By Jeff Johncox
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma hadn’t won any kind of conference title, regular season or tournament, since 2001, when the Sooners grabbed both.
Well, the wait is over.
Second-ranked OU ended Texas Tech’s Cinderella run through the Big 12 tournament Saturday with a 6-3 victory at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Sooners, none of whom were around the last time a conference trophy made its way back to the OU softball complex, raided the field, celebrating and posing for pictures after the victory.
“It was huge for them to come out and do this, win this tournament,” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “That’s why there’s this kind of celebration. They’ve been waiting for this for so long.
“We’ve been so close so many times. We’ve been second and runner-up, and it was just time to stop being the bridesmaid and grab that ring for ourselves.”
The eighth-seeded Red Raiders, who knocked off top-seeded Baylor in extra innings Friday night and fourth-seeded Texas earlier Saturday, made things interesting again in the championship game.
Texas Tech loaded the bases with no outs on OU reliever D.J. Mathis in the sixth inning, but starter Lauren Eckermann returned to the game and got out of trouble, allowing just one run to cross the plate.
But in the seventh inning, a couple of quirky singles helped load the bases again with one out.
Gasso visited Eckermann in the circle. Then Heather Parker popped it up down the first base line and Samantha Ricketts made a diving catch for the second out of the inning. Leah Leglar then sent one down the left-field line and it hung up enough for Amber Flores to make a diving catch in foul territory for the final out.
“You just have to stay in the game, stay in that mindframe and don’t think like ‘I’m out of the game so I can relax,’” Eckermann said. “You can’t let (the bases being loaded) get to you. You have to just bear down. It was great because my teammates in the infield were loud and encouraging me the whole time.”
Eckermann was also named the tournament’s most valuable player, compiling a 3-0 record with a 0.68 earned run average. She struck out 18, walked five and allowed 12 hits in 202⁄3 innings.
Eckermann allowed one earned run on nine hits while striking out eight in 62⁄3 innings in the championship game.
“It’s amazing, it really is,” Eckermann said of her MVP award. “It’s really great to come in and play well, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. They really came through in some big situations.”
Along with Eckermann, the Sooners’ Norrelle Dickson, Savannah Long and Lindsey Vandever were named to the all-tournament team.
OU and Texas Tech each scored once in the first inning, but the Sooners scored three more in the second and two more in the third.
Dickson was 2-for-4 while Samantha Ricketts was 2-for-3. Traci Dickenson had the big hit for OU, belting three-run homer to put the Sooners up 4-1.
In the day’s first game, a 7-1 semifinal victory over third-seeded Missouri, Vandever led the way, going 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs and a home run.
OU came into the conference tournament without much of a sense of urgency. Even losing in the first round would have had little impact on the Sooners’ postseason position. But OU was the only team in the top five to make it through a conference tournament without a loss this weekend, helping its shot at the No. 1 overall seed when the NCAA Tournament field is announced at 2 p.m. today.
The Sooners will likely be named a regional host, and would then be almost assured of hosting a super regional if they advanced.
“I really think we just secured some things this weekend,” Gasso said. “But they wanted to get that trophy. It meant a lot to them to win this.”
