Kendall Wells hits home run No. 37 in 'efficient' OU victory to begin Norman Regional

A week of stewing, a week of frustration for OU softball – it was time to let it out. The Sooners had already done the damage when freshman Kendall Wells delivered the final blow.

A memorable one at that. Wells ended her home run drought with a mammoth 289-foot home run in the bottom of the fourth.

The SEC Tournament is long gone, no more talking about the loss to Georgia. Let’s move on. OU did just that in a dominating, efficient 11-0 run-rule (5 innings) victory against Binghamton on Friday afternoon at Love’s Field in the Norman Regional.

“Yes, absolutely,” head coach Patty Gasso told SoonerScoop. “I felt — I told the team, it felt like practice. And we’ve been doing a lot of situations and runners on base and trying to move them and setting up scores, calling out different scores, things like that and they answered. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It was almost to perfection.” 

OU was up 9-0 in the bottom of the fourth with Wells ahead in the count, 2-0. She was given a pitch to hit, and Wells simply did not miss. Not at all.

Wells’ bomb, No. 37 of her season, was one of four home runs for the Sooners. Three of them were two-run shots as OU made its hits count.

“I think the most encouraging thing was definitely just being able to pass the bat, focusing on one pitch at a time,” senior Ailana Agbayani said. “Even though if anyone got behind in the count, you wouldn’t even know by their body language. You could tell that everyone was focused every single pitch and just being present.”

Junior Kasidi Pickering got it started with a two-run home run in a four-run first inning. Then the Sooners went back-to-back in the second inning. A two-run shot by freshman Kai Minor, followed by a solo shot from Ella Parker.

Agbayani added a two-run single in the third before Wells punctuated the offensive explosion with her towering blast to dead center.

From there? It was about being smart with the pitching. Gasso elected to go with ace Audrey Lowry to begin things. Lowry was efficient in her two innings of work. It was freshman Berkley Zache for the next two frames before freshman Allyssa Parker closed the show in the fifth.

Just as it was offensively, an efficient day in the circle for the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament.

“Really important,” Gasso said. “We always have used our best pitcher to start a regional just because you don’t know what’s on the other side. So once you get a feel for it you can make some changes and Audrey came in as a professional.

“She was very prepared, very focused. Did a great job with her little nugget of pitching and bringing in Zache was important because I think she’s got some tools that can really help us. It’s really starting to move for her now. And Allyssa Parker is just an athlete, and she showed that in her last play. So really happy with the pitching staff really.”

Up next

OU (49-8), after all, will face the winner of Kansas-Michigan in a winner’s bracket battle at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Jayhawks are the No. 2 seed, while the Wolverines were the last team to make the 64-team field.