• Dickenson, Ogden homer in third Big 12 win
Transcript Staff
AUSTIN, Texas — No more Cat Osterman, no more problems for Oklahoma against the Texas Longhorns.
Texas’ superstar hurler graduated last year after four seasons of domination over the Sooners.
What a difference a year makes.
The last time OU and Texas met, Osterman no-hit the Sooners at Marita Hynes Field. Saturday, it went the other way in a 7-0 OU victory that improved the No. 3 Sooners to 36-2 on the season and 3-0 in Big 12 play.
While Lauren Eckermann didn’t no-hit the Longhorns, she improved her record to 21-0 while allowing four hits in the complete game.
It was Eckermann’s eighth shutout of the year, and her earned run average improved to 1.28.
“Lauren did a good job of establishing a good mound presence early in the game,” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “She was ahead of hitters the whole game and never really allowed them to threaten.”
The Longhorns, ranked No. 10, couldn’t stop the OU hitters.
The Sooners combined for 11 hits and got home runs from Traci Dickenson and Susan Ogden.
The duo combined for five of OU’s hits and six RBIs.
Norrelle Dickson and Mariee Mena each added two hits.
Dickson moved within one hit of Kristin Vesely for the Sooner career record.
“I really liked how Norrelle came out and set the tone for us offensively in the first inning,” Gasso said. “We needed to do a better job executing in the first couple innings, but Traci Dickenson’s home run to give us the lead allowed us to exhale a little.
“It was new for some of our younger ones to play in front of a big crowd like there was today, but we settled down and got the job done. Mariee, Norrelle, Susan and Traci were all very clutch for us today.”
The Longhorns (24-7, 0-1 Big 12) sent three pitchers to the circle to try to slow down the OU bats.
But it didn’t work, and Texas ace Meagan Denny ended up taking the loss after 41?3 innings, falling to 15-6 on the season.
The Sooners go for the series sweep in Austin today at noon.
