No. 18 Arizona softball achieved one of its most impressive wins ever at Hillenbrand Stadium on Friday, rallying to beat No. 3 Oklahoma 11-6 in the first of a three-game series.
The Sooners are a perennial power under coach Patty Gasso, who has led the the program to four of the last five national championships.
Arizona (3-0) was trailing going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but with four walks that included two players being walked home, and an error by Ailana Agbayani, Arizona led 7-6.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Tayler Biehl crushed a ball over the centerfield wall, giving the Wildcats an 11-6 lead that held for the rest of the game.
“This is just insurance time, nothing to lose up there and I was just digging in,” Biehl said about her mentality at the plate. “We’ve been preparing for this the whole entire year, so I just did my thing and was just trusting my preparation.”
While no one had a consistent night at the plate, the team finished with just six hits overall, Sydney Stewart showed her patience having three of the seven walks Arizona had in the game.
The seniors delivered.
Postgame with @ArizonaSoftball's Tayler Biehl and Jalen Adams! pic.twitter.com/gUrUAlmgEC
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) February 7, 2026
Jalen Adams starred once again in the circle, throwing six innings and 125 pitches starting from the second inning. Adams gave up two earned runs after coming into the game.
Oklahoma (1-1) came out sizzling in the first inning hitting a two-run homerun by Nelly McEnroe-Marinas that brought in Abby Dayton.
Kasidi Pickering followed with a solo shot, increasing the lead to 3-0.
Arizona answered back with Regan Shockey making it home in a groundout play, advancing Stewart, who got home shortly after thanks to a passed ball to make the score 3-2.
Oklahoma continued with Gabbie Garcia leading off the third inning with a home run forcing a change at pitcher from Jenae Berry to Adams.
Allyssa Parker jumped on Adams early, homering again before Adams could get out of the inning trailing 5-2.
“You come in and you try to get ahead right away, so that was the original goal,” Adams said about giving up the home run early in her day. “After that, I kind of settled in. … I’m not going to strike everybody out; that’s not the kind of pitcher I am. I need to trust my D, and once I did that, they had my back.”
GRAND SLAM TAYLER BIEHL. UNREAL. 🤯#NCAASoftball x 🎥 ESPN+ / @ArizonaSoftball
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) February 7, 2026
The Wildcats were able to get one of the two runs scored back thanks to Sereniti Trice hitting a single, bringing in Addison Duke from second, making the score 5-3.
Both pitchers seemed to settle in the third inning before the bats got hot again for the Sooners in the fourth with Ella Parker coming home from second base following a single by Pickering.
Arizona tied the game at 5 in the fifth inning after a two-run homer by Grace Jenkins that brought in Molli Daley, who was pinch running for Stewart.
Oklahoma stranded two in the sixth before the Wildcats rallied in the bottom of the inning, scoring six times, highlighted by Biehl’s grand slam.
“Honestly, the hitters did a great job communicating with each other all night,” said Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe, who celebrated her birthday with the significant win. “Yesterday (in a doubleheader sweep of Southern Utah), we weren’t making adjustments on the fly. Today,we did it against a very good pitching staff.”
Adams closed the game allowing one baserunner in the seventh inning.
Arizona will try to win the series Saturday at 5 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium.
“It’s 0-0 again and just understanding we’ve gotten a lot of information from today as far as being able to see a lot of arms,” Lowe said about the game Saturday.
The final game of the series is Sunday at 11 a.m.
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