OU’s blast finishes off Arkansas in SEC Tournament semifinal

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

If you come for the Queen, you better make sure to take the throne.

Oklahoma’s Gaby Garcia launched a three-run, walk-off home run as the Sooners rallied from an early five-run deficit to down Arkansas 8-6 in an SEC Softball Tournament seminal in Athens, Ga.

Garcia’s blast was the top-seeded Sooners’ sixth home run of the game with the first five being solo shots.

Oklahoma, the sports’ premier program with x national championships in the past x years, advances to play the winner of Friday night’s Texas-Texas A&M game.

Arkansas will return to Fayetteville and await the announcement of the   NCAA Softball Tournament bracket Sunday night at 6 p.m.on ESPN2.

“I’m just proud of our fight today,” Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel said. “ It didn’t go our way. We had a lot of momentum early, gave it away, we didn’t really grab it back, and OU got the better of us today.

“ But I’m proud of our fight. I know that today is going to make us even more ready for what’s to come and hungrier for what’s to come.

“And then I also just want to say thanks to Georgia. This has been a top-notch event, and it’s always fun to compete in the SEC, and they did it right. So, thank you.”

The Razorbacks jumped out 2-0 in the top of the first inning on Kaylie Wyckoff’s RBI single and Ella McDowell’s sacrifice fly.

That lead grew to 3-0 in the second on Raigan Kramer’s RBI single.

Oklahoma cut that deficit to 3-1 off Arkansas starting pitcher Payton Burnham as Sydney Barker hit the first of her two solo  homers. 

But Arkansas responded right back in the top of third as Wyckoff hit a two-run homer and McDowell scored on a passed ball toggle the Razorbacks a 6-1 advantage.

The Sooners kept coming with Ella Parker’s third inning round-tripper and Barker and Isabella Emerling hitting back-to-back solo homers in the fourth to cut it to 6-4.

It stayed that way until Ailana Aghbayni hit another solo blast in the sixth to cut it to 6-5.

Robyn Herron (17-6), the third Arkansas pitcher of the day, came on in the sixth and worked out of a first-and-third and one-out jam.

But Kasidi Pickering led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and  Nelly McEnroe-Marinas doubled her to third with one out.

Garcia then jumped on the first pitch she saw from Herron and powered it out of Jack Turner Field to end it.

It was the third time in four games this season that the Sooners rallied from behind to beat the Razorbacks and made it four wins in four games against Arkansas.

Oklahoma outhit Arkansas 11-9 while the Razorbacks left nine runners on base.

The Sooners used five pitchers in the game with Audrey Lowery (6-0) finishing things out.

“We had a game plan for each pitcher, and I think that they committed to that and did an exceptional job and then made really quick adjustments as they started working through their arms,” Deifel said. “Our adjustability was great, and we ran into [Audrey] Lowry, and she had to shut us down there. But that was the plan. We have individual plans for each of their arms, and they did a really good job of executing that today.”