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The Oklahoma softball team had yet to suffer a home loss this season, but that was before the 14th ranked Baylor Bears came to town. They beat the Sooners 8-0 on Thursday night, just the second time all season the Sooners have been shut out. The loss also snapped the Sooners 12-game winning streak which included nine conference games. Their biggest defeat of the season ended in just six innings.
The only good note from that game? The only other Sooner teams that started off 9-0 in conference play and lost the tenth game were the 2000 and 2002 teams. The same ones who went on to win the national championship.
But any memory of Thursday's performance must of been in the back of their minds entering the weekend, because they dominated from that point on. Outscoring the Bears by a total of 16-5 in Friday and Saturday's game.
They defeated Baylor by a final score of 5-2 on Friday, after Georgia Casey's three run double in the first game. Baylor had eight hits to Oklahoma's five, but failed to capitalize on any of them until the sixth inning when Shelby Friudenberg hit a two-run homer to make it 5-2. But the Bears didn't score in the seventh inning, ending the game.
On Saturday, it was all Oklahoma all day long, as the Sooners scored 11 runs in five innings. Lauren Chamberlain hit a home run, tieing UCLA's Stacey Nuveman's record of 90 home runs in a career. The senior now has the pressure off of tieing the record, something that has been talked about since the beginning of the season. Now, with the pressure off, it should be easier for Chamberlain mentally.
The win helped the fifth ranked Sooners reach 38-6 and 11-1 in Big 12 play. The Sooners should wrap up the conference title here in the next couple of weeks. With Oklahoma State and Kansas as the only remaining teams left on the schedule in their quest for a Big 12 championship.
OU followed up their weekend performance with a 6-3 win over North Texas on Monday. Shelby Pendley pitched 4.2 innings, striking out 7 batters, to pick up her 12th win of the season. The Sooners are scheduled to play at Oklahoma State on Wednesday night and then will travel to play at Kansas over the weekend.