March 29, 2004
Box Score
Waco, Texas - The records keep piling up for the No. 21 Baylor softball team as the Lady Bears are off to the best conference start in school history after sweeping No. 9 Oklahoma in a doubleheader in action at Getterman Stadium. With the victories, Baylor improves to 33-6 on the season and 4-0 in Big 12 Conference play.
The Lady Bears took game one 3-1 behind solid pitching from starter Cristin Vitek and a walk-off home run from left fielder Kelly Osburn. After trailing early in game two, Baylor responded with four unanswered runs to capture the victory and post the first victories over a team in the top ten of the national rankings since the Lady Bears defeated No. 4 Nebraska 1-0 on March 29, 2002.
Baylor set the tone for the day with a dramatic win in game one. After entering extra innings with the score tied at one, both starting pitchers remained in the game as the score remained tied heading into the tenth.
After Baylor starter Cristin Vitek held the Sooners in check in the top of the inning, lead-off batter Kelly Osburn ended the game on a 2-0 pitch from Oklahoma starter Kami Keiter. Osburn took the pitch and blasted a line drive over the left-center field walk for her fifth home run of the season and the first walk-off home run of her career.
The homer scored Stephanie Pomes, who was at second base because of the international tie rule, to give Baylor the 3-1 victory.
The Lady Bears needed a dramatic comeback just to put the game into extra innings. Trailing 1-0 and having at least one batter reach base in every inning, Baylor finally managed to bring home a Lady Bear runner with a single run in the seventh.
Down to their final out with runners on first and second, April Luce hit a sharp ground ball between first and second. Oklahoma's April Valdez was unable to field the ball cleanly as Danelle Arnold came around to score Baylor's first run and tie the game.
Vitek (20-3) captured her 20th victory of the season, allowing only one run on five hits in 10 innings of work. She also struck out six Sonners as the ten inning outing marked the longest by any Lady Bear this season.
Baylor pounded out 13 hits in the game, the highest total for a single game this season. However, Baylor also tied a school record by leaving 16 runners on base, the most since Baylor left 16 on during a game against McNeese State on Feb. 16, 1998.
Kami Keiter (4-6), a second team all-American selection last season, took the loss.
Baylor made it two and a row over the No. 9 Sooners with a 4-1 victory in game two.
After Oklahoma took a 1-0 lead in the second, Baylor grabbed the momentum right back in the bottom of the inning when Pomes hit a two-out, two-run single up the middle to score Carrie Leerberg and Kelly Levesque to give the Lady Bears a 2-1 lead.
Levesque then gave Baylor a three-run cushion with her two-run home run to right-center field to score Arnold and make the score 4-1. The home run was Levesque's first of the season and fifth of her career.
Vitek came into the game in relief of starter Lisa Ferguson and allowed no hits in 1.1 innings of work to record her second save of the season.
Ferguson (13-1) picked up her tenth straight victory, allowing only one run on six hits in 5.2 innings of work.
Valdez (2-1) took the loss for the Sooners after allowing four runs on five hits in 3.2 innings of work.
Baylor has now won 12 straight games and 26 of 27 as the Lady Bears head into a single game against Texas A&M on Wednesday, March 31. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
