Shults Helps Sooners To Third-Straight Win

The No. 6 ranked Oklahoma softball team won its third-straight game thanks to two home runs by Jessica Shults that propelled the Sooners to a 6-1 win over No. 14 Texas A&M on Friday.

Shults blasted her first home run in the fourth with another in the seventh marking the second time this season she has had two home runs in a game.

The Sooners got on the board in the top of the fourth when Destinee Martinez looped a single to shallow left field then before stole second for her 11th stolen base this season. After back-to-back OU outs, Ricketts smacked a double to right center to score Martinez and give OU a 1-0 lead.

Texas A&M tied things up in the bottom of that frame as Natalie Villarreal led off with a single up the middle. After back-to-back strikeouts from Ricketts, the Aggies managed two hits and scored one run. Cassie Tysarczyk sent a single up the middle to put two A&M runners on before Nicole Morgan roped a single down the left side to score Villarreal and tie the game up.

OU took the lead again when Shults blasted her first home run of the game, a solo shot, to right center making it 2-1.

Oklahoma added four insurance runs in the top of the seventh. With two runners aboard, Martinez reached first on a throwing error from A&M shortstop Taran Tyler that also allowed a runner to sneak home scoring OU's third run of the contest. The error proved to be costly to A&M as after Chamberlain fouled out at the next at bat, Shults sent her second home run of the game over the right center field for the final 6-1 score.

Keilani Ricketts took the win for the Sooners to move to 20-4 on the year as she finished with 12 strikeouts on the night, her 14th double-digit strikeout game of the season. Ricketts gave up five hits without walking a single A&M batter. Mel Dumezich took the loss for the Aggies, falling to 20-9 on the year.

Shults' two home runs tally 46 in her career making her third on the OU career chart for the category and sixth on the Big 12 career home runs chart. Oklahoma finished with seven hits and moved to 31-2 when collecting at least seven hits.

OU is now 34-5 on the season and 10-2 in conference play. The Sooners and Aggies play again on Saturday at 3 p.m. before closing out the series Sunday at 12 p.m.