No. 1 OU Completes Big 12 Title Sweep

Saturday, May 15

Oklahoma City, Okla.

3 PM

University of Oklahoma

45-2

Oklahoma State

42-9

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma

May 15, 2021 | Softball

Box Score Box Score: OU 10, OSU 6 (6)Highlights Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

By: Patrick Dunn

OKLAHOMA CITY — No. 1 Oklahoma completed the Big 12 title sweep Saturday, beating No. 7/9 Oklahoma State, 10-2, in run-rule fashion to win their seventh Big 12 tournament crown.

It marks the fourth consecutive season Oklahoma has won both the regular season conference title and tournament crown. OU has 20 Big 12 titles overall.

Big 12 Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo registered the run-rule, walk-off hit in the sixth inning on a two-RBI single up the middle. The senior paced OU in the game with a 3-for-5, three runs batted in performance.

Sophomore Kinzie Hansen was named Most Outstanding Player of the championship after hitting a combined five home runs in OU's three games. Seven Sooners were named to the All-Tournament team: Hansen, Alo, Jayda Coleman, Lynnsie Elam, Tiare Jennings, Nicole May and Shannon Saile.

OU scored in five of the game's six innings and held off the Cowgirls loading the bases in both the second and third.

The Sooners plated three runs in the first inning on three hits. After a leadoff walk to Coleman and a double from Alo, a wild pitch got away from the OSU catcher allowing Coleman to come across home plate. Jennings laced her team-leading 15th double of the season to score Alo prior to an RBI single from senior Taylon Snow.

After OSU loaded the bases on a trio of singles in the second, the redshirt senior Saile left them stranded with a strikeout and popup.

OU put two more runs across in the third on four hits. Hansen blasted her fifth home run of the weekend and 20th of the season on a solo shot to left before junior Grace Lyons laid down a perfectly executed squeeze bunt to plate Jennings. Lyons registered her second RBI of the game in the fourth on a groundout that plated Hansen.

Oklahoma State scored its only two runs of the game on solo shots from Kiley Naomi and Alysen Febrey in the fifth inning. Coleman robbed OSU of a third homer in the frame on an exceptional over-the-wall catch in center field.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Sooners put two more runs on the board on three hits. Following a leadoff double from senior Jana Johns, Alo singled to center to bring Johns across. Jennings batted in her second run of the game two at-bats later on a single to center.

Alo walked it off in the sixth with a two-RBI single after a single from Snow and walk to pinch hitter Lynnsie Elam.

Saile went five innings, allowing just six hits to the OSU offense to go with two runs, two walks and four strikeouts. Freshman Nicole May closed for the Sooners, retiring the four batters she faced in 1.1 innings pitched. Oklahoma outhit its in-state foe 12 to six in the game and outhit its opponents on the weekend by a total of 36 to 18. Oklahoma outscored its opponents in the tournament 28-6 with two of its three wins being run rules.

Hansen has homered in three consecutive games for the second time of her career, while Oklahoma brought its single-season home run total to 130. The total ranks third in NCAA history behind 2009 Arizona's 134 and Hawaii's 158 mark in 2010.

As a team, the Sooners have homered in 44 of their 47 games.

With its first run-rule victory over Oklahoma State Saturday, Oklahoma has mercy-ruled every team in the conference this season at least once. It was OSU's first run-rule loss of the season.

With the Big 12 Championship victory, Oklahoma earned the conference's automatic qualifier bid to the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Sooners will await their regional selections, set to be announced Sunday, May 16 at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2 as part of ESPN's Selection Sunday coverage.

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