Shults Two Home Runs Lead to OU's 10th Big 12 Win

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Oklahoma	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	6	7	0
Texas A&M	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	1

Box Score (PDF)

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W- Ricketts (20-4)	7.0	5	1	1	0	12
L - Dumezich (20-9)	6.2	6	6	2	3	5
S - N/A	0.0	-	-	-	-	-

Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU- Shults	4	2	2	4	0	2
A&M- Morgan	3	0	1	1	0	0

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- No. 6 Oklahoma used two home runs from Jessica Shults as it became the first Big 12 team to 10 conference wins Friday night as it defeated No. 14 Texas A&M, 6-1, to move to 34-5 on the year and 10-2 in the Big 12. The Sooners moved to 30-0 on the year when scoring first as Texas A&M fell to 28-12 and 8-4 in the Big 12.

Shults used home runs in the sixth and the seventh for her third game this season with two home runs. It marked the 11th time that the Oklahoma team hit multiple home runs in a game as OU moved to 17-0 in those games. With her two home runs Friday night, Shults now has 46 in her career as she moved into sole possession of third on the OU career chart for the category and sixth on the Big 12 career home runs chart. Oklahoma finished with seven hits and moved to 31-2 when collecting at least seven hits.

Keilani Ricketts took the win for the Sooners to move to 20-4 on the year as she finished with 12 strikeouts on the night, her 14th double-digit strikeout game of the season. Ricketts gave up five hits without walking a single A&M batter. Mel Dumezich took the loss for the Aggies, falling to 20-9 on the year.

"We started slow tonight but started to figure things out. In our second at bats, you could see us start to make changes and physically change our at bats resulting in hard hit balls or walks," said OU Head Coach Patty Gasso. "Defensively, we made some big plays including a big double play that took away their momentum. Keilani Ricketts threw well and she did so against a tough team. Texas A&M is a veteran team that when you score, they'll answer. You're always on edge against them, but we followed our game plan and showed that we could execute.

The Sooners posted the night's first run in the top of the fourth inning when Destinee Martinez looped a single to shallow left field before stealing second for her 11th stolen base this season. After back-to-back OU outs, Ricketts sent her ninth double of the year to right center that sent Martinez around to score for a 1-0 Oklahoma lead.

Texas A&M did not wait long to knot things up in the bottom of the fourth as Natalie Villarreal led off with a single up the middle. After back-to-back strikeouts from Ricketts, the Aggies put together two hits and one run with two outs. Cassie Tysarczyk sent a single up the middle to put two A&M runners on before Nicole Morgan roped a single down the left side to score Villarreal and tie the game up.

Oklahoma recaptured the lead in the sixth inning when Jessica Shults sent her 11th home run of the season, a solo shot, over the right center field fence of the Aggie Softball Complex for a 2-1 lead.

OU added four runs in the top of the seventh as Katie Norris reached on a one-out walk before being replaced on the base path by Jessica Vest. After Javen Henson reached on a walk, Martinez reached first on a throwing error from A&M shortstop Taran Tyler that also allowed Vest to race around third for OU's third run of the game. The error proved to be costly to A&M as after Chamberlain fouled out at the next at bat, Shults sent her second home run of the game over the right center field for the final 6-1 score.

OU and A&M return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. before closing out the series Sunday at 12 p.m.