EDMOND, Okla. – The Oklahoma Baptist softball team claimed its first-ever Great American Conference Regular Season Championship after sweeping Arkansas Tech (28-23, 17-15 GAC) 3-0 and 2-1 in Sunday's doubleheader at Tom Heath Field.
OBU (43-9, 28-5 GAC) earned its 17th straight win and outright ownership of the league's regular season title, finishing two games ahead of second-place Harding. With that, the Bison lock up the No. 1 seed going into the GAC tournament, its highest seeding in program history.
The green and gold are set to face eight-seeded Southern Nazarene in the quarterfinal on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in Bentonville, Arkansas.
GAME ONE
Kayleigh Jones spun her second-straight shutout to lead OBU to its first victory of the day. Jones punched out seven batters and allowed three hits en route to her 30th win of the season. In two appearances against the Golden Suns, Jones didn't surrender a single run.
Sammie Greene and Morgan Max turned in 2-for-3 showings at the plate. Additionally, each added an RBI. Three others registered a hit, including catcher Samantha Campos who bolted around the bases for her first triple of the season.
After Jones and company retired the Golden Suns at the top of the opening frame, Greene and Max doubled at the bottom of the inning to chart the game's first scores. A few batters later, Reese brought in Max for a 3-0 advantage on a sacrifice fly.
Jones produced a clean slate the rest of the way. The senior twirler forced eight fly-outs and five ground-outs, preventing ATU from establishing any rhythm. Jones didn't allow a hit with runners on and facing two-out jams.
GAME TWO
OBU's bats were hot in the first inning for the third straight game. This time, with the bases juiced, Kennedy Clark singled to plate Emily Adler and Reagan Ford for an early 2-0 lead.
Arkansas Tech returned the favor at the top of the second, as a Kassie Mayberry sacrifice fly sent Jessica Williams across home plate to mark the tally 2-1. However, Aspen Younce shut the door on the momentum in the next at-bat, forcing a pop-up to close the inning.
The Golden Suns retired the Bison 1-2-3 at the bottom of the second, prompting some confidence going into the next frame. But again, even after registering a couple of hits, Tech was shut down by Younce and the Bison defense.
That was the story until the final pitch. Younce surrendered one hit and struck out four to wrap up a historic day in Oklahoma Baptist softball history.
Younce collected seven strikeouts and gave up one earned run to capture her 10th win of the season. It was the 36th victory of her career.
At the plate, Clark went 2-for-3 and batted in two. Emily Adler and Alleyna Rushing also charted hits.
For more information on OBU Softball, follow the team on Twitter (@OBU_Softball) and Instagram (@OBU_Softball).
