Sooner Softball Rallies to Top Texas A&M
NORMAN, Okla -- Erin Miller hit a two-run walk-off homer over the right field fence in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Oklahoma Sooners a come-from-behind 7-5 win over Texas A&M Saturday, sending the Sooners into Sunday's Regional final. It was Miller's eighth homer of the season and certainly one to remember.
Who the Sooners will play in the Regional final will be determined later Saturday with Lehigh facing Central Arkansas following this game and Texas A&M facing that winner in the evening, with the winner facing Oklahoma Sunday. For a while it looked the Sooners would be the team in the loser's bracket. The Sooners fell behind 1-0, then took the lead 2-1 before A&M scored three times in the second inning and once in the third to take a 5-2 lead. OU cut the deficit to two on Lauren Chamberlain's solo homer in the third inning over right center. It was her 20th homer of the season and the 92nd of her outstanding career. It was the 15th homer she has hit to right center in her career.
Now trailing 5-3, OU cut the deficit to one as Georgia Casey hit a solo homer over left field with one out. It was Casey's third homer of the season and came off A&M starter Rachel Fox, who hurled six innings, allowing six hits. She was replaced by Katie Marks, (13-3), who hurled the seventh inning and had a 5-4 lead entering the seventh. But OU had the hitters up in the seventh they wanted with Nicole Pendley, Lauren Chamberlain and Shelby Pendley. Nicole walked to open the inning before Marks got Chamberlain to fly out to right field.
Shelby then hit a single to center with the center fielder Erica Russell coming up with the ball. She threw to third in an attempt to get Nicole. But the ball bounced off third baseman's Tori Vidales' glove and into the OU dugout, allowing Nicole to score easily on the dead ball. OU winning pitcher Paige Parker fanned for the second out, setting the stage for Miller, who hit the ball just inside the right field foul ball to give OU its 12th consecutive win in Regional competition. The loss evens A&M's record at 1-1 in the regional and 39-19 overall after finishing eighth in the SEC.
Parker, who allowed a career-high five earned runs, started off the game off on the wrong foot when Vidales hit the first pitch of the game over the fence for her 19th homer of the season for an early 1-0 A&M lead. The ball she hit was a curve up in the strike zone and went over the left field fence.
Vidales, only a freshman, was impressive as she hit a two-run double in Texas A&M’s second inning. The other run in the inning came on Kristen Cuyos' one-out homer over the center field fence. It was her 10th homer
of the season. The Aggies scored their fifth and final run in the third inning on a solo homer by first baseman Brenna Dozier to right center field, her eighth of the season. Vildales also had a single in her third at-bat and finished day three-for-four to lead the losers. Parker settled down the remainder of the game and didn't allow any hits or runs and only one walk in getting her 26th win of the season and second in the regional.
This is the third consecutive year OU and A&M have met in postseason action. Last year OU beat the Aggies twice to win the regional title including winning a come-from-behind win in the first game with three runs in the seventh and two years ago swept the Aggies to capture the Super Regional. The Sooners are 5-0 in the postseason the last three years against A&M.
