Sooners Bounce Back After Streak Snapped

Tuesday, April 20

Athens, Ga.

4 PM

University of Oklahoma

33-1

Georgia

28-11

Oklahoma

Georgia

Sooners Bounce Back After Streak Snapped

April 20, 2021 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score: OU 12, UGA 3 (5)Box Score: OU 6, UGA 7 (9)Highlights Game 1 Highlights Game 2 #LaunchPad

ATHENS, Ga. — No. 1 Oklahoma softball (34-1, 9-0) bounced back to take game two of its doubleheader 12-3 in run-rule fashion at No. 21/22 Georgia (28-12, 6-9) after seeing its 40-game win streak snapped in game one in extra innings, 7-6 (9).

Game One: UGA 7, OU 6 (9 innings)

Junior Grace Lyons went yard for the 12th time of the season to open the scoring in the first contest of the day, blasting a solo shot to left center in the top of the second.

Georgia responded in the fourth inning with a solo home run from Sydney Kuma and an interesting sequence that featured what looked to be a two-run home run from UGA's Jaiden Fields. Fields failed to step on home plate when rounding the bases, therefore was ruled out and only one run scored to make it 2-1, Bulldogs.

Senior captain Lynnsie Elam put the Sooners back on top with her first career grand slam in the sixth inning on a ball that bounced off the top of the center field wall and out of the park.

Fields responded for UGA in the bottom frame of the sixth, plating a pair on a single to right field to make it a one-run game before OU's Kinzie Hansen put an insurance run on the board at the top of the seventh on an RBI single to right.

Georgia forced extras in the bottom of the seventh off a pair of RBI singles from Kuma and Sara Mosley.

After a scoreless eighth inning, UGA snapped the Sooners' 40-game win streak on a Fields RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off.

Lyons paced OU in game one, going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and one RBI, while Elam plated four on her grand slam.

Redshirt senior Giselle Juarez struck out seven in five innings of work, allowing three hits and two earned runs to go with one walk. Fellow redshirt senior Shannon Saile gave up a pair of runs on two hits and two walks with one strikeout. Freshman Nicole May took the first loss of her career, surrendering three runs, including the game-winner, on six hits. May struck out a pair and walked a pair in three innings.

Georgia's Mary Wilson-Avant became the first pitcher to defeat the Sooners in 2021, going the distance and allowing just six runs on five hits to the potent Oklahoma offense, striking out three and walking three.

OU's 33-game win streak to start a season goes down as the best unbeaten start to a season in program history and its 40-game win streak from Feb. 29, 2020-April 20, 2021 is second in program history and third in NCAA D-I history.

Game Two: OU 12, UGA 3 (5 innings)

Oklahoma bounced back in a big way in the night cap, beating the Bulldogs 12-3 in five innings, the team's 26th run-rule win of 2021.

Georgia played four pitchers in game two who walked a combined nine OU batters.

OU came out motivated following their first loss of the season, scoring five runs on four hits in the first inning. Lyons started the scoring on an RBI single through the right side before Coleman put two more across on a two-RBI single up the middle before sophomore Mackenzie Donihoo ripped another RBI single for the Sooners.

Three of Oklahoma's next four runs of the game came via bases-loaded walks to Coleman, Donihoo and Lyons, while Elam dropped an RBI single into left field for her fifth run batted in of the day.

Another RBI single from Coleman and a fielder's choice RBI from Donihoo concluded the OU scoring and made it 12-0 through four and a half innings.

Georgia broke the shutout campaign in the bottom of the fifth on a three-run shot from Kuma before sophomore LHP Alanna Thiede retired a pair to close the game.

Saile collected her 10th win of the season in the circle, going three shutout innings and allowing just one hit and no runs to go with three strikeouts and one walk. Sophomores Brooke Vestal and Thiede each went an inning with Vestal allowing one hit and walk and no runs to the four batters she faced. Thiede surrendered UGA's only three runs of the game via home run but struck out a pair and retired the final batter of the game via groundout.

Coleman led OU at the plate in game two, going 2-for-3 with four RBIs. It marked the second game of her career with four runs batted in. Donihoo also brought in four OU runs, finishing 1-for-2 with a walk and stolen base. Lyons batted in a pair in a 1-for-2, two runs scored showing. Alo and Hansen each registered a team-high three runs scored in game two.

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Head Coach Patty Gasso:

"This trip was necessary, 100%. We needed it. We were kind of walking into a trap, but what was important for us is to see how it feels when your body is maybe not all there. But I mean, we just flat out got beat. We needed to feel what that felt like and learn from it. I don't regret one thing. Taking this trip was important for us to learn.

"I was proud of them coming back. Because it was a hard-fought first game. You could feel that. It's very much like that when you're in postseason. Your body is just spent, and you've got to figure out how to make your body do things that maybe it doesn't feel like doing. And that's what I felt was happening today, so it was good for us. And I appreciate the opportunity to play Georgia. They've got a good pitcher who is probably one of the toughest pitchers we've faced thus far. She did a good job against us.

"It's showing that we need to get better. We need to get better. We're not good enough. We need to get better and they all agree, this team agrees. I think this could end up being one of the most rewarding weekends, just from what we've learned from it."

OU returns to the friendly confines of Marita Hynes Field in Norman for a three-game Big 12 series with Texas Tech, April 23-25. All three games will be available to watch via SoonerSports.tv and can be heard on The Franchise 2 (103.3 FM, 1560 AM) in Oklahoma and nationwide on the TuneIn app.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma softball, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_Softball) and like Oklahoma Softball on Facebook.