OU Softball Stomps Texas

Freshman Paige Parker struck out nine batters and the Sooners pounded out 17 hits as No. 5/5 Oklahoma took game one of a doubleheader against Texas Friday night, 8-0.

The win, which was the 10th in a row for OU, moves the Sooners into first place in the Big 12 with a 7-0 mark in conference play and 34-5 record overall. They entered the game with the Longhorns as the only two undefeated teams left in league play, but Texas fell to 27-10 overall and 3-1 in the conference with the loss.

Parker shined in the circle in her first Red River Rivalry matchup.

She struck out nine batters and allowed just three hits while throwing her seventh shutout of the season. Texas leadoff hitter Devon Tunning was 2-3, but Parker, who improved to 17-3 on the year, held the rest of the UT lineup to one hit in 21 at-bats.

Parker retired eight straight batters from the first to third innings, and during the game only one batter reached second base. She struck out a batter in six of the seven innings, including two in the first, fourth and fifth frames.

Coupled with an 8-0, five-inning, win in the series finale last year, the shutout win Friday marked just the second time in program history that OU shut out Texas in back-to-back games. The other occurrence came on April 26-27, 2008, with a pair of 8-0 victories.

Oklahoma's offense backed up Parker by tallying 17 hits, the most for OU against Texas since at least 2000. Five different Sooners had at least two hits, including three each for Shelby Pendley and Tori Nirschl and four hits for Lauren Chamberlain.

The Sooners jumped on the Longhorns early as Pendley continued her unbelievable hot streak.

Chamberlain led off for the Sooners and just missed career home run No. 89 with a double high off the wall in left field. That brought Pendley to the plate, and she went to the opposite field for her team-leading 20th home run of the season and her 17th home run in her past 19 games. She joins Chamberlain as the only players in OU history to have multiple 20-homer seasons.

The two-run shot was No. 80 of Pendley's career, giving her sole possession of seventh place on the all-time home run list. It was also her 61st at Oklahoma, tying her with former teammate Jessica Shults for second in conference and school annals.

Oklahoma added to its lead in the third.

Junior Whitney Ellis set the tone by working a walk after a 15-pitch at-bat. She fell behind after a pair of swinging strikes, but fouled off three straight pitches before taking ball one. After another foul, she worked the count even to 2-2. Three more foul-offs came before a ball turned the count full. After two more foul balls, Ellis drew ball four to reach first.

Nirschl then dropped a single down the left field line to put two on for Chamberlain. On a 2-2 pitch, Chamberlain laced a single into right-center to bring Ellis home from second and give OU the 3-0 lead. It was the 239th run batted in of Chamberlain's career, tying her with former Sooner Samantha Ricketts (2006-09) for the most in Big 12 and school history.

The Sooners saw their lead grow to 5-0 thanks to a two-out rally in the fifth.

Junior Kady Self started things with a two-out single between first and second base. Ellis then collected her second hit with a double high off the wall in center field, plating Self. Nirschl picked up her third hit, to tie a career high, when she drove in Ellis with a ball that short-hopped Tunning at shortstop and ended up in left field.

Oklahoma picked up an additional insurance run in the sixth when Parker and junior Erin Miller led off with back-to-back walks and senior Georgia Casey hit an RBI double to right center to score Parker.

OU picked up their final two runs in the seventh.

Chamberlain matched a career high by picking up her fourth hit of the game with her third triple of the season. She also had four hits at Texas Tech on April 14, 2013. Pendley dropped a single down the right field line to plate Chamberlain and, two batters later, Miller doubled to left center to give OU its eighth run.