No. 7/8 Softball falls at No. 1 Oklahoma, 10-2 (5 inn.)

Saturday, April 17

Norman, Okla.

3 p.m. CT

University of Texas

31-5, 6-2

#1 Oklahoma

32-0, 8-0

Texas

Oklahoma

No. 7/8 Softball falls at No. 1 Oklahoma, 10-2 (5 inn.)

04.17.2021 | Softball

Box Score

Junior second baseman Janae Jefferson & senior center fielder Shannon Rhodes each hit HR’s in the loss

NORMAN, Okla. – On Saturday afternoon at Marita Hynes Field, No. 7/8 Texas softball (31-5, 6-2 Big 12 Conference) got solo HR's from junior second baseman Janae Jefferson and senior center fielder Shannon Rhodes, but it wasn't enough as the Longhorns dropped a 10-2 (5 inn.) decision to No. 1 Oklahoma (32-0, 8-0 Big 12 Conference).

Important Notes

Texas has hit 61 HR's through 36 games in 2021. That remains well ahead of the pace of the 2010 Longhorns squad (52 HR's over 36 games) that established the school single-season record of 88 HR's.
Rhodes' HR was her team-leading 14th of the season, moving the Fort Worth, Texas, native within four of tying former Longhorns' standout Taylor Hoagland's 2012 record of 18 HR's. With a HR every 7.6 at-bats this season, Rhodes is ahead of Hoagland's 2012 pace of a HR in every 9.9 AB's.
No Longhorns player has ever hit as many HR's as Rhodes has (14 HR's) over the first 36 games of a season.
Jefferson's HR marked the fifth of both her 2021 season and her two-time All-American career.

Major Players

Jefferson (2-for-2, run, HR, RBI); Rhodes (1-for-3, run, HR, RBI)

In the Circle

Graduate transfer Molly Jacobsen (11-3) suffered the loss after permitting six earned runs on nine hits with a walk and two strikeouts over 3.0 innings. Freshman Courtney Day allowed one earned run on four hits with three walks in 1.2 frames of relief.

The Details

Texas barely missed out on making a huge first-inning breakthrough against the Sooners as the Longhorns loaded the bases with two outs on a Jefferson single to left and walks to both junior left fielder Lauren Burke and sophomore shortstop McKenzie Parker. Sophomore first baseman Colleen Sullivan stepped to the dish facing a massive opportunity and launched a deep fly ball to left. Unfortunately for UT, the park held the blast as OU's Jocelyn Alo caught the drive at the warning track to leave the bags packed.

A Texas fielding error soon came back to hurt the Longhorns in the bottom of the first. With second baseman Tiare Jennings at first on a UT infield miscue, catcher Kinzie Hansen ripped a ball past third for a RBI double to grant the Sooners at 1-0 lead. The OU advantage continued to grow as a Grace Lyons single to deep short, a Jayda Coleman RBI double to left center, a Lynnsie Elam RBI base knock just over a leaping Jefferson at second and a Taylon Snow bunt single boosted the Oklahoma lead to 4-0.

The Longhorns cut their deficit to 4-1 in the top of the third. With one down, Jefferson launched a drive to left center that appeared to bounce off the top of the wall and back into play. The umpires signaled HR, however, as Jefferson completed her fifth home run-trot around the bases of the season.

Oklahoma added two more tallies in the bottom of the third as Elam hit a two-run HR to left to make it 6-1.

Jennings started off the Sooners' half of the fourth with a solo shot to left as the advantage expanded further to 7-1.

Texas pulled one back in the top of the fifth as Rhodes hammered her team-leading 14th HR of the season out to left center to cut the deficit to 7-2. Jefferson followed immediately with a walk, but was called out for leaving the bag early. Burke and Iakopo then drew consecutive free passes to station two aboard with two outs, but the UT threat was snuffed out on a swinging strikeout.

The contest ended at 10-2 in the bottom of the fifth as a Lyons walk-off RBI single wrapped up a three-run Sooner outburst that came courtesy of three hits and a Texas fielding error.