No. 5 OU Edges North Texas, 9-4

April 18, 2012

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
North Texas	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	4	5	1
Oklahoma	0	3	0	1	3	2	-	9	9	1

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Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W- Ricketts (21-5)	3.2	1	1	1	0	6
L - Simmons (9-10)	3.0	4	4	3	2	1
S - N/A	0.0	-	-	-	-	-

Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU- Ricketts	2	2	2	2	1	1
UNT- McCarroll	3	1	2	2	0	1

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NORMAN, Okla. -- No. 5 Oklahoma withstood three home runs from North Texas to capture its 23rd win in the 23-game series, 9-4, Wednesday night in Norman in its last test before its top-10 home series with No. 10 Missouri this weekend. The Sooners out hit the Mean Green, 9-5, as they moved to 36-6 on the year while North Texas fell to 19-22-1.

Oklahoma had to come back from an early one-run deficit in the second and answered the call a second time in the fourth when North Texas tied the game up with two of its three solo home runs in the game. UNT became just the second team with multiple home runs against the Sooners this season. With its nine hits, OU improved to 33-2 in games when it collects at least seven hits.

“It's an attitude of answering and we talked about it in our meeting. It's very important and it's a sign of competitors. It takes a good team to answer back and take their momentum away,” said OU Head Coach Patty Gasso. “We were hitting the ball hard all night and knew it was just a matter of time.”

Keilani Ricketts picked up the win for the Sooners to move to 21-5 on the year after replacing Michelle Gascoigne in the fourth inning. Ricketts struck out six batters while giving up just one hit and one run without issuing a walk in 3.2 innings of work. Gascoigne struck out five in 3.1 innings while giving up four hits and two unearned runs. Brittany Simmons took the loss for North Texas to fall to 9-10 on the year.

North Texas got the evening's first run in the second inning as Lisa Johnson reached on an error before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt from Caitlin Grimes. The next batter, Ashley McCarroll, sent a double down the left field line to bring Johnson home for the game's first run.

Oklahoma quickly responded in the bottom of the second with three runs off three hits. Ricketts was hit by a pitch to start the inning off before Brittany Williams sent a single up the middle to move Callie Parsons, who had replaced Ricketts on the base path, to third. After Williams stole second, Georgia Casey singled up the middle to send Parsons home and Williams to third.

A Brianna Turang single to the pitcher brought Williams home and moved Casey to third before the Australian scored as Jessica Vest reached on a fielder's choice.

North Texas tied the game up in the fourth when Johnson sent her fourth home run of the season over the left center field fence of Marita Hynes Field. Two at bats later and McCarroll sent a solo shot to the exact spot that Johnson sent her home run.

The Sooners responded again in the bottom of the fourth as Vest singled to center to lead things off. After a North Texas pitching change, Javen Henson laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Vest to second. A Destinee Martinez single to right center put runners on the corners to set up Lauren Chamberlain for a RBI sacrifice fly to left that scored Vest and put OU on top, 4-3.

OU put three runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth to extend its lead as Ricketts singled up the middle before Casey sent a double down the left field line to put two OU runners in scoring position. After Erica Sampson walked to load the bases, Katie Norris sent a sharply hit single through the left side of the North Texas infield to score Ricketts and Casey and put Sampson on third. Henson picked up her 23rd RBI of the season by driving in Sampson with a ground out to first.

Oklahoma scored for the third consecutive inning with two runs in the sixth after Jessica Shults reached base via a fielder's choice before Ricketts sent her 12th home run of the season over the right center field fence at the OU Softball Complex. With the shot, Ricketts joined Shults (12) and Chamberlain (19) with at least 12 home runs on the season.

North Texas tacked its fourth and final run on the board in the top of the seventh as pinch hitter Jordan Terry sent a solo shot over the right field fence to close out the night.

The Sooners return to action this weekend as they host a top-10 match up in Norman. No. 5 Oklahoma plays host to No. 10 Missouri in a three-game series beginning Friday at 7 p.m. The series' second game is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. with Sunday's finale at 2:30 p.m. and aired on ESPN. Oklahoma enters the weekend as the Big 12 leader with a conference record of 11-3 while Missouri is third with a Big 12 record of 10-5.

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