Sooners Open Season with Big Win over Roadrunners

Oklahoma came away with a nine-run win over Cal State-Bakersfield in the opening game of the Kajikawa Classic.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:12 pm

By: News On 6

Sooners Open Season with Big Win over Roadrunners

Originally Published: Feb 10, 2011 11:22 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

TEMPE, Arizona -- The Oklahoma Sooners softball team kicked off its 2011 spring season with an 11-2 win over the Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners Thursday.

The Sooners used two big innings to claim the win in the run-rule shortened matchup, exploding in the second and third.

In the first at-bat of the second inning, Katie Norris doubled to right center and was subbed out for baserunner Javen Hensen. Two at-bats later, starting pitcher Keilani Ricketts singled up the middle to bring her home and take a 1-0 lead.

In the next at-bat, Chana’e Jones sent a triple down the right field line to bring Ricketts home and move into scoring position. Two at-bats later, Brianna Turang reached on a fielder’s choice to bring Jones home. Hayle Nix capped it off in the next at-bat with a two-run home run to right center field to push the lead to 5-0.

The Sooners worked the diamond playing small-ball in the sixth inning to tack on six more runs to take an 11-0 lead.

Amy Riccardi’s two-run home run in the top of the fifth accounted for the only runs that the Roadrunners managed on the day.

Ricketts (1-0) came away with a season-opening win after shutting out Cal State- Bakersfield in her 3.2 innings of work and striking out three. Sara Hoag received a loss for the outing, giving up seven earned runs to the 14 batters she faced in just two innings.

OU will tack on two more games Friday with a day-night double-header against Appalachian State and Northwestern.