Softball Closes Road Stretch at Wichita State

NORMAN – The Oklahoma softball team closes a seven-game road slate on Tuesday evening with a midweek contest at Wichita State.

First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT in Wichita. The game will be aired on ESPN+ with radio coverage on 107.7 FM The Franchise and 1560 AM/103.3 FM The Franchise 2.

OU holds a 54-7 advantage in the all-time series against Wichita State including a 13-3 mark in Wichita. Under head coach Patty Gasso, Oklahoma is 40-0 against the Shockers with an 8-0 record on the road. The Sooners have won 41 straight games vs. WSU and haven't lost to the Shockers since March 21, 1990.

Oklahoma looks to snap its two-game losing skid following a rare series loss at Texas last weekend, falling 2-1 in games two and three after taking the opener 5-2. OU hadn't dropped a series since 2011 prior to last weekend's setback.

Tuesday's midweek tilt represents the second-to-last non-conference game on Oklahoma's regular-season schedule. OU will play Tulsa at Hall of Fame Stadium on Tuesday, April 16 to conclude its non-conference slate.

The Sooners and Shockers were previously scheduled to meet in Wichita on Tuesday, March 26, but the game was rescheduled due to forecasted inclement weather conditions.

SCOUTING THE SHOCKERS

Wichita State enters Tuesday's midweek with an 18-14 record and a 9-6 mark in The American. The Shockers have dropped back-to-back series at Charlotte and vs. Tulsa, going 2-4 over their last six games.

WSU boasts a fearsome top-of-the-order in CC Wong, Addison Barnard and Taylor Sedlacek. Wong leads the team in batting average, hits, OPS and RBIs, slashing .486/.568/.905 for a 1.473 OPS out of the leadoff spot along with 11 home runs and seven doubles. Barnard has smashed a club-leading 14 home runs while batting .389 with 28 RBIs while Sedlacek adds 10 home runs, 33 RBIs and five doubles. Wichita State bats .294 as a team and produces 6.19 runs per game.

The Shocker pitching staff registers a 4.93 ERA through 32 games and is led by southpaw Alison Cooper and right-handers Chloe Barber, Alex Aguilar and Lauren Howell. Barber is 5-4 and leads the club with a 4.12 ERA and 83 strikeouts across 54.1 innings of work. Aguilar is the innings leader at 63.2, adding a staff-high six wins, while Cooper is 4-5 with a 4.91 ERA.

LAST TIME OUT

Oklahoma dropped its second consecutive one-run game to No. 5/4 Texas on Sunday afternoon, falling 2-1 in Austin.

OU starter Kelly Maxwell struck out six over 4.2 innings of two-run ball, scattering three hits and a walk. The left-hander allowed a two-run home run in the fourth for the lone blemish on her line.

Freshman designated player Ella Parker (2-for-3, R, HR, RBI) provided the lone Sooner run with a towering solo homer in the third.

Texas would respond an inning later with its fourth-inning two-run shot while Longhorn lefty Estelle Czech blanked the Sooners across 3.1 scoreless frames of relief.

Parker produced Oklahoma's lone multi-hit effort while fellow freshman Kasidi Pickering went 1-for-2 with a double and a walk. Alyssa Brito (1-for-3, BB) reached twice and Jayda Coleman drew a walk to extend her on-base streak to 25 games. Tiare Jennings (1-for-4) extended her on-base streak to 17 games with a single. She also pushed her hitting streak to nine games.

With the loss, Oklahoma fell in back-to-back games for the first time since consecutive losses to Washington and Wisconsin on February 22 and 23, 2020. The Sooners' seven total runs in the series stand as the program's second-lowest scoring output in a three-game series since the Big 12 moved to three-game sets in 2012. OU dropped its first conference series since the 2011 season and fell for the first time in a three-game series.

A RARE SLUMP

The Sooner lineup produced its second-lowest run output since the Big 12 moved to three-game series last weekend, scoring just seven runs across the set. OU batted .247 (19-for-77), adding a .314 on-base percentage and a .364 slugging for a meager .378 OPS. OU also struck out (8) more than it walked (6) in a series for the first time this season. Oklahoma's five extra-base hits stood as a season-low in a series this season, as did its two home runs.

BIG 12 STANDINGS

Oklahoma enters the sixth week of conference play holding a 1.0-game lead over Oklahoma State and is 2.0 games ahead of third-place Texas. Kansas sits 3.0-games back of the Sooners in fourth place.

OU hosts BYU this weekend, Oklahoma State visits Iowa State, Texas travels to Baylor and Kansas heads to Texas Tech.

COLE WORLD

Jayda Coleman carries a 25-game on-base streak into the midweek and has slashed .536/.674/1.107 for a 1.781 OPS across the stretch. Over her last 25 contests she has scored 35 runs and driven in 23 while producing 30 hits, nine home runs and five doubles. Her plate discipline has been nothing short of incredible during her 25-game stretch, striking out just once in 87 plate appearances (1.2%) and walking 27 times (31.0%).

TIA TIME

Senior shortstop Tiare Jennings rides a nine-game hitting streak entering the midweek, tied for the club's longest of 2024.

Jennings is 15-for-32 (.469) over her hitting streak with 10 runs scored, five home runs, two doubles and 11 RBIs. She boasts a 1.528 OPS in that stretch and has walked four times without striking out.

LEADERBOARDS

The Sooners enter the week ranked highly across the national leaderboards in multiple statistical categories. OU leads the nation in batting average (.382), OPS (1.185), fielding percentage (.986) and on-base percentage (.482) and is top-three in slugging percentage (2nd, .703), shutouts (2nd, 16), runs per game (3rd, 8.66), home runs (3rd, 80) and ERA (3rd, 1.47). Senior infielder Tiare Jennings (.937) ranks sixth nationally in slugging percentage while senior outfielder Jayda Coleman (46) is seventh in the NCAA in runs scored.

Tiare Jennings enters the week leading the Big 12 in OPS (1.441), slugging percentage (.937), home runs (15) and doubles (11) while landing third in hits (48) and RBIs (48) along with the sixth-best batting average (.432) in the league. Jayda Coleman is second among her conference counterparts in batting average (.449), on-base percentage (.570), runs scored (46) and OPS (1.366). Alyssa Brito owns the second-best slugging percentage (.873), is third in OPS (1.358), home runs (14) and runs scored (44) and has collected the sixth-most hits (45) across the league. Cydney Sanders adds the Big 12's No. 4 marks in OPS (1.305) and slugging (.800) along with the fifth-most home runs (11).

In the circle, the Sooners boast three pitchers in the league's top-six ERA leaders with Karlie Keeney (3rd, 1.08), Kelly Maxwell (5th, 1.72) and Nicole May (6th, 1.79) anchoring one of the nation's top staffs. Maxwell leads the conference with a .159 opponent average while ranking second in wins (11) and third in strikeouts (85). May ties Maxwell for the second-most wins (11), is eighth in batting average against (.211) and has struck out the 10th-most batters across the league with 63.

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