Casey Hits Walk Off RBI Single for OU Win

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Missouri	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
Oklahoma	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	8	0

Box Score (PDF) | Video Highlights

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W- Ricketts (22-5)	10.0	6	1	1	1	12
L - Thomas (17-6)	9.2	8	2	2	6	15
S - N/A	0.0	-	-	-	-	-

Leaders	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU- Martinez	3	0	2	1	2	0
MU- Fleming	4	1	2	1	0	1

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NORMAN, Okla. -- With no season-ending Big 12 softball tournament, emphasis has been placed on each conference game throughout the season. In Friday night's game between two of the conference's top three teams, No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 10 Missouri, extra emphasis was placed on the game as the game went extra innings before OU pulled out a 2-1 win in 10 innings.

With the win, Oklahoma moved to 37-6 and expanded its Big 12 lead to 12-3 while Missouri fell to 33-9 and 10-6 in the Big 12. It was the first extra inning game of the season for the Sooners as Missouri dropped 1-3 in extra innings this season. The game was the longest in Oklahoma history since a 10-winning win over Iowa State on April 6, 2007. The Sooners are 9-7 all time in 10-inning games. OU moved to 32-0 on the season when scoring first and 34-2 when collecting at least seven hits.

In an expected pitcher's dual between two pitchers from the U.S. National Team, it was Keilani Ricketts who took the win to move to 22-5 on the year while Missouri's Chelsea Thomas fell to 17-6. Ricketts struck out 12 batters, her 15th game this season with double digit strikeouts, while allowing just six hits and one walk. Thomas finished with 15 strikeouts while giving up eight hits and walking six. Both pitchers had season highs with their respective pitch counts as Ricketts threw a total of 157 pitches and Thomas had 176 pitches.

After Oklahoma scored in the bottom of the fifth, Missouri answered in the top of the sixth before three-and-a-half innings of scoreless action. It was in the bottom of the 10th when OU put together a two-out rally on the bats of two freshmen. After Ricketts was intentionally walked with two outs, Erica Sampson, in her only at bat of the night, dropped a single into center field to put runners on first and second. In the next at bat, her classmate, Georgia Casey, laced a single up the middle that sent Ricketts around third and sliding into home for the walk off victory.

“We felt very confident that we were going to win. To beat Chelsea Thomas is a big victory, because she doesn't lose often,” said OU Head Coach Patty Gasso. “We came in with the mentality that this is our house and we are in a fight for the Big 12 Championship. It was a matter of hanging on and waiting for our time. We had to stay patient and stay focused. A couple of freshmen came up big for us. Erica Sampson put Keilani into scoring position and put the bat in Georgia Casey's hands and we were confident that she would come through. She had enough at bats that I knew she would be successful.”

The first run of the game was not scored until the bottom of the fifth inning when Brianna Turang got on base with a one-out walk followed by a Katie Norris single to short to put two runners on. After Jessica Vest replaced Norris on the base path, the freshman moved to second as Turang took to third on a wild pitch from Thomas.

The next at bat saw Javen Henson reach on a fielder's choice when Turang was thrown out at home and Vest took off to third. Destinee Martinez slapped a hit towards first base and beat out a throw from Missouri first baseman Kelsea Roth while Vest raced home for the game's first run.

Oklahoma's lead held less than an inning as Ashley Fleming sent a two-out solo home run into the left field stands at the OU Softball Complex to quickly knot the game back up at one run apiece.

The Sooners and the Tigers return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. before closing out the series Sunday at 2:30 p.m