GOODWELL, Okla. — The Oklahoma Panhandle State softball team (7-35, 5-23 SAC) outscored Langston (12-20, 7-19) 18-2 in a pair of run-rule victories Monday, earning a series split and snapping a 21-game losing streak with their most complete performances of the season.
The hot bats from Sunday's series opener carried over in 10-2 and 8-0 wins, while things on the pitching and defensive side for OPSU flipped a switch as the Aggies turned in two dominant showings.
Game 1: OPSU held the Lions scoreless in the top of the first despite a double and the Aggies' lone error of the day. LU took a 1-0 lead in the second, however, following consecutive base hits.
Three straight hits – a single from starting pitcher
Marin Jacobs and doubles from
Gracie Lankford and
Flora Moreno – gave Panhandle a 2-1 edge through two frames. Lankford's double was the hometown junior's 100th career hit.
As Jacobs settled in inside the circle, she helped herself out with an RBI single in the third that made it 3-1, OPSU. The hosts tacked on with a four-run fourth inning, highlighted by five singles and aggressive baserunning. Then in the fifth,
Summer Marron tacked on an RBI double that brought the score to 8-1.
The Lions extended the game by getting out of the fifth-inning jam and, conversely, plating one in the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth frame, however,
Mia Cavallini and Jacobs both singled, Lankford got a run home on a sacrifice bunt, and
Cassidy Stanhope ended things with a sharply hit walk-off single through the left side as OPSU won, 10-2.
Jacobs (5-15) threw a complete game and picked up three strikeouts, all while notching her second career 4-for-4 game at the plate with the Aggies.
Stanhope was also strong at the dish, going 3-for-3 with a walk, and Moreno and Cavallini each collected two hits. OPSU's 15 base knocks tied its season best from Sunday, and the Aggies' 10 RBIs represented a standalone season high.
Game 2: OPSU made play after play behind starting pitcher
Jordan Johnson in the finale, leading to a 12-up, 12-down defensive start for Johnson and the Aggies.
A base hit and walk in the fifth spelled the end for Johnson (2-14), but she earned the win following four-plus masterful innings of work, in which the Elgin, Oklahoma, native allowed just one hit and one walk with no runs.
Jacobs got out of the mini jam in that top of the fifth inning, preserving the combined shutout and securing the run-rule win.
Offensively, Jacobs stayed hot by getting the Aggies on the board with an RBI double that plated Leach in the first.
Panhandle State expanded its lead to 5-0 in the second inning, as Marron,
Aaliyah Dang-Gutierrez, Leach and Jacobs drove in runs. Jacobs' hit brought the junior to a combined 6-for-6 at the plate on the day, raising her season-long batting average to a team-best .327.
The Aggies' final three runs came in the fourth inning on an RBI double from Stanhope and a two-run single off the bat of Moreno.
Marron and Moreno were both 3-for-3 in the nightcap, while Leach and Jacobs had two hits apiece.
What's up next: OPSU looks to carry momentum over to Friday when it begins a series at Mid-America Christian University (17-20, 15-13), starting at 4:30 p.m.
