OU softball: May, Trautwein hold Panthers hitless in regional opener

May 21—Nicole May dominated the circle for four hitless innings to lead Oklahoma to a run-rule win over Prairie View A&M.

The sophomore struck out seven of the 13 batters she faced in the Sooners' opening game of the NCAA Norman Regional on Friday at Marita Hynes Field. The Panthers didn't get their first runner on base until the top of the fourth inning.

May came back and battled through the next at-bat before getting Biviana Figueroa to strike out looking. She didn't return in the fifth, but an eight-run fourth inning was enough to give Oklahoma a 14-0 run-rule win in five innings.

Hope Trautwein pitched the fifth inning and kept the Panthers hitless with a pair of strikeouts to close out the game.

"This young lady, Nicole May, has had the experience, and she carried us along last year," OU head coach Patty Gasso said. "So we feel very confident with her. She's leading this pitching staff."

The Sooners homered three times in the fourth, including a three-run shot by Turiya Coleman. It was a special time for the freshman to come up with her first career home run.

"The offense was just doing what we do best, and just controlling the strike zone and trying to hit the ball hard," Jocelyn Alo said. "It was definitely the highlight of my night to see (Coleman) hit a home run. I teared up when she hit it."

The team quickly raced out of the dugout and surrounded Coleman when she reached home plate. Gasso said it would be easy to think the team had just won the Big 12 championship.

The run didn't give the Sooners a championship, but it brought them one step closer to winning one. Oklahoma will face Texas A&M on Saturday at 1 p.m, with the winner advancing to Sunday's regional final.

"I was really happy with what this team did tonight, kind of set a new standard for ourselves," Gasso said. "Every part of the game was working — pitching, defense and offense. We got to see some freshman, we got to get some people some opportunities. Just all around just very clean. I'm very proud of this group, they did a good job."

Despite the late-game surge, Oklahoma's offense didn't just rely on home runs on Friday. The Sooners offense started to get rolling in the third inning after hitting three straight pop-ups in the bottom of the second.

Gasso said she talked to the team after the inning, and the team came back to hit five singles and score four runs in the fourth to take a 6-0 lead.

"Teams that can respond on a dime are teams you can win with and this team knows how to do that," Gasso said.

The team had 14 hits in the game with all of those coming on either singles or home runs. Nine Sooners accounted for those hits, including two by Jada Coleman and Alo.

Tarik Masri is a sports reporter for The Transcript covering OU athletics and area sports. You can reach him by emailing tarik@normantranscript.com