NORMAN– The Oklahoma softball team travels to Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City on Tuesday to meet Tulsa in a non-conference midweek tilt at 6 p.m. CT.
OU closes both its non-conference and midweek schedule of the 2024 regular season with Tuesday's contest. The Sooners are 23-1 in non-conference games this season and are 5-0 in midweek tilts.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with radio coverage on 1560 AM/103.3 FM The Franchise 2 and 107.7 FM The Franchise.
Tuesday marks the third consecutive season that Oklahoma and Tulsa have met. OU leads the all-time series 47-10 with a 13-0 record at neutral sites. Under head coach Patty Gasso, the Sooners are 40-10 against the Golden Hurricane and are winners of 12 straight games.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
Tulsa enters the midweek with a 27-14 record on the season and a 12-6 mark in AAC play. The Golden Hurricane are 3-3 over their last six and are fresh off a series win over East Carolina.
MacKenzie Denson and Imani Edwards provide a stellar Tulsa top-of-the-order, batting .411 and .403 respectively with 11 and 15 stolen bases. Tulsa threatens teams on the basepaths as Haley Morgan (15) and Abby Jones (12) join Denson and Edwards as double-digit basestealers. The team is 63-for-72 (87.5%) on steals this season, averaging just over a steal-and-a-half per game.
Right-handers Kylee Nash (9-2, 2.90 ERA), Maura Moore (10-5, 3.91 ERA) and Anneca Anderson (7-4, 4.26) have worked most of Tulsa's innings in the circle, combining for 241.2 of the club's 261.1 frames. Moore leads Tulsa in strikeouts (92) and innings pitched (103.2), Anderson owns the team's best opponent average (.198) while Nash's three saves pace the club.
LAST TIME OUT
A three-hit, four-RBI performance from senior third baseman Alyssa Brito and a complete-game effort from graduate left-hander Kelly Maxwell guided No. 2/1 Oklahoma to a 7-3 win over BYU on Saturday afternoon at Love's Field, securing a series win in the rubber game.
The Sooners out-hit BYU 10-6 and did not strike out at the plate while drawing seven walks as a team. Brito led the lineup with a 3-for-4, four-RBI effort while Alynah Torres (2-for-3, R, RBI) provided a multi-hit game.
Maxwell gave OU a gutsy effort in the circle, going the distance for her 13th win of the season. She struck out six across 7.0 innings of three-run ball, scattering six hits and two walks.
The left-hander threw 77 of her 113 pitches for strikes (68.1%), induced a key double-play grounder and trusted her defense. OU centerfielder Jayda Coleman made a highlight-reel diving grab in the fourth, punctuating the excellent defensive effort.
Coleman drew a walk in the fifth to extend her on-base streak to 29 games. Torres' two-hit effort capped a terrific series in which she reached in six of her seven trips, going 3-for-4 with three walks across the set. Hansen led OU with five hits in the series, batting .455 with a double.
Oklahoma improved to 6-1 in series this season including a 4-0 mark in home series. A crowd of 4,509 attended Saturday's series finale.
MID-SEASON SLUMP
Oklahoma is playing .500 softball over its last six contests, going 3-3 with two losses to Texas and one to BYU. The Sooner lineup is batting .312 over its last six, scoring 28 runs (4.67/game). OU's pitching staff has worked to a 2.95 ERA with 16 runs allowed in 38.0 innings of work, allowing opponents to bat .221 with 15 extra-base hits.
BIG 12 STANDINGS
Oklahoma enters the seventh week of conference play holding a 1.0-game lead over Texas and is 2.0 games ahead of third-place Oklahoma State. Kansas sits 4.0 games back of the Sooners in fourth place.
OU hosts last-place Houston this weekend, Oklahoma State welcomes Texas Tech to Stillwater and Texas visits Kansas.
COLE WORLD
Jayda Coleman carries a 29-game on-base streak into the midweek and has slashed .500/.653/1.047 for a 1.700 OPS across the stretch. Over her last 29 contests she has scored 38 runs and driven in 26 while producing 32 hits, 10 home runs and five doubles. Her plate discipline has been nothing short of incredible during her 29-game stretch, striking out just once in 100 plate appearances (1.0%) and walking 31 times (31.0%).
SHE'S DEALING
Sophom*ore left-hander Kierston Deal has enjoyed a phenomenal stretch over her last nine starts, establishing herself as one of the Big 12's top young talents in the circle. Deal has won eight of her last nine starts, going 8-0 with a miniscule 0.57 ERA across 37.0 innings in that span. She has struck out 39 while walking just nine, holding opponents to a .134 average and a meager three extra-base hits.
WELCOME BACK, K9
Graduate catcher Kinzie Hansen has given the OU lineup a jolt since returning from an injury and enters the midweek on a 10-game hitting streak. The backstop is 15-for-30 over the stretch, batting .500 with a team-leading 15 hits and three doubles.
LEADERBOARDS
The Sooners enter the week ranked highly across the national leaderboards in multiple statistical categories. OU leads the nation in batting average (.379), shutouts (18), fielding percentage (.985) and on-base percentage (.483), is top-three in slugging percentage (2nd, .692), OPS (2nd, 1.174), runs per game (2nd, 8.45) and home runs (3rd, 85) and is fourth in ERA (1.65). Senior outfielder Jayda Coleman is fifth in the NCAA in on-base percentage (.565) and seventh in runs scored (49).
Tiare Jennings enters the week leading the Big 12 in OPS (1.409), slugging percentage (.909) and home runs (16) while landing second in RBIs (51), third in doubles (12) and fifth in hits (50). Jayda Coleman is second among her conference counterparts in on-base percentage (.565), runs scored (49) and is third in OPS (1.348). Alyssa Brito owns the second-best slugging percentage (.884) and OPS (1.381), checks in third in home runs (15) and runs scored (47) and is fourth in RBIs (44) and hits (51) across the league. Cydney Sanders adds the Big 12's No. 4 mark in OPS (1.291) while Rylie Boone is third in hitting (.443).
In the circle, the Sooners boast three pitchers in the league's top-five ERA leaders with Kierston Deal (2nd, 1.32), Karlie Keeney (4th, 1.62) and Kelly Maxwell (5th, 1.72) anchoring one of the nation's top staffs. Maxwell is second across the conference with a .160 opponent average and wins (13) and is third in strikeouts (96).
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