Oklahoma
OU Softball: Oklahoma Rides Fast Start to Open Series With Win Over UCF
Oklahoma began its final Big 12 road trip with a bang.
Patty Gasso’s team plated five runs in the first inning, complete with a two-RBI single from Kasidi Pickering and a two-run bomb from Alyssa Brito to set the tone for a steady win in the series opener.
The No. 2-ranked Sooners went on to beat UCF 10-2 at the UCF Softball Complex on Friday.
OU (43-4. 19-3 Big 12) maintained its lead atop the conference with the win over the Knights (28-19, 10-12).
UCF helped the Sooners out immediately.
Jayda Coleman beat out a throw for an infield single and Ella Parker reached on an error, putting immediate pressure on Kaitlyn Felton.
The Knights’ starting pitcher didn’t help herself out, as she walked Tiare Jennings to load the bases with no outs.
Kinzie Hansen broke the deadlock with an RBI-single, but Ella Parker was thrown out at home to make the first out of the game.
Had Gasso kept Parker on third, she would have likely come home anyways.
Pickering singled through the left side and Brito hammered a full-count delivery to left field, putting OU up 5-0 and ending Felton’s first stint of the evening after just six batters.
Alynah Torres and Cydney Sanders both walked with one out, but OU was able to further the damage after Rylie Boone struck out and Coleman bounced out to second base.
After building the lead, Oklahoma stayed aggressive and attacked pitches early in at-bats, which produced mixed results in the second inning.
OU was able to load the bases with one out, but couldn’t bring any runs across.
Coleman added to the lead in the third, however.
The senior centerfielder stepped in and belted her 11th home run of the season, an opposite field bomb with two outs that put the Sooners up 6-0.
Kelly Maxwell finally had to work around traffic on the basepaths in the bottom of the third inning.
With Stormy Kotzelnick already on first, UCF third baseman Sierra Humphreys dropped a single into shallow-left field, but Boone was unable to corral the ball off the bounce, allowing the runners to move up to second and third.
Only working with one out, Maxwell then made a nice play herself.
Jada Cody slapped the ball back up the middle, which Maxwell gloved and shuttled over to first for the second out of the inning, then Maxwell trusted her defense and induced a ground ball from Chloe Evans to get out of the inning.
UCF went back to Felton in the circle to start the fourth inning, which was the Knights’ fifth pitching change of the game.
Both Felton and reliever Sona Halajian re-entered the game as UCF coach Cindy Ball-Malone never let OU’s offense get all the way through the lineup with the same pitcher.
Felton frustrated Oklahoma upon her return, holding the Sooners off the board as the Knights tried to get into the game.
A snafu in the field gave UCF a change to get on the board in the bottom of the fifth.
Cody singled to center with two outs, but instead of simply getting the ball back into the infield, Coleman fired down to first base.
Parker, who had been inserted into the defensive lineup at first in favor of the always steady Sanders, wasn’t ready for Coleman’s throw. The ball rolled into foul territory and allowed Cody to take second base on the throwing error.
Maxwell looked unbothered, firing two straight strikes to Evans, but the UCF right fielder battled admirably.
She didn’t allow Maxwell to coax her into a bad swing, and after taking three balls and fouling off three pitches, Evans doubled into the corner in right field to cut OU’s lead to 6-1.
Maxwell then issued a four-pitch walk, but struck out Shannon Doherty to end the inning.
Oklahoma dialed back in on Felton in the seventh.
It took just five total pitches for OU to load the bases. Hansen, Pickering and Brito all smoked singles through gaps and into the outfield.
The situation prompted another pitching change, as this time UCF called upon its fourth pitcher of the night in Ava Justman, ending Felton’s Friday.
Avery Hodge was undeterred by the change, as she drew a walk to extend the lead back out to six runs.
Boone poked her first hit of the day through the right side, narrowly missing Hodge, to put the Sooners up 8-1, and Coleman’s second walk of the day added to the advantage again.
Oklahoma’s last run of the inning scored when Parker hit into a fielder’s choice, capping off the four-run frame.
Up 10-1, Gasso left Maxwell in to record the first out of the seventh before turning to Karlie Keeney.
Maxwell allowed eight hits and two walks, but struck out five and crucially limited the Knights to the lone run in 6 1/3 innings.
Keeney swiftly notched the second out of the seventh, but she left her 1-2 delivery hanging and Evans pounced, clobbering a solo home run. UCF drew another walk off Keeney before she closed out the win.
The Sooners have a chance to notch the series victory on Saturday at 1 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Oklahoma’s chief school officer and Trump administration education secretary hopeful is now demanding that students in the state watch a video of him praying for Donald Trump.
In an email circulated to Oklahoma public school superintendents last week, Ryan Walters ordered them to play the video to “all kids that are enrolled” in their districts as well as to the students’ parents.
Walters wrote that it was “a dangerous time for this country” and that students “rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are continuously under assault,” the Oklahoman reported.
In the bizarre video, Walters announced a new office in the state called “the Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism.”
“For too long in this country we’ve seen the radical left attack individuals’ religious liberty in our schools. We will not tolerate that in Oklahoma. Your religious Liberties will be protected,” Walters said, before bowing his head in a prayer for Trump.
“I pray for our leaders to make the right decisions. I pray in particular for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country,” he said.
When grilled by CNN’s Pam Brown about what gives him the authority to demand schools play the video to their students, Walters accused Brown of pushing a “left-wing narrative” and maintained that Trump “has a clear mandate.”
“He wants prayer back in school. He wants radical leftism out of the classroom. He wants our kids to be patriotic,” he said. “He wants parents back in charge with school choice. We’re enacting upon that agenda here in Oklahoma.”
Several school districts in Oklahoma said they have no intention of showing the video, the Oklahoman reported.
The office of the state’s Republican attorney general, Genter Drummond, also weighed in and said that Walters cannot mandate schools to play the video.
“There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video,” Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, told the newspaper.
“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights.”
Walters, who ordered schools to incorporate the Bible into classrooms and backs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s pledge to scrap the federal Department of Education, is thought to currently be in the running to be named Trump’s new education secretary.
In June, he notified all Oklahoma state schools to “immediately” incorporate the Bible into classroom curriculum, drawing immediate outrage and threats of lawsuits.
“Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum” in grades five through 12, according to the notice from the Republican school superintendent.
“The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments,” the notice reads.
At a press conference at the time, Walters said that every school in the state “will have a Bible in the classroom,” and that every teacher “will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.”
The move, which led to him being sued by more than 30 educators and parents, propeled him into the national spotlight.
Officers said Xavion Paggett went to the BOK near 71st and Sheridan to cash a check, but he pulled out a gun and demanded money.
Monday, November 18th 2024, 9:57 pm
By:
News On 6
TULSA, Okla. –
A man was arrested on Thursday after police say he pointed a gun at a bank teller and demanded cash.
Officers say Xavion Paggett went to the Bank of Oklahoma near 71st and Sheridan earlier in November to cash a check.
Instead, authorities said he pulled out a gun, pointed it at the clerk and demanded money. Investigators say Paggett ran off without the money when another employee showed up.
He’s charged with attempted robbery. His bond was set at $250,000.
In an Oklahoma’s Own Originals special, watch “75 on 6” at 7 p.m.
Click here to watch it on News On 6 NOW.
It’s a celebration of the role KOTV News On 6 has played in the community since 1949, keeping Oklahomans safe, informed, and entertained.
You’ll see plenty of familiar faces, and perhaps a few you haven’t seen in a long while.
The special can be seen on News On 6 as well as the News On 6 website, news app, and streaming apps for Roku, Amazon Fire stick and Apple TV.
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