OKLAHOMA CITY - Powerhouse No. 2 Oklahoma City (36-4, 18-2 SAC) found their rhythm Tuesday afternoon against the Texas Wesleyan Lady Rams (15-23, 10-12 SAC) in 6-2 and 9-1 wins in Game 1 and Game 2, respectively.
The Lady Rams snapped an impressive streak of eight straight games and 63 innings without an error in the losses but still earned nine hits on the day and even took the first lead of the doubleheader on
Hailey Hollingsworth's double down the left-field line in the top of the first, bringing home
Lacy Mann and
Jenna Rhoades, who got on base thanks to a pair of walks - both on full counts.
Mann and
Taylor Sutton found most of the success at the plate in the first battle. Mann went 2-for-2 while Sutton started the day 2-for-3. Four different players had hits in the second contest, including
Bailey Terry's double down the left-field line to score
Savannah Brixey, but the run couldn't force a sixth inning in a shortened game.
Kaitlyn Johnson, Terry and Brixey all earned doubles against the Stars' pitching in Game 2, but the Lady Rams left eight on base making the game seem farther out of reach in the box score than it really was. Texas Wesleyan's defense left 11 runners stranded in Game 1 with
Makenna Aycock on the mound - at least one in every inning. OCU had bases loaded in the fifth before flying out to Hollingsowrth in center field.
STARS OF THE SEASON
Aycock has been a trooper on the mound, pitching 131.2 innings, 9th most in the country. Aycock pitched 137.1 innings in 2018. The record for innings pitched in a season is Gina Gotcher's 202.0 in 1995. There's 14 games left in the regular season.Â
Terry has seven home runs in 2019, good for 29th in the NAIA.
Sutton is the only Lady Ram that has played and started in all 38 games this year. It would be the third campaign in a row the program has at least one player compete with a clean bill of health the duration. She would become the fourth different player to do so during that stretch. She leads a team ranked 22nd in the country in triples with three of her own.
WHAT'S NEXT
Only three teams have beaten Oklahoma City at home in the last five years, it was a Herculean task. The Lady Rams will see a different side to the conference when the road trip continues in Muskogee with the Bacone Warriors, who TXWES easily was able to take in five frames each of the first two games of the season series. That doubleheader will start April 12 at 2 p.m.
