No. 15 Oklahoma Shut Out by No. 23 Texas Tech

The Sooners' offense never got going in the opening contest of the two-game series.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:18 pm

By: News On 6

No. 15 Oklahoma Shut Out by No. 23 Texas Tech

Originally Published: Apr 1, 2011 8:57 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

LUBBOCK, Texas -- The No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners struggled offensively Friday and fell to No. 23 Texas Tech 5-0 in the opening game of a three-game, weekend series.

Junior left-handed pitcher Kelsey Dennis (11-1) kept the Oklahoma (28-10, 1-2) offense in check, pitching a complete-game shutout, giving up just two-hits and striking out four batters. Sooners’ ace Keilani Ricketts (16-6) had a rare struggle, giving up five earned runs and five hits in her five innings pitched.

Texas Tech (36-3, 1-2) got on the board early, despite their first two batters of the contest being retired. Ricketts hit back-to-back batters, then Emily Bledsoe brought them both home with a double to right field. Sandy James singled to second base in the next at-bat to bring Bledsoe home and give the Red Raiders a 3-0 lead.

The Red Raiders continued to hold the lead until the bottom of the eighth and capitalized on Ricketts’ woes early in the inning.

The junior walked McKenzie Clemons, which was followed by a double by Raven Richardson, which allowed Clemons to score on a throwing error from right field. Reliever Michelle Gascoigne came in from the bullpen, but immediately surrendered an RBI single to Holley Gentsch to extend the lead to 5-0.

Dennis went three-up, three-down in the top of the eighth to end the game and hand the Sooners their second conference loss of the season.

The Sooners will try to grab its first season win against Texas Tech at 11 a.m. Saturday, before a two-game series against Kansas Wednesday.