Oklahoma earns SEC championship with Saturday sweep of the Aggies
· Yahoo Sports
The Oklahoma Sooners secured their second straight regular-season SEC championship on Saturday, sweeping their doubleheader with the Texas A&M Aggies.
Oklahoma won game one playing small ball in the fourth inning, breaking a scoreless tie on Kasidi Pickering's RBI single. Pickering's RBI came after the Aggies opted to walk NCAA home run leader Kendall Wells with a runner on first. After Pickering's single put runners on the corners, Abby Dayton brought Wells in on a squeeze play where Wells just beat the throw at the plate with a perfect slide.
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Freshman Lexi McDaniel came through with a pinch-hit RBI single to give the Sooners a 3-0 lead.
Miali Guachino was good through four innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up back-to-back home runs to surrender three runs and the lead. Audrey Lowry came in and recorded the final two outs of the inning and threw a total of 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to earn the win.
Kai Minor was clutch in the sixth, coming up with an RBI triple to give Oklahoma a one-run lead, and Lowry made it hold up for the first win of the day.
Lowry moved to 22-2 with the relief appearance win. Oklahoma's offense had just five hits but recorded six walks in the game.
In game two, Sydney Berzon got the ball for the Sooners and was staked to a 4-0 lead right out of the gate when Kai Minor hit a lead-off home run to open the game, and Kasidi Pickering hit a three-run home run with two outs in the inning.
Berzon allowed just two hits in five innings of work, didn't walk a batter, and recorded five strikeouts.
The Sooners added to their lead in the fifth inning, taking advantage of an Aggies error to score a run. In the sixth, Ella Parker hit her 21st home run of the season to give Oklahoma a 6-0 lead.
With a big lead, Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso opted to give freshman Allyssa Parker an opportunity to get some innings in a big-time environment. She recorded a 1-2-3 sixth inning but only recorded one out before allowing an RBI single and a three-run home run to let Texas A&M back in the game.
Lowry came in got the next two batters out to close out the game, earn the save, and clinch the SEC regular season championship.
The Sooners now go into the SEC tournament with the No. 1 seed. They'll play their first game on Thursday evening, the final game of the day, and will play the winner of LSU vs. Georgia in the 8-9 game. Oklahoma earned a series win in Baton Rouge over LSU and swept Georgia last weekend.
With the regular season SEC title secured, the Sooners will have a good opportunity to earn the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Sydney Berzon, Kasidi Pickering lead Oklahoma to doubleheader sweep