STILLWATER — Homecomings don’t often get better than this.
Oklahoma freshman Katie Norris, a Stillwater native, returned home Thursday carrying a big bat.
The Sooner designated player went 2-for-3 with an RBI single and grand slam to lead OU to a 6-0 victory over Oklahoma State at Cowgirl Stadium.
“I don’t even know what to say right now,” Norris said. “I’m so excited.”
The former Pioneer grew up in the shadow of Boone Pickens Stadium. She cheered on the Cowgirls growing up, and her dad owns the biggest spirit shop in town, Chris’ University Spirit, in downtown Stillwater.
Her mom, Julie, came dressed in neutral black Thursday, but dad Chris came in Sooner Crimson, showing a little family solidarity in the middle of Cowgirl nation.
“People think my family’s angry at me, but they’re not,” Katie Norris said. “They don’t care. They’re happy for me.”
It was quite a time to have the biggest night of her young college career. Norris admitted to a little intimidation when she saw all the orange and black at Cowgirl Stadium, but she was ready to go in her first at-bat, driving in Amber Flores for the game’s first score with two out in the top of the first.
“I saw all the orange … It was an emotion I’d never felt before,” Norris said. “In Norman, it was OK. It overwhelmed me a little more than I thought it would here, but I think that helped me play with more emotion.”
Samantha Ricketts added an RBI single in the fifth inning, and Sooner starter D.J. Mathis did her job shutting down the Cowgirl bats.
Mathis held OSU hitless through four innings, then got out of a jam in the bottom of the fifth and OU was in control going into the final frame.
That’s when Norris struck her biggest blow, a line drive that didn’t look like it would leave the park until it snuck over the left-field fence for the freshman’s first career grand slam.
“I didn’t think it was going out,” Norris admitted. “Then I saw coach (Melyssa) Lombardi cheering, and I knew.”
Norris’ coach might have been as happy as she was after the game.
“It was fun to watch that,” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “It can be really scary for her to be in such a big arena. But she was very cool and calm and handled herself very well.”
Mathis picked up her 16th victory of the season, allowing two hits and striking out five in the complete-game victory.
Now the Sooners (38-13, 14-4) turn their attention to the Big 12 tournament, where they’ll be the No. 1 seed beginning May 9.
OU came into Thursday’s game needing a victory to avoid a shared regular-season conference championship with Missouri. The Sooners held the tiebreaker having swept the Tigers last weekend and had already wrapped up the tournament’s No. 1 seed.
“Now we’re outright Big 12 champs,” Norris said. “No matter what Missouri goes on to do, the trophy’s ours, the rings are ours, and we’re taking all this momentum with us into (the postseason).”
Though it was a team effort Thursday night, the game, and the moment, belonged to Norris, who was immediately congratulated by friends and family after the game.
“It’s something none of us are going to forget,” Gasso said. “You can’t write it any better than that.”
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