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OU softball rides wave of emotions, gets sweep of Texas after blowing eight-run lead

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•about 12 hours•

BPrzybylo

Ella Parker11
OU sophomore Ella Parker. (Nathan J. Fish - Imagn Images)

OU softball head coach Patty Gasso is all about trying to give players opportunities during the regular season because you have to know if you can trust them later.

It almost came back for the ultimate backfire. OU saw an eight-run advantage disappear but managed to stick with it.

The Sooners took down Texas 9-8 in a wild one on Sunday afternoon in front of another record crowd at Love’s Field.

Sunday’s attendance set a single-game record at 4,609 and a series record at 13,734 fans. Almost every single one of them thought they were going home early when OU raced out to an 8-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

Instead, it took a sixth-inning run to finally put the third-ranked Longhorns away. Isabela Emerling with the sacrifice fly with the bases loaded proved to be the game-winning RBI.

Sam Landry, forced to come out of the bullpen, was able to retire the heart of the Texas lineup in the seventh. Landry retired Joley Mitchell for the final out, just like it happened Friday. Senior day victory, brooms out for the sweep.

Texas looked lifeless, down 8-0. The Horns responded by scoring six in the top of the fourth and two in the fifth to tie the game. Texas never led in the series.

Early? Again, looked like an OU blowout.

Ella Parker, for the second game in a row, went deep, like way deep. Her two-run home run with one out in the bottom of the first was a sign of things to come.

Parker’s blast came on the 10th pitch of her appearance against Texas ace Teagan Kavan. Gabbie Garcia saw that and decided to top it. On the 12th pitch of her at bat in the second inning, Garcia hit a three-run shot with two outs.

Texas looked all out of sorts and like it wanted to get back home to Austin. Gasso went with Isabella Smith to start things out. She retired the first nine batters. After allowing a leadoff single in the fourth, everything went bonkers.

Audrey Lowry, Paytn Monticelli had little answers. You could tell Gasso wanted to see if she could not use Sam Landry a second time.

But she had to. Landry didn’t allow a run in getting the final two outs in the fourth. However, Landry did allow the two-run homer in the fifth.

From there? As always, she was the stabilizing force. Landry threw the final 3.2 innings and had five strikeouts. She is now 17-3 this season.

Up next

Time to close out the SEC regular season. Seriously, already. No. 5 OU (42-5 overall, 16-5 SEC) heads to Gainesville for a three-game set at Florida. The series runs from Thursday-Saturday.

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