Softball: Sooners lose to Georgia in the Cathedral City Classic
Oklahoma softball capped off its weekend in the Cathedral City Classic with a 3-2 loss to Georgia on Saturday.
Astrud Reed, The Oklahoma Daily
Freshman Callie Parsons pinch-runs for junior catcher Jessica Shults after a double by Shults in the bottom of the fourth of the Sooners’ exhibition game against North Central Texas College last fall.
The Sooners (9-3) finished with a 3-2 tournament record after losing to Stanford and Georgia in back-to-back games.
After opening the Classic with a 5-0 win over San Diego State, OU suffered its first multiple loss weekend since losing two games in last year’s Women’s College World Series.
OU’s offense and pitching staff remained impressive in the three victories, outscoring opponents 24-0 in the three games.
Going into this weekend’s action, OU led the Big 12 in pitching with a .62 earned run average, but Sooner pitchers gave up a combined eight runs during the weekend’s action.
Junior pitcher Michelle Gascoigne remained perfect this season (5-0) after pitching to wins over UC Davis and Boise State. Gascoigne allowed just four hits in 9.2 innings.
Junior ace Keilani Ricketts fell to a disappointing 4-3 this season after the Sooners fell short to the Bulldogs on Saturday. OU out-hit Georgia 7-4 but failed to keep the Bulldogs’ offense off the board in the sixth inning.
Ricketts helped out the Sooners at the plate by scoring the team’s only two runs with a homerun in the game’s final inning.
The homer was Ricketts’ first of the season. However, it was not enough. The No. 13 Bulldogs picked up a run of their own to take the 3-2 upset victory.
Sophomore Brittany Williams also was volatile at the plate this weekend, hitting two, two-run homers in the 9-0 win over the Broncos to close out the weekend’s action.
The Santa Clarita, Calif., native had just eight homeruns all of last season while recording 32 RBIs.
However, the Sooners were not consistent on offense. A lack of run production against Stanford gave the Cardinal the 5-0 victory and handed OU its second consecutive loss. Three separate Sooners collected hits in the game, but OU was unable to manufacture any runs. Ricketts struck out 10-of-24 batters she faced during the contest.
Next up, the Sooners hit the road to face North Texas Wednesday in Denton, Texas.
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