahoma has not allowed an opponent to score a run including three of its last four opponents. Six of the 17 have come in five-inning run-rule victories. The other 11, however, have come in a full seven-inning contest.

Keilani Ricketts has pitched nine of the 17 shutouts this season while Michelle Gascoigne has three and Kirsten Allen has one. Allen and Gascoigne have combined for four more shutouts.

Ricketts has 32 career shutouts, a number that ranks sixth in Oklahoma history and seventh in Big 12 history. The junior is just nine shutouts from capturing the Oklahoma record for the stat.

BIG 12 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Oklahoma has racked up five Big 12 honors in fourtraight weeks as Keilani Ricketts was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on March 6 before Lauren Chamberlain was named the Big 12 Player of the Week on March 13. Georgia Casey and Ricketts swept the two awards on March 20. Ricketts added her third pitcher of the week honor on March 27.

Ricketts earned her first honor after going 4-0 with a save in a week including back-to-back one-hit games against North Texas and LSU. For the week, Ricketts had 54 strikeouts in 30.1 innings with an ERA of 0.46.

Chamberlain became the 81st Sooner to receive a Big 12 weekly honor after connecting on five home runs and 14 RBIs in 14 at bats while hitting at a .571 clip during a 6-0 week for the Sooners.

Casey helped lead a balanced effort for Oklahoma at the plate with a batting average of .429 while driving in a team-leading seven runs. The Australian had two home runs and finished the weekend with six hits, 13 total bases and a slugging percentage of .929.

Ricketts did not give up a single run while going 3-0 in two starts and on relief appearance in Fullerton, Calif., en route to her second honor. The junior struck out 24 batters in just 14 innings of work while allowing just one walk and six hits.

Ricketts became the first in Oklahoma history to earn Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors three times in two different seasons on March 27 when she earned the honor after splitting her two starts at Baylor despite not giving up an earned run. Ricketts struck out 14 Baylor batters in her two appearances while walking just three.

THE SOONER STATE
Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State and with Wednesday night's win over Oklahoma State, the name applies in softball terms. In the 141st meeting between the two schools, the Sooners broke a series tie with a 4-0 win over the Cowgirls to earn a 71-70 edge in the series history that began on April 9, 1975, also a Sooner win.

The Sooners have won 19 of the last 22 games in the Bedlam battle. The two teams return to action

OU SWEEPS COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT NORMAN SPRING FESTIVAL
Oklahoma swept its own tournament, the Courtyard by Marriott Oklahoma Spring Festival in early March as it won both games against Wichita State and all three games against Indiana.

Three of the five wins were by run rule as OU outscored the schools, 48-2, in its five games.

SAME OLD SHULTS
Jessica Shults missed the last six games of 2011 after undergoing treatment for pan-ulcerative colitis. The junior slugger showed to be back to form in Las Vegas as she led the Sooners with 11 hits. Shults batted .611 for the event with a double, a home run and six RBIs.

After a strong start to the season, Shults is tied for the team lead with a .432 batting average while leading with 41 hits and 75 total bases.

The junior is second on the team with nine home runs this season and now has 43 for her career. That number is fifth all-time in Oklahoma history and 10th in the Big 12.

Shults needs just one more slam to move to fourth in OU history and seventh in Big 12 history. Amber Flories (2007-10) holds both the Oklahoma and Big 12 career marks in the category with 56 career home runs.

STARING DOWN THE CHAMBER
Just a freshman, Lauren Chamberlain certainly doesn't act like it. The first-year power hitter leads the Big 12 with 12 home runs through 31 games to go along with 39 RBIs. A good eye has allowed Chamberlain to accumulate 16 walks as she has 33 hits and 33 runs scored on the season.

AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! OYE! OYE! OYE!
Oklahoma's first ever international player, Georgia Casey from Australia, had been hampered this season by an ankle injury but made her debut in the starting lineup against Iowa.

After pinch hitting against LSU, she quickly made a presence in the OU lineup. After recording one hit in her first game, she blasted a two-run home run out of the OU Softball Complex in her second.

The Australian is tied with the team lead with a .4392batting average and has smacked five home runs in 17 games.

WALKING WILLIAMS
If Brittany Williams said to you "Yo estoy desvelado," you'd have to take her word for it because desvelado translated to English means watchful. The sophomore led the Big 12 as a freshman with 48 walks in 2011 and the watchful hitter is right back at it in 2012.

Williams is currently fifth in the Big 12 in walks this season and is joined in the top five by Keilani Ricketts who leads the Oklahoma team with 21 walks and an on-base percentage of .519.

WHO ARE YOU FACING?
Take a guess because in Oklahoma's 31 games, the Sooners have used 25 different lineups (see page 9). Only five lineups have been used more than once and those lineups are a combined 10-1.

Sixteen different players have gotten a start for the Sooners this year and four have started all 31 games - Lauren Chamberlain, Keilani Ricketts, Jessica Shults and Brittany Williams.

Thirteen different players have gotten starts at two positions with four different players starting at three different positions throughout the season.

ALLEN AT THE PLATE
Entering the 2012 season, senior Allee Allen had just seven at-bats in her career. Allen, who worked on her transformation at the plate over the offseason now has 50 at-bats in the season with a .280 batting average. The senior has 14 hits, two doubles, one home run and eight RBIs.

FAB FRESHMEN
Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso has been high on her freshman class of six since they signed with Oklahoma. If the opening weekend was any indication, they'll be a major factor this season. Lauren Chamberlain provided a spark for the Sooners at the start of the lineup at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic, finishing the weekend with five hits, nine runs, one double. three home runs and eight RBI. Chamberlain was one of three freshmen to receive starts at the tournament as Erica Sampson (1) and Jessica Vest (3) did as well. Kelley Reeves and Callie Parsons both saw action as utility players while classmate Georgia Casey recovers from an ankle injury.

STARTING OFF PERFECT
Oklahoma's 11-1 win over Kent State moved OU to 5-0 after the opening weekend which marked the ninth time under Patty Gasso that Oklahoma started off the season by winning its first five games and the first since her 2007 team won its first 23 games of the season.

OKLAHOMA ON THE TUBE
ESPN will air two home Oklahoma games the Big 12 Conference announced. The Sooners have become a favorite on TV as home games against Missouri (4/22) and Texas (5/6) will be shown on ESPN. In addition, the Sooner Sports Network will air every home game of the season after the Kansas series that ESPN is not airing, a total of nine games, on Cox Channel 3 or 703 (HD) in Oklahoma.

Sooner Sports Network has already aired two games earlier this season as OU has had 44 games televised in the last five seasons.

WATCH OUT FOR KNIGHTS
The City of Norman and OU are hosting the annual Medieval Fair this weekend beginning Friday at Reaves Park across the street from the OU Softball Complex. Estimated attendance of this event over the next three days is expected to go over 100,000. Please keep this in mind when attempting to get to the OU Softball Complex this weekend and allow plenty of time for potential traffic delays.

Only those attending Oklahoma Softball games will be allowed to park in the parking areas commonly used for home softball events.

GRAND SLAM PACK
The University of Oklahoma Athletics Ticket Office announced the "Grand Slam Pack" which gives Sooner softball fans the opportunity to pick any four games off each team's schedule for a special low price.

Sooner softball fans can purchase any four contests of the 2012 slate for a low price of $28, a 30 percent discount off the normal reserved seating price.

SOONERS PICKED SECOND IN BIG 12
Coming off its sixth trip to the Women's College World Series, Oklahoma was picked to finish second in the Big 12 in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.

The Sooners led all nine Big 12 softball teams with four first-place votes and finished with 56 total points in the poll behind the 59 points of top-ranked Missouri.

RICKETTS, SHULTS NAMED TO POY WATCH LIST
Two members of the University of Oklahoma softball team were named to the USA Softball top 50 watch list for the 11th annual USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award.

Juniors Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults, both returning All-Americans, were named to the pre-season watch list for the second consecutive year.

INTERNATIONAL OFFSEASON
For five members of the Oklahoma program, the word offseason was all for naught as they were involved in international action for national teams.

Juniors Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults were part of the U.S. National Team that competed this summer with the duo winning the World Cup of Softball before Ricketts went on to help lead the U.S. to gold at the Pan American Games.

Sophomore Destinee Martinez and freshman Lauren Chamberlain were part of the U.S. Junior National Team that won gold at the 2011 ISF Junior Women's World Championship in South Africa in December. Along the way, their team defeated the Australian Junior National Team and it's pitcher, Oklahoma freshman Georgia Casey.

SOONERS ANNOUNCE SIGNING CLASS
Fresh off the program's sixth Women's College World Series appearance, Oklahoma softball head coach Patty Gasso announced the signing of seven student-athletes, all from Oklahoma, to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday. Taylor Dewbery (McAlester, Okla.), Whitney Ellis (Yukon, Okla.), Erin Miller (Tulsa, Okla.), Leslie Miller (Blanchard, Okla.), Kady Self (Edmond, Okla.), Jules Townsend (Tulsa, Okla.) and Paris Townsend (Tulsa, Okla.) will all join the Oklahoma softball program beginning with the 2012-13 season.

Five of the seven athletes, Dewbery, Ellis, Erin Miller, Leslie Miller and Self, all played their high school softball in the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA) as all five have earned Oklahoma All-State honors in their careers with a combined four state titles. The two who did not, Jules and Paris Townsend, played at Holland Hall where Jules was a three-time Southwest Prepatory Conference Most Valuable Player and Paris was a two-time SPC Offensive Player of the Year.

The group encompasses several positions and provides Gasso with both pitching prowess and a number of powerful bats. Dewbery, Leslie Miller and Jules Townsend all have experience in the circle while Ellis is considered one of the best catchers in the nation. Erin Miller and Self both have the athleticism to cover the outfield while Paris Townsend is an athlete who has covered catcher, shortstop and the outfield for high school and summer clubs.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Welcomes Kansas for Big 12 Home Opener

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