Oklahoma
OU Softball: Oklahoma Walks Off Arkansas to Complete Furious Rally, Reach SEC Championship
Oklahoma was down, but Patty Gasso’s Sooners are never out.
After falling behind 5-seeded Arkansas 6-1 in the third inning of Friday’s SEC Tournament semifinal, the top-seeded Sooners got to work.
Ella Parker homered in the third, freshman Sydney Barker capped off her two-home run day with a solo shot in the fourth, and catcher Isabela Emerling followed her up withe a bomb of her own to pull OU within two.
Ailana Agbayani made it a one-run game with another solo shot in the sixth, and the top of Oklahoma’s order had a chance to complete the comeback in the bottom of the seventh.
Freshman Gabbie Garcia finished the job.
She crushed a three-run shot, OU’s sixth of the game, to walk it off and send the Sooners to the SEC Championship with an 8-6 win over Arkansas in Athens, GA.
WALK OFF WIN AFTER A 5 RUN DEFICIT 🤯#NCAASoftball x 🎥 ESPN2 / @SEC / @OU_Softball pic.twitter.com/yfg0Wx2BwY
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 9, 2025
The six bombs set an SEC Tournament record for home runs in a game by a team. It was also the largest deficit overcome in tournament history.
Gasso provided the spark for the Sooners.
OU came to the dugout trailing by five runs in the middle of the third, and the legendary coach ripped into her squad.
“Even when we’re down, we’re never out. That’s the message,” Gasso told the broadcast on ESPN2. “… One big hit can get us right back in it.”
Parker responded with the solo shot to cut it to 6-2 after three, and the Sooners continued to chip away.
“Honestly I just give it all up to God, give it all up to my team,” Garcia said after the win. “… That was all them honestly … I have an army behind me.”
The Sooners will take on the winner of No. 2-seed Texas A&M and 3-seeded Texas in the SEC Championship on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN.
Left-hander Kierston Deal got the start in the circle for OU, and Oklahoma quickly found itself in the hole.
She allowed a single and a walk in the first two batters. Deal did get Arkansas star Bri Ellis to pop out, but another walk loaded the bases and Kailey Wycoff’s single put the Razorbacks on top 1-0.
In the next at-bat, Ella McDowell doubled the lead with a sacrifice fly, but Deal got Kennedy Miller to fly out to limit the first inning damage to just two runs.
Deal’s outing wouldn’t last much longer.
She allowed a one-out double off the top of the wall in the second, and after a ground out moved the runner to third, Gasso switched the lefty out for Isabella Smith.
Smith battled Raigan Kramer, inducing a slow-roller in the infield, but Agbayani was unable to get to the ball fast enough at second base to get the out at first and OU fell behind 3-0 after the Razorbacks’ first two trips to the plate.
Barker, another true freshman, got the Sooners on the board with a two-out solo shot in the second, but the excitement was short lived as another Arkansas walk was turned into a run in the third.
Smith issued a free pass to Courtney Day to start the frame, then Wycoff belted a homer to right field to extend the Razorback lead out to 5-1.
Another run came in when a pitch got past Emerling behind the plate with McDowell on third, and Gasso again made a change to bring Paytn Monticelli in for Smith.
Monticelli allowed a walk, but got a pair of fly outs to head to the bottom of the third down 6-1.
Gasso was shown on the ESPN2 broadcast ripping into her team before the bottom of the third, and Parker heard the message loud and clear.
She homered in the bottom of the inning to cut the Arkansas advantage to 6-2.
“I think it’s just a really relaxed environment,” Garcia said of the meeting after the game. “Telling us no matter how big the lead is, trust our bats, trust our skills and that we’re going to get back into it just one thing at a time.”
Monticelli kept the Razorbacks off the board for the first time in the fourth, which allowed OU’s offense to claw back into the game.
Cydney Sanders led off the frame with a single, then Arkansas turned a double play that proved to be crucial.
Barker crushed her second homer of the day right after the double play, and she was followed by another solo bomb from Emerling to cut the deficit to 6-4 with three innings to play.
She’s got bark & bite 😤@SydBarker2024 | ℹ️https://t.co/Th2U6csrhI pic.twitter.com/Evpb7XHeWF
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) May 9, 2025
The Sooners put runners on the corners in the fifth with one out, prompting Arkansas to bring in ace pitcher Robyn Herron.
The talented lefty struck out Garcia, then got a fantastic diving play from McDowell at third to rob Sanders of an RBI single and keep the Razorbacks’ two-run lead intact heading into the sixth.
Agbayani hit the Sooners’ fifth solo shot of the day in the sixth, which set the SEC Tournament record for home runs in a single game, and Kasidi Pickering started things off for the Sooners in the bottom of the seventh with the tournament’s top seed trailing 6-5.
AA bringing the energy 🔋
Homer number five on the day for the Sooners! pic.twitter.com/cg1qMWJr5w
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) May 9, 2025
OU put a pair in scoring position for Garcia — Parker hit into a fielder’s choice and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas doubled to the wall in right-center — and the freshman shortstop crushed a no-doubter to compete the comeback.
Freshman left-hander Audrey Lowry took over for Monticelli in the fifth, and the victory wouldn’t have been possible without her steady hand. She retired all nine batters she faced, striking out three Razorbacks.
Crucially, Sam Landry never had to come out of the bullpen, so the OU ace will be ready to battle the Aggies or the Longhorns on Saturday.
Oklahoma
Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma
Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.
Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.
News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.
“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.
Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.
He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.
He has concerns about what comes next.
“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.
The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.
“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.
Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.
Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.
A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal
Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.
Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.
At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.
However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.
Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.
Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.
Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.
Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma man doing target practice in back yard charged in fatal shooting of neighbor
A man in Oklahoma is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly shot a woman several blocks from his home while firing a gun he got himself for Christmas at an energy drink can in his back yard.
As told in court documents reviewed by NBC News, the death of Sandra Phelps at the hands of Cody Wayne Adams illustrates how deadly the consequences can be when those engaging in the US’s prevalent gun culture do so unsafely. Adams’s back yard was not equipped to stop bullets from leaving the property and striking unsuspecting people in the surrounding area, according to authorities.
Phelps was sitting under a covered porch with family on Christmas and holding a child in her arms when they heard gunshots north of the house, said an affidavit laying out the circumstances of Adams’s arrest.
“Sandra commented that someone got a new gun for Christmas and then shortly after Sandra said ‘ouch’ and collapsed,” the affidavit said. It said there were no more gunshots after that.
Emergency personnel were dispatched to Phelps’s address at about 3.15pm Thursday, the Stephens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“We later received a call stating an individual had just received a gun for Christmas and was target practicing in his backyard and that they believed it would be pointing in the direction of the scene,” the sheriff’s office statement added.
“Investigators went to the reported address and spoke with an individual [who] confirmed he was shooting a target in his back yard and that he had heard that someone has died from a gunshot wound a couple of roads over.”
That individual was Adams, 33, who showed deputies a Red Bull can in his back yard that he had been shooting with his handgun, according to the affidavit justifying his arrest.
Authorities allegedly concluded that the vantage point from where Adams was shooting aligned with the angle of the bullet that killed Phelps. They also determined the home lacked a suitable shooting backstop meant to protect those in the surrounding area from being struck by stray bullets.
“Adams became visibly upset and began to cry” when he learned of Phelps, the affidavit added. He was arrested on a count of first-degree manslaughter and later released on a $100,000 bond.
In the US, unintentional deaths from firearms are a small percentage of gun deaths in the country. But they occur four times more often in the US than in comparable countries – and most involve a handgun.
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