OU softball shuts out Duke as coach Patty Gasso moves to third in NCAA career victories

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OU softball shuts out Duke as coach Patty Gasso moves to third in NCAA career victories

Ryan Aber, The Oklahoman · The Oklahoman

Thu, Feb 8, 2024 ·

3 min read

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Kelly Maxwell's OU debut went like plenty of her appearances at Oklahoma State over the last four seasons.

Maxwell was dominant, throwing five shutout innings as the Sooners beat No. 11 Duke 3-0 to sweep their first day of the Puerto Vallarta College Classic on Thursday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Earlier in the day, OU run-ruled Utah Valley 13-0 in five innings .

The wins put Sooners coach Patty Gasso at 1,458 career wins, passing former Illinois State and Fresno State head coach Margie Wright for third all-time.

Gasso is behind only legendary Arizona coach Mike Candrea (1,674) and legendary Michigan coach Carol Hutchins (1,707).

More: Mussatto: Can Patty Gasso, OU softball pull off 'unheard of' NCAA four-peat? Of course.

Oklahoma's Kelly Maxwell throws a pitch during the University of Oklahoma softball competes in the Battle Series Game 5 at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., Thursday, Nov., 9, 2023.

The Sooners (2-0) extended their NCAA-record winning streak to 55 games with the wins.

The first batter of the game, D'Auna Jennings, poked a single down the left-field line off Maxwell.

One out later, Maxwell hit Ana Gold with a pitch to put two runners on, but Maxwell locked things down from there, retiring back-to-back batters to escape that jam and then facing the minimum through the next three innings.

Duke's Cassidy Curd, who was 18-3 with a 1.56 ERA last season as a freshman, held the Sooners at bay for the first two innings.

The Sooners broke through in the third, though, on Tiare Jennings' one-out solo homer to center just over the outstretched glove of D'Auna Jennings, the Blue Devils' centerfielder.

The home run was the 74th of Jennings' OU career.

The Sooners wasted little time stretching their lead, with Alynah Torres driving in another run four batters later to chase Curd from the game and then freshman Kasidi Pickering delivering an RBI infield single to put the Sooners up 3-0.

Maxwell left after the fifth, having allowed just one hit with one walk with two strikeouts before giving way to Liberty transfer Karlie Keeney.

Lillie Walker, an Inola product, threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings for Duke to keep the Blue Devils in it.

Duke loaded the bases with one out against Keeney in the seventh, but Keeney struck out Francesca Frelick for the second out and then got Jada Baker to ground into a fielders' choice to end the game.

Tiare Jennings, who walked in all three of her plate appearances in the opener, finished 3 for 4.

The Sooners get another stiff test Friday when they take on No. 7 Washington at 8:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on FloSoftball.

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