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Brito bomb, pitching pace Sooners to shutout victory

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•05/02/23•

BPrzybylo

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(BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Oklahoma softball head coach Patty Gasso has reiterated this fact a bunch throughout this season. The Sooners, even though ranked No. 1, simply aren’t going to win every game 10-0, 12-0, etc.

There are going to be games where the offense isn’t clicking. There will be games when the bats take a while to find their groove. Tuesday night at Tulsa was another one of those times. There’s no concern. They’ll fight their way out of it as they did with a 6-0 victory against the Golden Hurricane.

The win puts the Sooners at 46-1 overall and 15-0 in Big 12 play, riding a 38-game winning streak. All that’s left in the regular season is a three-game set at No. 7 Oklahoma State for Bedlam this weekend.

OU finally got the big bomb to separate itself on the scoreboard with a two-out grand slam by Alyssa Brito in the top of the seventh. OU had been playing with a 2-0 lead from the third inning on. Tulsa threatened with the go-ahead runner coming to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, but Alex Storako was able to get the out. She took care of business in the seventh and earned her first save of the season.

Oklahoma softball takeaways from the couch

*The hit by Brito just shows another thing Gasso has mentioned a lot. There isn’t one player you can game plan against when it comes to the Sooners. If it’s not Brito, it’s somebody else. There is so much firepower up and down the lineup that eventually someone is going to make contact. Brito was the lone OU player to have two hits Tuesday.

*Nobody really knew how Gasso was going to treat this game with her pitching staff. You have three of the best pitchers in the country in Nicole May, Jordy Bahl and Storako. Then there’s freshman Kierston Deal. Gasso elected to use all four. She began with Bahl. Closed with Storako and used May and Deal in between. The quartet combined for the four-hit shutout, striking out nine without a walk.

*This game was originally scheduled for last Wednesday but was postponed because of inclement weather. It was an intriguing decision to reschedule it, knowing OU needs to be back on the road this weekend. But Brito said following the game the goal for the team is to continue to grow the game of softball. A sold out, standing-room-only crowd is another indicator of just how popular this team is.

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