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Feb. 22, 2012

No. 6 Oklahoma (6-1) heads to its third tournament in three weeks as it travels to Palm Springs, Calif., this weekend for the Cathedral City Classic.

Oklahoma will play five games in three days beginning with back-to-back games against San Diego State and UC Davis on Thursday night at 8 and 10:30 p.m. CST respectively.

Friday will feature the Sooners in back-to-back games again as they face Boise State and No. 14 Stanford at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. CST before closing out the event Saturday morning versus No. 13 Georgia at 12 p.m. CST.

The event gives OU yet another stiff challenge on its schedule as San Diego State was one of 17 teams on OU's schedule to reach the 2011 NCAA tournament while Stanford and Georgia are two of eight teams that advanced to the 2011 NCAA Super Regionals.

Georgia and Oklahoma met in 2011 at OU's first game in the event with the Bulldogs claiming a 1-0 win as the Sooners went on drop four of five games.

OU holds a 10-4 series record over its opponents this weekend.

The Sooners are coming off their first loss of the season, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of No. 20 Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets, the 2011 ACC regular season champions, held the Sooners scoreless for the first time in 21 games.

OU splits its ACC series at the ACC/Big 12/SEC Challenge last weekend with a 10-0 five-inning, run-rule defeat of Virginia Tech before games with No. 2 Alabama and Auburn were rained out.

Next up at home: The Sooners will have their home opener March 2 vs. LSU. Game time is 6 p.m.

At the plate: Catcher Jessica Shults leads the Sooners so far hitting .565 through seven games. The catcher has nine RBIs and a home run. Freshman leadoff hitter Lauren Chamberlain has four home runs and 11 RBIs.

On the mound: All-American Keilani Ricketts has gotten off to a great start. She is 3-1 with a 0.67 ERA. She has 49 strikeouts in 27 innings. Also, Michelle Gascoigne is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. She has 22 strikeouts in just 14 innings.

What to watch for: While the Sooners have scored a lot of runs, coach Patty Gasso said she wasn't impressed - yet. The Sooners have spent practice time this week working on what Gasso says are "quality swings." The opponents should be tougher in the upcoming week, too, so the Sooners will get a better idea of how good they are when they take on Georgia and Stanford in the next few days.

RICKETTS SETS CAREER STRIKEOUTS RECORD
Keilani Ricketts needed just appearance in the 2012 to capture the Oklahom career strikeouts record. The junior pitcher entered the season with 798 strikeouts in her first two seasons and Norman and struck out 16 in her season debut versus UNLV to surpass the previous record of 805 set by Jill Most from 1994-97. Ricketts ended the opening weekend at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic with 36 strikeouts and 834 on her career.

STARING DOWN THE CHAMBER
No coach prefers the idea of starting a game down 1-0 but with Lauren Chamberlain leading off for the Sooners, that's a threat opposing coaches are going to have to deal with this season. The freshman power hitter leads OU with four home runs through seven games to go along with 11 RBIs. A good eye has allowed Chamberlain to accumulate eight walks as she has seven hits and 11 runs on the early season.

PITCHING IS NO PROBLEM
Pundits knew going into the season that OU had an ace in the circle with Keilani Ricketts. The question was if Ricketts would be the lone star in the circle. So far, she's had the help from junior classmate Michelle Gascoigne who is 3-0 on the year. Both Ricketts and Gascoigne have given up two runs each on the year with Ricketts just eight hits allowed in 27 innings of action and Gascoigne five hits in 14 innings. Ricketts has 49 strikeouts on the year to Gascoigne's 22. Senior Kirsten Allen has proven a solid third option, striking out seven in four innings of action.

ALLEN AT THE PLATE
Entering the 2012 season, senior Allee Allen had just seven at-bats in her career. Allen, who worked on her transformation at the plate over the offseason now has 13 at-bats in the season and leads Oklahoma with a .615 batting average. The senior has eight hits, two doubles, one home run and six RBIs.

FAB FRESHMEN
Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso has been high on her freshman class of six since they signed with Oklahoma. If the opening weekend was any indication, they'll be a major factor this season. Lauren Chamberlain provided a spark for the Sooners at the start of the lineup at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic, finishing the weekend with five hits, nine runs, one double. three home runs and eight RBI. Chamberlain was one of three freshmen to receive starts as Erica Sampson (1) and Jessica Vest (3) did as well. Kelley Reeves and Callie Parsons both saw action as utility players while classmate Georgia Casey recovers from an ankle injury.

SAME OLD SHULTS
Jessica Shults missed the last six games of 2011 after undergoing treatment for pan-ulcerative colitis. The junior slugger showed to be back to form in Las Vegas as she led the Sooners with 11 hits. Shults batted .611 for the event with a double, a home run and six RBIs.

STARTING OFF PERFECT
Sunday's 11-1 win over Kent State moved Oklahoma to 5-0 after the opening weekend which marks the ninth time under Patty Gasso that Oklahoma has started off the season by winning its first five games and the first since her 2007 team won its first 23 games of the season.

FIRST INNING
The Oklahoma pitching staff is not letting its opponents get much in the way of runs. In the season's first seven games, OU shut out four of its opponents while allowing four runs in three games. Three of those four runs all came in the first inning as Weber State got two runs off Michelle Gascoigne and Kent State got one off Keilani Ricketts. Georgia Tech has been the only team to get a run off OU past the first, with its only run in a 1-0 win coming in the fifth inning.

OKLAHOMA ON THE TUBE
ESPN will air two home Oklahoma games the Big 12 Conference announced. The Sooners have become a favorite on TV as home games against Missouri (4/22) and Texas (5/6) will be shown on ESPN. In addition, the Sooner Sports Network has announced plans to air games against Austin Peay (3/6) and Indiana (3/9) on Cox Channel 3 or 703 (HD) in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has had 42 games televised in the last five seasons including 16 games on air in 2011.

GRAND SLAM PACK
The University of Oklahoma Athletics Ticket Office announced the "Grand Slam Pack" which gives Sooner softball fans the opportunity to pick any four games off each team's schedule for a special low price.

Sooner softball fans can purchase any four contests of the 2012 slate for a low price of $28, a 30 percent discount off the normal reserved seating price.

SOONERS PICKED SECOND IN BIG 12
Coming off its sixth trip to the Women's College World Series, Oklahoma was picked to finish second in the Big 12 in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.

The Sooners led all nine Big 12 softball teams with four first-place votes and finished with 56 total points in the poll behind the 59 points of top-ranked Missouri.

RICKETTS, SHULTS NAMED TO POY WATCH LIST
Two members of the University of Oklahoma softball team were named to the USA Softball top 50 watch list for the 11th annual USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award.

Juniors Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults, both returning All-Americans, were named to the pre-season watch list for the second consecutive year.

INTERNATIONAL OFFSEASON
For five members of the Oklahoma program, the word offseason was all for naught as they were involved in international action for national teams.

Juniors Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults were part of the U.S. National Team that competed this summer with the duo winning the World Cup of Softball before Ricketts went on to help lead the U.S. to gold at the Pan American Games.

Sophomore Destinee Martinez and freshman Lauren Chamberlain were part of the U.S. Junior National Team that won gold at the 2011 ISF Junior Women's World Championship in South Africa in December. Along the way, their team defeated the Australian Junior National Team and it's pitcher, Oklahoma freshman Georgia Casey.

SOONERS ANNOUNCE SIGNING CLASS
Fresh off the program's sixth Women's College World Series appearance, Oklahoma softball head coach Patty Gasso announced the signing of seven student-athletes, all from Oklahoma, to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday. Taylor Dewbery (McAlester, Okla.), Whitney Ellis (Yukon, Okla.), Erin Miller (Tulsa, Okla.), Leslie Miller (Blanchard, Okla.), Kady Self (Edmond, Okla.), Jules Townsend (Tulsa, Okla.) and Paris Townsend (Tulsa, Okla.) will all join the Oklahoma softball program beginning with the 2012-13 season.

Five of the seven athletes, Dewbery, Ellis, Erin Miller, Leslie Miller and Self, all played their high school softball in the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA) as all five have earned Oklahoma All-State honors in their careers with a combined four state titles. The two who did not, Jules and Paris Townsend, played at Holland Hall where Jules was a three-time Southwest Prepatory Conference Most Valuable Player and Paris was a two-time SPC Offensive Player of the Year.

The group encompasses several positions and provides Gasso with both pitching prowess and a number of powerful bats. Dewbery, Leslie Miller and Jules Townsend all have experience in the circle while Ellis is considered one of the best catchers in the nation. Erin Miller and Self both have the athleticism to cover the outfield while Paris Townsend is an athlete who has covered catcher, shortstop and the outfield for high school and summer clubs.