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Ailana Agbayani powers OU softball to victory against Texas

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo04/25/25

BPrzybylo

Ailana Agbayani6
OU junior Ailana Agbayani. (Sarah Phipps - Imagn Images)

One of the goals of the week for OU head softball coach Patty Gasso was to get the players to understand what OU-Texas means.

When you have all the freshmen and newcomers, they might not exactly understand. Well, the point got across to Ailana Agbayani, obviously.

One of those transfer additions, Agbayani became the surprising power source for OU in a 7-6 victory against visiting Texas on Friday evening at Love’s Field in front of a Love’s Field record of 4,587 fans.

OU is now in second place in the SEC all by itself, breaking the 13-5 conference tie it had with UT entering the weekend.

Agbayani punctuated a five-run bottom of the third with a grand slam. Very few would have picked Agbayani to deliver such a big blow against Texas ace Teagan Kavan, but Agbayani was ready. The line shot got out in a hurry for just her second home run of the season.

It was an inning where OU simply had Kavan’s number. It had started the frame before when freshman Gabbie Garcia hit a solo home run after Kavan had a 1-2-3 start in the first.

Texas punched back, though, against OU ace Sam Landry. The Longhorns scored two in the fourth and three in the fifth to cut it to 6-5. And then it was time for Agbayani once again, who brought in another run with an RBI double.

It wasn’t Landry’s finest hour. However, when OU needed her the most, she came up big. Landry threw all seven innings. She is now 16-3 this season.

Texas scored one on a wild pitch in the seventh before Landry closed the show with runners on second and third. And exhale.

Up next

Oh, Oklahoma weather, we shall see. It sounded great for an 11 a.m. start Saturday on ESPN2 for No. 5-ranked OU (40-5 overall, 14-5 SEC) and No. 3 Texas. The weather is not expected to be good, at all. Game is now set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network+.

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