Ryan AberThe Oklahoman
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OU softball started the season much like how last season went.
The Sooners knocked off a pair of ranked opponents — Duke and Washington — at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge in Mexico.
There was some drama with the win over the Huskies but outside of that, the Sooners mostly rolled through the weekend, outscoring opponents 31-6 to run their NCAA-record winning streak to 57.
Here’s a look at what we learned about the Sooners last week:
More: Get to know the 2024 Oklahoma Sooners softball team and schedule
No. 1 OU
Overall record: 4-0
Last week: 4-0 (Beat Utah Valley 13-0, Duke 3-0, Washington 4-3, Long Beach State 11-3)
This week: At Cowgirl Challenge, Lake Charles, Louisiana (vs. Central Arkansas, 3:30 p.m. Friday; vs. McNeese State, 6 p.m. Friday; vs. Lamar, 1:30 p.m. Saturday; vs. McNeese State, 6:30 p.m. Saturday; vs. Central Arkansas, 11 a.m. Sunday).
More: Mussatto: Can Patty Gasso, OU softball pull off 'unheard of' NCAA four-peat? Of course.
Washington pushed Sooners to the brink
In the third game of the season on Friday, Washington struck against the Sooners in the second, taking a 3-2 lead.
The Sooners trailed until Riley Ludlam’s pinch-hit RBI single in the top of the sixth.
It was just the 10th game during the winning streak, where the Sooners trailed, but just the fifth time they trailed after the third inning.
Here’s a breakdown of those other four come-from-behind victories during the streak, in chronological order:
- vs. Texas, April 1, 2023: The Longhorns scored an unearned run in the second to go up 1-0, then added another unearned run in the fifth as Mac Morgan kept the Sooners’ offense in check. The Sooners finally broke through in the fifth with an unearned run, but the Longhorns’ Viviana Martinez hit a solo homer in the sixth to put Texas up 3-1. OU had its back to the wall in the seventh but Rylie Boone led off the inning with a single before Jayda Coleman’s game-tying homer. After a pitching change, the Sooners’ offense kept up the pressure, with Kinzie Hansen finally delivering a game-winning single to left-center.
- at Oklahoma State, May 6, 2023: Cowgirls’ starter Kyra Ayco*ck shut out the Sooners for six innings as OSU broke through off of OU’s Nicole May with a pair of RBI singles from Taylor Tuck, one in the second and one in the sixth. The Sooners finally broke through in the seventh, with a leadoff double from Jocelyn Erickson before Alynah Torres drove home a run with a single to cut the Cowgirls’ lead in half. After Kelly Maxwell came on in relief of Ayco*ck, the Sooners kept it going, with Tiare Jennings coming through with a go-ahead two-run double a few batters later. Cydney Sanders drove in another to give OU some breathing room and the Sooners won 4-3.
- vs. Clemson, May 27, 2023 (Super Regional Game 2): This was high drama, with an OU berth in the Women’s College World Series on the line. Clemson scored four in the fifth to take a 7-4 lead it kept going into the top of the seventh. After Rylie Boone led off the inning with a single, the Tigers got two outs and needed just one more to end OU’s winning streak and push the Sooners to a deciding third game of the Super Regional. But Haley Lee kept the inning alive with a single to right, then Hansen hit a towering three-run homer on an 0-2 count to tie it and send the crowd at Marita Hynes Field into a frenzy. Two innings later, Tiare Jennings led off the top of the ninth with a homer, Jordy Bahl closed things out in the bottom half and OU was on to Oklahoma City.
- vs. Florida State, June 8, 2023 (WCWS Championship Series Game 2): Seminoles star pitcher Kathryn Sanderco*ck held the Sooners’ lineup in check through four innings and Mack Leaonard blasted a solo homer off Alex Storako in the fourth to put Florida State on top. The Sooners responded with back-to-back homers from Cydney Sanders and Grace Lyons to start the fifth, scratched across another in the sixth and Bahl threw three scoreless innings to close out yet another WCWS title for the Sooners.
More: OU softball: Three storylines for Oklahoma Sooners ahead of 2024 season opener
Kasidi Pickering off to hot start
Freshman Kasidi Pickering wasted no time showing why she’d earned a place in the Sooners’ lineup.
In her first collegiate at-bat, Pickering dug in with the bases loaded and two outs against Utah Valley on Thursday and showed patience taking three consecutive balls.
Utah Valley starter Hallie Morris had already walked three Sooners —all on four pitches —so it would’ve been easy for Sooners coach Patty Gasso and hitting coach J.T. Gasso to have her take a pitch or even two.
Instead, they allowed Pickering to swing away and the freshman took advantage with a grand slam.
Pickering wasn’t done, finishing the weekend 5 of 11 at the plate with three runs and seven RBIs.
She was one of just two Sooners —Alyssa Brito was the other —to have a hit in each of OU’s first four games.
