Sooners Clinch Share of Big 12 Title

Kansas

Oklahoma

Box Score | Highlights | Full Game Replay | Miller Postgame Interview

Inning-by-Inning
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
OU	2	1	0	0	0	4	0	7	10	3
KU	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	4	5	1

Pitching
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
W - Parker (23-5)	6.0	2	1	0	2	4
L - Pille (21-4)	7.0	10	7	5	5	4
S - N/A	-	-	-	-	-	-

Individual Leaders
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	HR
OU - S. Pendley	4	2	3	2	0	0
KU - Stein	3	0	2	1	1	0

Player of the Game
Paige Parker // Fr. // LHP For the second straight game, Parker was clutch in the circle and at the plate for OU. She improved to 23-5 on the season as she struck out four and allowed just one unearned run and two hits in six innings. After throwin the first 5.0 innings, she came back in to pitch in the seventh and preserved the win as she allowed just two inherited runners to score after re-entering to face a bases-loaded, no-out situation with OU up by four in the seventh. At the plate, she was 2-3 with an RBI and walk.

Player of the Game

Paige Parker // Fr. // LHP
For the second straight game, Parker was clutch in the circle and at the plate for OU. She improved to 23-5 on the season as she struck out four and allowed just one unearned run and two hits in six innings. After throwin the first 5.0 innings, she came back in to pitch in the seventh and preserved the win as she allowed just two inherited runners to score after re-entering to face a bases-loaded, no-out situation with OU up by four in the seventh. At the plate, she was 2-3 with an RBI and walk.

Game Notes
Oklahoma now leads the all-time series against Kansas, 58-43, including a 17-12 mark in Lawrence ...Oklahoma captured a share of its fourth straight Big 12 title; last year OU became the first team in conference annals to win three straight championships ... Lauren Chamberlain tied a career high with four walks and became the ninth player in NCAA Division I history to reach 200 walks in a career ... Chamberlain has 42 walks on the year, taking over third place on the Big 12 single-season list ... with two RBI, Shelby Pendley now has 266 in her career to break a tie for seventh on the NCAA list with Alabama's Charlotte Morgan (2007-10) ... Pendley has 446 total bases in her OU career, moving into eighth on the Big 12 reocrd list ... Pendley's 182 runs scored and 45 doubles at OU gives her sole possession of seventh place in school annals in both categories

Game Notes

Oklahoma now leads the all-time series against Kansas, 58-43, including a 17-12 mark in Lawrence ...Oklahoma captured a share of its fourth straight Big 12 title; last year OU became the first team in conference annals to win three straight championships ... Lauren Chamberlain tied a career high with four walks and became the ninth player in NCAA Division I history to reach 200 walks in a career ... Chamberlain has 42 walks on the year, taking over third place on the Big 12 single-season list ... with two RBI, Shelby Pendley now has 266 in her career to break a tie for seventh on the NCAA list with Alabama's Charlotte Morgan (2007-10) ... Pendley has 446 total bases in her OU career, moving into eighth on the Big 12 reocrd list ... Pendley's 182 runs scored and 45 doubles at OU gives her sole possession of seventh place in school annals in both categories

LAWRENCE, Kan. – It was last season that Oklahoma softball became the first program to win three straight Big 12 titles. The streak has now been pushed to four as the Sooners clinched a share of the 2015 league crown Sunday following a 7-4 win at Kansas.

In capturing the rubber match to win the series against the Jayhawks (35-10, 5-7 Big 12), the Sooners improved to 42-7 overall and 14-2 in Big 12 play. That puts OU 4.0 games ahead of Baylor in the league standings, which is 8-4 in conference games. At best, the Lady Bears can hope to catch Oklahoma at 14-4, but the Sooners won the season series to own the tiebreaker.

Oklahoma jumped out to an early and got some much needed insurance runs later in the contest as it withstood a seventh-inning comeback attempt from Kansas.

As they had done all weekend, the Sooners scored first in the first.

Senior Lauren Chamberlain started the game by drawing the first of what would be a career high-tying four walks. She now has 200 walks in her career to become the ninth player in NCAA Division I history to reach the mark. The walks proved costly to KU as Chamberlain came around to score three times.

After Chamberlain's walk, senior Shelby Pendley singled through the right side and freshman Paige Parker went the opposite way for a single to load the bases. Junior Erin Miller had the clutch hit as she then singled to right field to spot the Sooners a 2-0 lead.

In the second, Chamberlain drew her second walk in as many innings with a two-out free pass. She then showcased her speed as she scored all the way from first on a double that ran to the wall in the right-center gap, pushing the lead to 3-0.

Parker was sharp in the early-going for the Sooners as she didn't give up a hit until a two-out double in the third by Maddie Stein. The Jayhawks weren't able to score on Parker until an error aided their efforts in the fifth.

With one out, Briana Evans sent a grounder to first base that Chamberlain was unable to cleanly backhand. Two batters later, Chaley Brickey doubled to right center to score Evans from first. Fortunately for OU, a popout from Stein kept Brickey at second and ended the inning.

Oklahoma responded to Kansas' run, however, with four of its own in the sixth.

Freshman Lea Wodach led off and reached safely courtesy of an error by Brickey. Two batters later, Chamberlain walked for the fourth time before Pendley singled sharply to center to score Wodach and capitalize on the error.

With Chamberlain now on third, Parker helped her own cause by singling through the left side and extending the lead to 5-1. Senior Callie Parsons came on to run for Parker and got herself into scoring position with a steal of second. A sacrifice fly from Miller enabled Pendley to score, while junior Kady Self singled to center field to drive home Parsons with OU's seventh and final run.

Facing Pendley in relief, Kansas got one run back in the sixth thanks to a pair of Oklahoma errors. However, with two on and one out later in the frame, freshman Kelsey Arnold started a 5-3 double play as she fielded a grounder off the bat of Erin McGinley, stepped on third and fired to first to complete the play.

The Jayhawks weren't done though as they mounted one more comeback attempt in the seventh.

The first three batters of the inning all reached thanks to walks from Evans and Taylor McElhaney and a bloop single to left field by Brickey. The lead was then trimmed to 7-3 when Stein hit an infield single to shortstop.

With the first four batters all reaching, Parker was brought back into the circle to try to close the game out. Facing a bases-loaded situation with no outs and the tying run at the plate, Parker got Daniella Chavez to fly out to left field for a sacrifice fly. Now up 7-4 and the tying run still at the plate, Parker got Jessie Roane to strike out swinging to end the game.

Parker struck out four and walked two while giving up two hits and one unearned run in 6.0 innings in the circle to run her record to 23-5 on the season.

Oklahoma steps out of conference play in the upcoming penultimate week of the regular season.

After a Thursday road game at North Texas, the Sooners return home to meet Utah Valley in a two-game series beginning Saturday.

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Players Mentioned

Kelsey Arnold

Lauren Chamberlain

Erin Miller

Paige Parker

Callie Parsons

Shelby Pendley

Kady Self

Lea Wodach

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics