Five Sooners Homer, OU Run-Rules Cyclones 14-1

Five Sooners homered and 13 of 14 OU hitters reached base as the No. 2/1-ranked Oklahoma softball team trounced Iowa State 14-1 on Sunday afternoon at Love's Field, securing a conference-opening weekend sweep.

Oklahoma (22-1, 3-0 Big 12) closed the first weekend of conference play leading the Big 12 standings, a full game ahead of Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and UCF. The Sooners outscored Iowa State 29-3 over the course of the three-game series.

Ella Parker recorded her first collegiate three-hit game in Sunday's win, going 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs. Tiare Jennings (1-for-2, R, HR, 3 RBI), Kinzie Hansen (1-for-2, R, HR, 3 RBI), Cydney Sanders (1-for-1, 3 BB, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI) and Quincee Lilio (1-for-1, R, HR, 3 RBI) each left the yard to lead a lineup that produced 14 hits and drew five walks.



OU's impressive showing at the plate backed a terrific outing from left-hander Kierston Deal. The sophomore extended her scoreless streak to 22.0 innings by covering 3.0 shutout frames of one-hit ball, improving to 5-0 on the season. She struck out four and retired nine of the 11 she faced, permitting just two Cyclone baserunners on a single and a hit-by-pitch.

Tiare Jennings opened the scoring with a three-run homer in the bottom of the first, a shot that marked her 80th collegiate blast and moved her into eighth in the program's career hit leaderboard (266, tied with Kelli Braitsch).

An eight-run Sooner third that featured a three-run Hansen home run, two-run shots by Sanders and Parker and an RBI double off the bat of Kasidi Pickering (2-for-4, R, 2B, RBI) put the game fully out of reach. Lilio tacked on three more with a towering three-run blast in the fourth, providing OU with its decisive 14-1 lead.

Paytn Monticelli retired four of the five she faced, striking out three, before SJ Geurin recorded the final two outs of the fifth.

Sanders' homer punctuated an incredible weekend that saw her homer four times, go 4-for-5 (.800) and drive in nine runs. She also drew five walks, reaching in nine of her 10 trips to the plate during the series sweep. Over the month of March (9 games), Sanders is slashing .600/.750/1.933 for a 2.683 OPS with six home runs, two doubles, a 1:8 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a whopping 15 runs batted in.

Ella Parker batted .714 (5-for-7) over the weekend while scoring a Sooner-high six runs and Jayda Coleman added three extra-base hits in the series as part of a 3-for-5 (.600) set.