Ricketts Leads No. 5 Sooners To Rout Of North Texas

Once again, Oklahoma's Keilani Ricketts was instrumental in helping the Sooners to victory this time in a 9-4 win over North Texas.

Ricketts started with three straight strikeouts when she entered in the fifth inning and rounded out her impressive night with a two-run homerun in the sixth to seal the Sooners victory.

The Mean Green got on the scoreboard first in the top of the second with an unearned run against OU starter Michelle Gascoigne.

Oklahoma responded with three runs in the bottom of the second. The first came off Georgia Casey's single up the middle that plated pinch runner Callie Parsons. Brianna Turanq followed with another single to score Brittany Williams. The third run was scored off an error by North Texas that resulted in an unearned run and increased the Sooners lead to 3-1.

North Texas tied the game in the fourth thanks to two solo home runs to left center by Lisa Johnson and Ashley McCarroll.

OU regained the lead in the bottom of that frame off a sacrifice fly by Lauren Chamberlain that plated Jessica Vest from third for the 4-3 advantage.

Keilani Ricketts entered the circle in the fifth for OU and made an immediate impact striking out three-straight Mean Green batters in the top of the frame. Ricketts also started the scoring for the Sooners with a leadoff single up the middle. Katie Norris' single later scored Casey and Ricketts making it 6-3 before Javen Henson's groundout scored Erica Sampson for a 7-3 score.

Two insurance runs were added for OU in the bottom of the sixth when Ricketts blasted a two run homerun to right center for a 9-3 lead.

North Texas managed one run in the seventh as Jordan Terry connected on a long ball solo home run but that was all the Mean Green could manage in its 9-4 loss.

Keilani Ricketts picked up the win in 3.2 innings of relief allowing one hit and six strikeouts in 12 batters faced.

NSU's Brittany Simmons is credited with the loss after pitching three innings allowing four hits.

The Sooners return to action for a three-game series against Missouri starting Friday at 7 p.m. in Norman.