OU Faces Texas for Control of Big 12

April 18, 2013

No. 1/1 OU (37-2, 6-0 Big 12) at No. 6/7 Texas (38-4, 8-0 Big 12)
Friday	4:30 p.m. \| GameTracker
Saturday	5 p.m. \| GameTracker
Sunday	3 p.m. \| GameTracker
Location	Austin, Texas \| Red & Charline McCombs Field
TV	All games on Longhorn Network
Game Info	OU Game Notes \| Twitter \| Tickets

First place in the Big 12 is on the line this weekend as No. 1/1 Oklahoma takes on No. 6/7 Texas in a three-game series in Austin. The Longhorns lead the conference with an 8-0 record, while the Sooners are right behind at 6-0.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series 23-22, but Texas owns an 8-6 mark in games played in Austin. Last season, OU took two of the three games to win the series.

Last year's series opener saw the Sooners rally from a 2-0 deficit to force extra innings, and then Georgia Casey hit a three-run walkoff home run in the bottom of the eighth to win it.

A six-run third inning carried OU to a 9-3 win in game two of the series, but Texas came back with an eight-run sixth inning in the series finale to win 12-5 and avoid a sweep.

UNANIMOUS NO. 1 AGAIN
For the third time this season, and the second week in a row, Oklahoma is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country.

The Sooners received all 31 first-place votes in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll and all 20 votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25. The Sooners were also the unanimous No. 1 on March 19 and April 9.

Oklahoma has been ranked No. 1 by USA Softball for 10 straight weeks, while the NFCA has put the Sooners on top for six weeks in a row. It's the sixth week in a row that OU has been ranked first in both polls.

The Sooners also maintained their spot as the No. 1 team in the fourth installment of NCAA Division I RPI rankings on April 15. They have been No. 1 each week since the rankings first came out.

TWO-LOSS STARTS
Sitting at 37-2 on the season, the Sooners are off to the best two-loss start in program history.

Year	Start	Final Record	Postseason
2013	37-2	N/A	N/A
2007	36-2	55-8	NCAA Super Regional
2000	25-2	66-8	NCAA Champions
1998	19-2	49-15	NCAA Regional Final
1994	19-2	58-15	NCAA Regional Final

BEST BIG 12 STARTS
With a 6-0 record to start conference play, the Sooners are enjoying one of their best starts to the Big 12 in school history.

Year	Start	Final Big 12 Record	Postseason
2002	9-0	14-2	NCAA Super Regional
2000	9-0	17-1	NCAA Champions
2008	6-0	16-2	NCAA Super Regional
1997	6-0	14-4	NCAA Regional
2013	6-0	N/A	N/A

NATION'S BEST PITCHERS SQUARE OFF
This weekend features three of the best pitchers in the nation in Oklahoma's Keilani Ricketts and Michelle Gascoigne and Texas' Blaire Luna. Below is a stat comparison with NCAA ranks in parentheses.

Stat	Gascoigne	Ricketts	Luna
W-L	15-1	20-1	21-1
ERA	0.85 (1)	1.10 (7)	0.95 (4)
Strikeouts	160 (41)	205 (13)	258 (4)
Strikeouts/7 IP	11.4 (3)	10.3 (8)	12.9 (1)
Walks	17	31	58
Walks/7 IP	1.55 (5)	1.21 (23)	2.90
Hits/7 IP	3.62 (6)	3.56 (5)	2.40 (1)
Innings	98.2	139.2	140.0
Shutouts	7 (9)	13 (1)	10 (3)

SOONERS SWEEP TEXAS TECH
The Sooners swept a three-game series at Texas Tech, winning by a combined score of 28-7.

The highlight of game one's 9-0 win was Keilani Ricketts' no-hitter. She had a strikeout in every inning, finishing with eight punchouts. She walked four but got two double plays to mitigate any damage. Shelby Pendley hit two home runs, while Lauren Chamberlain had one.

Ricketts then showed her dual-threat talents by hitting a pair of home runs in Oklahoma's 6-0 win in game two. Chamberlain also homered for the second time in the series and senior Michelle Gascoigne threw a four-hit shutout.

Chamberlain led the way in a 13-7 win in game three with a career-high four hits. She homered, scored three runs, drove in two and stole her team-leading 10th base of the season.

RICKETTS' NO-HITTERS
With her latest no-hitter against Texas Tech, Keilani Ricketts has thrown four in her career and three this year after starting the 2013 season with no-hitters against No. 21 Stanford and No. 5 Oregon.

Date	Opponent	Score	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
4/14/13	Texas Tech	9-0	6.0	0	0	0	4	8
2/9/13	Oregon	12-0	5.0	0	0	0	1	10
2/8/13	Stanford	6-0	7.0	0	0	0	3	14
3/30/12	Kansas	8-0	5.0	0	0	0	0	10

Ricketts is now tied with Lauren Eckermann for the most no-hitters in school history, and she also joins Eckermann as the only Sooner to throw three no-hitters in a single season. Eckermann accomplished the feat in 2007.

PENDLEY NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Shelby Pendley batted .636 with three home runs, nine RBI, a .692 on-base percentage and 1.545 slugging percentage against the Red Raiders to earn her second weekly conference honor of the season. She was also recognized by the Big 12 on March 12.

TAKING ON THE TOP 25
Through April 14, the Sooners lead the nation in wins against top-25 teams (14) and winning percentage against top-25 teams (.875; min. 5 games), while they are tied for fifth in games played against ranked teams (16).

OU won its first eight games of the year against top-25 teams, tying for the school's longest winning streak in such games. The record was initially set March 14-May 12, 2000.

DOMINANT DUO
Oklahoma's 1-2 punch of Keilani Ricketts and Michelle Gascoigne has been dominant in 2013. While Ricketts is 20-1 and Gascoigne is 15-1, each has an ERA under 1.10 and is holding an opponents' batting
average under .148. Ricketts has thrown 13 shutouts, Gascoigne has thrown seven and the pair combined on another.

Gascoigne is averaging 11.4 strikeouts per seven innings and has a 9.4 strikeout-to-walk ratio, while Ricketts' marks in those categories stand at 10.3 and 6.6, respectively.

Ricketts has tallied nine 10+ strikeout games this year and now has 72 for her career. Likewise, Gascoigne has 7 this season and 21 in her career.

CHAMBERLAIN ON HOME RUN BINGE
Lauren Chamberlain has homered in her last four games, tying a school record that she has already set and matched this year. She has now homered in four straight games three different times in her career.

According to the NCAA Record Book, a streak of 4+ games had only happened 22 times entering the 2013 season. The all-time record is 6 games accomplished by three different players.

LEADING THE NATION
OU is the only school to lead in five individual categories, the next closest is Texas (3) ... OU is also the only school to have two different pitchers rank No. 1 in seperate individual categories ... Chamberlain is the only player to lead in three different individual categories ... Chamberlain is one of only three players to have a slugging percentage above 1.000 ... Of the 11 team categories tracked by the NCAA, only Oklahoma and Georgia lead in more than one category ... Oklahoma ranks in the top 3 in five team categories, the next highest total is Georgia, Michigan and USC Upstate with two top-three rankings

RICKETTS' RECORD
Keilani Ricketts added to her stellar resume against Baylor on 4/7 by becoming the winningest pitcher in the history of Oklahoma softball.

Ricketts earned career win No. 116, passing former Sooner Jennifer Stewart, as No. 1 Oklahoma finished off a three-game sweep of No. 18 Baylor with an 8-0, six-inning win. Perfect through three innings against the Bears, Ricketts allowed only four hits in the game while striking out five and walking one.

"It means a lot with the tradition of excellence that we've had at OU to be mentioned in that category," Ricketts said of her record. "But it was also great to get the sweep in our conference opener against Baylor."