No. 1/1 Sooners Close Mary Nutter With Twin Shutouts

Sunday, February 25

Cathedral City, Calif.

11:00 AM

University of Oklahoma

13-0

Seattle

6-9

Seattle

Oklahoma

No. 1/1 Sooners Close Mary Nutter With Twin Shutouts

February 25, 2024 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – No. 1/1 Oklahoma extended its NCAA-record winning streak to 67 games and closed a perfect 5-0 weekend at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic by shutting out Seattle 8-0 and Loyola Marymount 9-0 in run-rule victories on Sunday in Cathedral City.

OU (14-0, 0-0 Big 12) freshman Ella Parker homered twice and drove in five against Seattle (6-9, 0-0 WAC) while three different Sooners homered against LMU (5-10, 0-0 WCC)

The Sooners have now recorded nine shutouts in 2024 and return home on a 19.1-inning scoreless streak. Oklahoma hit .378 at the Mary Nutter and outscored their five opponents 43-5.

Freshman outfielder Kasidi Pickering led OU with a .667 (8-for-12) average, senior shortstop Tiare Jennings paced the club with nine RBIs on the weekend while hitting .500 and senior third baseman Alyssa Brito scored a team-leading seven runs. Senior outfielder Rylie Boone went 7-for-12 (.583) at the plate during the Mary Nutter.

No. 1/1 Oklahoma 8, Seattle 0 (6)

A monster two-homer, five-RBI performance from Ella Parker backed a stellar game one from the Sooner pitching staff in the opener as the freshman accounted for five of OU's eight runs. She finished 2-for-5 with her second and third home runs of the season.

Karlie Keeney threw extremely well while earning her second win of the season, scattering four hits and a walk across 4.2 innings of scoreless ball. She struck out five and received plenty of help from her defense as both Jayda Coleman and Rylie Boone each recorded an outfield assist in the early innings.

Coleman threw out a runner attempting to stretch a single into a double, adding a herculean diving grab in the fourth. Boone tallied her first outfield assist of the season one batter prior, hitting her cutoff in Tiare Jennings, allowing the OU shortstop to turn and fire the ball home to retire a Seattle runner attempting to score.

Riley Ludlam put Oklahoma on the board in the second inning, launching her first home run as a Sooner out to left-center. Parker pushed the lead to 3-0 with an opposite-field blast in the fourth, giving Keeney a cushion as she settled in.

Boone opened the fifth with a double and scored shortly thereafter on an Alyssa Brito single. Jennings reached on an infield single, then two batters later Parker clobbered her second home run of the day over the right field wall to make it 7-0 Oklahoma.

The Sooners earned the "walk-off" run-rule win an inning later in the fifth as Maya Bland drew a leadoff walk and Boone legged out an infield single back to the circle. Brito advanced them both with a groundout, then Avery Hodge plated Bland with a sacrifice fly to left.

Paytn Monticelli finished out the final four batters of the day following Keeney, striking out three and issuing a lone walk.

Boone went 2-for-3 against Seattle to give the Sooners two multi-hit efforts alongside Parker's two-hit game.

No. 1/1 Oklahoma 9, Loyola Marymount 0 (5)

Nicole May shined in the circle in OU's weekend finale, striking out seven over 4.0 hitless innings of work. LMU reached just twice against the right-hander on an error and a walk. She put away the final 11 batters faced, settling into a rhythm early, to earn her fifth win of the season.

Oklahoma broke the game open early with a five-spot in the second that began with Jayda Coleman blasting her first home run of the season. Three batters later, Rylie Boone doubled home Avery Hodge and later scored on a Kasidi Pickering RBI single. Tiare Jennings wrapped up the scoring with a two-run double down the left field line to give the Sooners a 5-0 lead.

Alyssa Brito and Alynah Torres launched two-run homers in the fourth and fifth respectively, putting Oklahoma in position to earn a second consecutive run-rule win. Kelly Maxwell entered in the bottom of the fifth and sealed the shutout, using a game-ending ground-ball double-play to work around a pair of singles.

Boone and Pickering each went 2-for-3 on the afternoon while Brito reached three times, going 2-for-2 with a walk.

Up Next

OU looks ahead to its home opener at Love's Field on Friday, Mar. 1, with a 2 p.m. CT doubleheader against Miami (OH) and Liberty, celebrating the inaugural season of the program's new home.

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