Cyclones Fall To No. 13 Oklahoma, 2-0

AMES, Iowa - Iowa State was held to two hits by Oklahoma's Keilani Ricketts as the Cyclones fell 2-0 to the Sooners Saturday morning at the Southwest Athletic Complex. The loss drops the Cyclones to 22-14 overall and 1-2 in Big 12 play.

After perfect first innings pitched by both squads Friday, Oklahoma got the first base runner of the game in the top of the second via a walk by Chana'e Jones. Sooner Haley Anderson pinch ran for her, only to be caught trying to steal second by Cyclone catcher Alex Johnson. Rachel Zabriskie then struck out Haley Hix before the game was postponed due to rain.

The game resumed Saturday in the bottom of the second, Johnson led off for Iowa State with a triple that got past the Sooner right fielder Jones. However, that is as far as Johnson would advance as Sooners pitcher Keilani Ricketts struck out the next three batters.

OU finally opened up the scoring in the top of the fourth, as Dani Dobbs drove a liner into centerfield to bring home Jones from second. That gave the Sooners runners on the corners with two outs. Dobbs swiped second to put the heat on Zabriskie even more, but she was able to get Katie Norris to strike out to get out of the jam.

After another hitless ISU frame, OU's Amber Flores sent a long shot well past the leftfield wall to make the score 2-0 in the fifth. Flores led the Sooners at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two singles and the homer.

The Iowa State batters had no answer for Ricketts on the day. After giving up the triple to Johnson, the Sooner hurler retired 12 consecutive batters before walking Carrie Monroe in the bottom of the fifth. Cyclone Kelsey Kidwell then recorded a single to give ISU multiple base runners for the first time in the game. Ricketts got out of the jam, forcing Heidi Kidwell into a fly ball to centerfield.

Ricketts picked up the win to improve to 19-7 on the season. She pitched a complete game two-hitter, with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Zabriskie also went the distance, giving up five hits and walking four and striking out nine. The Cyclone hurler falls to 18-8 on the season.

Iowa State will face Oklahoma again on Saturday.

Oklahoma 2 Iowa State 0 (4-3-2010 at Ames, Iowa)
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Oklahoma................ 000 110 0 - 2 5 1
Iowa State................ 000 000 0 - 0 2 0
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Pitchers: Oklahoma - Ricketts, Keilani and Vandever, Lindsey.
Iowa State - Zabriskie, Rachel and Johnson, Alex.
Win- Keilani Ricketts (18-7) Loss- Rachel Zabriskie (18-8) T-1:55 hrs A-206
HR - OU - Amber Flores (8).

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Players Mentioned

Alex Johnson

Alex Johnson

Heidi Kidwell

Heidi Kidwell

Kelsey Kidwell

Kelsey Kidwell

Carrie Monroe

Carrie Monroe

Rachel Zabriskie

Rachel Zabriskie

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