Sold-out crowd watches No. 1 Sooners beat Wichita State softball

Wednesday provided ideal conditions for a softball game and combined with the No. 1 team in college softball coming to Wilkins Stadium, Wichita State had its first standing room-only crowd of the season.

The Shockers weren’t able to keep up with OU, as it marched to its 32nd consecutive victory with an 8-0 win in five innings Wednesday to improve to 42-2. The loss dropped WSU to 28-21 but did not prevent coach Kristi Bredbenner from feeling good about the evening.

“It’s great to see this many fans supporting the game of softball, whether you’re supporting the Shockers or the Sooners,” Bredbenner said. “There’s a great love for the game of softball here in this community and I wish they would come out and watch us play a little bit more, but we’ve got to build on that. It’s always great to get (OU) to come up here and play us at Wilkins.”

OU ace Mariah Lopez was dominant in the circle, striking out seven Shockers and allowing just two base runners. Jocelyn Alo hit a pair of home runs and Sydney Romero added a third home run, as WSU starter Caitlin Bingham was handed her eighth loss of the season.

While WSU struggled to compete at the plate, it did make a handful of standout plays on defense. Ryleigh Buck made a pair of impressive snags at third base, Laurie Derrico turned a double play and center fielder Wylie Glover chased down a fly ball with a diving save in the outfield.

It’s plays like those that can give WSU (28-21, 9-6 AAC) confidence heading into a crucial American Athletic Conference series at second-place Tulsa (31-15, 12-3) starting at 7 p.m. Friday.

“We just played the No. 1 team in the country, so we really had nothing to lose,” Derrico said. “Nobody is going to be as good as that. So maybe that will give us some confidence knowing we can compete against Tulsa this weekend.”

“It puts it in perspective how good hitters can be and how good pitching can be,” Bredbenner added. “More than anything, the pitching we saw (Wednesday) will help us prepare for Tulsa. We will have to be a little more disciplined. At the end of the day, we lose 8-0, but I don’t feel like we played terrible. You just tip your cap and move on.”

Oklahoma 8, WSU 0

WP: Lopez (15-1). LP: Bingham (13-8). E: WSU, Derrico. LOB: OU 4, WSU 2. 2B: OU, Clifton, Alo. HR: OU, Alo 2, Romero. SH: WSU, Glover. SB: None. CS: None. HBP: None. Umpires: Troy Kuykendall, home; Royce A. Eller, first; Perry Owens, third. T: 1:25. A: 832.

This story was originally published April 24, 2019 at 9:23 PM.