What milestones OU softball star Tiare Jennings reached, approached in sweep of UCF
NORMAN — Tiare Jennings didn’t have the best weekend for OU in their three-game sweep of UCF in Orlando, Florida.
The Sooners’ senior shortstop was just 2 for 12 at the plate but both of her hits were solo home runs and she reached a pair of milestones in the series.
In Saturday’s 2-1 OU win, Jennings hit a one-out solo homer in the fourth to break up a scoreless tie. The home run was Jennings’ 90th of her career, making her just the eighth hitter to reach that mark.
The next day, Jennings’ 91st broke a tie with former UCLA star Stacey Nuveman.
Next up for Jennings are former Arizona stars Jessie Harper and Katiyana Mauga, plus Mississippi State’s Mia Davidson, who had 92 home runs each.
OU’s Jocelyn Alo stands at the top of the list with 122 career home runs, followed by Miami (Ohio) infielder Karli Spaid, who currently has 96, and OU’s Lauren Chamberlain at 95.
Jennings’ 91st career home run also gave her 300 career RBIs.
Jennings is the sixth player to reach that mark, led by Arizona’s Jenny Dalton with 328 from 1993-96. Alo holds the OU record with 323.
Here’s what we learned from the Sooners last week:
No. 2 OU
Overall record: 45-4, 21-3 Big 12
Last week: 3-0 (Beat UCF 10-2, 2-1, 11-7)
This week: vs. Oklahoma State, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Noon Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday.
More: OU softball sweeps UCF as Sooners blast five HRs in final Big 12 road game
Sooners struggle defensively
While OU’s pitching and offense have struggled at various points this season, the Sooners’ fielding has been fairly consistent throughout the season.
But OU had an uncharacteristic weekend defensively in Orlando, committing six errors in the series, including three in the series opener.
The Sooners had committed just 17 errors over their first 46 games.
Three of the errors came by Avery Hodge, two in Sunday’s series finale. Hodge had just one error this season before last weekend’s series.
Alynah Torres committed her first error of the season and Jayda Coleman and Rylie Boone their second errors each.
The weekend was enough to drop the Sooners (.982) to No. 3 nationally in fielding percentage behind Seton Hall (.983) and Arizona (.982).
More: Former OU softball star Jocelyn Alo signs one-month contract with Savannah Bananas
Sooners’ clinching scenarios
The Sooners come into this weekend’s Bedlam series a game up on Texas and two games up on Oklahoma State for the conference lead.
OU needs a sweep or to win two of three with at least one Longhorns’ loss at Texas Tech to win what would be a 12th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title and earn the top seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
If the Sooners’ earn the top overall seed, they would take on either the No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the quarterfinals, while the No. 2 seed takes on either the No. 7 or No. 10 seeds.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU softball's Tiare Jennings continues to reach milestones for Sooners
