A better pitcher would have given Sooners a better chance and Audrey Lowry was available
You have to love the way Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts approached the biggest game in her program’s history.
What she did was find a terrific and hungry pitcher and hand her the ball.
She must also have told her team “an underdog is still a dog” 500 times, too, because her team kept attributing it to her over and over again.
You had to hate the way Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso went about making the same decision.
Though she didn’t have anybody in the mold of Delainey Everett, Ricketts’ choice in the other dugout, what she had was her best pitcher available, fresh enough after throwing 87 pitches over seven strong innings the day before and should Audrey Lowry not work out, she could always be relieved.
By now, you know what happened. Ricketts’ choice, not only defendable but inspired, worked beautifully.
Though Everett had not pitched more than three innings in a single outing all season and had pitched only 13 innings total, she still entered with a 1.05 earned run average and the belief she could do it and all she did was shut the Sooners out, part of a 6-0 victory, that made history.
OU had not been shut out in its previous 399 games, going back to a 1-0 Alabama victory at the 2019 Women’s College World Series.
The Sooners will miss the World Series for the first time since 2015.
Mississippi State reached its first World Series ever.
Gasso’s choice, to give Miali Guachino the first shot at the Bulldog lineup was not defendable or inspired, nor was keeping her in the circle any longer than the fifth batter of the game, after which OU trailed 2-0, but Gasso failed that test, too.
