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Tulsa
Oklahoma State
Late Homers Push Softball Past Oklahoma State, 5-3
3/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 25, 2009
Box Score |
Box Score 
TULSA, Okla. - Right fielder Lauren Menke and shortstop Kailey Yarmer hit back-to-back solo home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to push The University of Tulsa softball team to a 5-3 victory over Oklahoma State Wednesday evening at the Donna J. Hardesty Sports Complex.
Menke's shot was the first of her career, while Yarmer's was her sixth of the season. Sophomore Jordan Kinard pitched a complete game and earned the win for the Golden Hurricane (21-9), allowing three runs on six hits and struck out nine batters to move to 6-4 on the season. Oklahoma State (25-7) reliever Sarah Odom took the loss and falls to 11-2 on the season. TU avenged a 3-0 loss at the hands of OSU two weeks ago in Stillwater, and defeated the Cowgirls for the first time since 2006.
"That was a good win. That's a good ballclub, and they've been hot," Tulsa Head Coach John Bargfeldt said. "For most of this year, they have been scoring a lot of runs and having great pitching. If you look at their pitching statistics and you know they shut us out a couple weeks ago, and coming off a weekend where we hit the ball pretty well, we wanted to see if we would continue that. And we did. Up and down through our lineup, all-in-all I felt like we really swung the bats well today."
Tulsa scored two runs in the second inning, and added another in the third, but Odom came on in relief and stymied the Hurricane bats for three innings. Then, with the score tied 3-3 in the sixth inning, following a ground out, Menke smashed an opposite field shot off the scoreboard to give TU a 4-3 lead. Yarmer then blasted a homer to dead center field, a no-doubter off the bat, to make the score 5-3.
"Lauren (Lindsay) hit the ball hard, but it was right at the shortstop, and we thought, `OK, how are we going to generate something?'" Bargfeldt said. "Then Menke came up and put a good swing on one. On our roadtrip she had been doing that and just barely missing. She had been coming along and driving the ball pretty well. It was good to see her go opposite field."
The Hurricane tallied 11 hits in the ballgame, and put the ball in play throughout the contest, getting runners on base in every inning, and only striking out twice. After leaving two runners in scoring position in the first inning, the Hurricane picked up two runs in the second inning. Center fielder Jessica Stoelke hit a one-out double to left center and scored a batter later as third baseman Stephanie Chomicki's bunt was thrown awry by the catcher and sailed down the right field line. Chomicki advanced to third on the play, and scored when second baseman Skylar Swanson hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
Yarmer, who was 3-for-4 in the game with a single, a double and a homer, led off the third inning with a double to left field. First baseman Vanessa Vice drove Yarmer home with a scorching base hit down the first base line to give TU a 3-0 lead and chase OSU starter Alex Villalobos from the game.
Kinard allowed one hit and one walk in the first inning, but retired the side with three strikeouts, then proceeded to retire the side in order in the second and third innings as well. Oklahoma State got on the board in the fourth as second baseman Alysia Hamilton and right fielder Megan Castle singled, and both scored on a two-out double by designated player Taylor Marcum to make the score 3-2 in favor of the Hurricane.
OSU tied the game in the fifth inning with a leadoff home run by center fielder Kelsey Anchors. The Golden Hurricane then took the lead with the two homers in the sixth inning. Kinard bounced back from the home run to get the next three outs and retired nine in a row to end the game.
"It was amazing how well the ball was carrying tonight (with a breeze blowing in from center field)," Bargfeldt said. "One of the keys for Jordan was to keep them off balance. She threw quite a bit of offspeed pitches tonight just to do that."
Conference USA-leading Tulsa returns to action this weekend with a C-USA series against second-place Marshall at the Donna J. Hardesty Sports Complex. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday beginning at 1 p.m., and the finale will be Sunday at noon. Tickets for TU softball home games are $6 for adults and $4 for youth high school and younger, and can be purchased in person at the TU Athletics Ticket Office, by calling (918) 631-GoTU, or on the web by visiting www.TulsaHurricane.com.
