Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano says Tulsa starts the season with a solid 3-2 record.
The University of Tulsa’s softball team had a lot of action last weekend when it traveled to Texas to participate in the Bearkat Classic. The Golden Hurricane had a stretch of games against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Bryant, Sam Houston, and #2/1 Texas. The tournament left Tulsa with a starting season record of 3-2.
The Golden Hurricane started the 2025 season with an impressive 7-2 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on the second day of the Bearkat Classic. It scored its runs in the first, fourth, and sixth innings. Tulsa held the Islanders with no runs until the fifth.
Senior Maura Moore had the honor of throwing the season opening pitch. She would only be tagged for a pair of runs and walk four. In the end, she struck out seven. The relief team was led by Alexa Hopkins who tossed 2.1 innings and struck out five with three walks. Hopkins would pick up her first save of the season and not allow a hit.
Six plays would collect hits for the Golden Hurricane. This would be all the action for the second day of the tournament. However, the next day, Tulsa would face Bryant and Sam Houston and take a win and a loss.
Its first match of its Saturday matches was against Braynt. The win was not an easy feat, the Golden Hurricane scraping by 8-7. Annika Dill would put the Golden Hurricane in an early lead when her two-run home run down left field brought her and Faith Russel back to home plate. It would look promising until Braynt would earn a run at the bottom of the frame.
Celeste Wood and Amber Turner would contribute back-to-back singles to put Tulsa into action in the second frame. Senior Whitney Holcomb would execute a perfectly timed sacrifice bunt to bring Wood home to score. After coming home, Wood would double to left center and bring Dill home to push its lead 4-1. The Golden Hurricane would continue this impressive performance. Despite the Bulldogs firing back to stay within one point, the game would end in Tulsa’s favor.
Tulsa would not be so lucky in its match against Sam Houston. The Golden Hurricane would actually gain an early lead in this game, however, this scoring run would be its last for the entire match. Each team would only earn five hits and neither had any errors. Tulsa’s single score would come about from Claira Skaggs bringing Russel, who walked onto her base, home. After that, it was all downhill and Tulsa would end the match down 1-4.
On its third day of games, Tulsa would face one more match with Bryant and then face Texas. It would earn another win over Bryant, getting by with a 5-2 final score. It would repeat the prior day’s trend and lose its second match with a close 2-4.
The Golden Hurricane went back to Texas this past weekend to participate in the I-10 Border Classic in Beaumont.The team celebrated Valentine’s during the first day of this tournament where it won against Nicholls and fell against Missouri State. It would garner one more win and loss during the second. It stayed for a third day, and the team continues on the road.
