Can't field, can't pitch, can't win
Despite Wells' epic day, Sooners one loss from elimination
Want some good news? Here’s some good news.
Kendall Wells bounced out of her 11-game, 4-for-25 slump.
Like, really, really bounced out of it.
She came to the plate five times, roped two singles and smashed two home runs, the first clearing the outfield bleachers on the fly.
So make it 39 home runs in 60 games: outrageous for anybody, historic for anybody, doubly so given she only recently arrived from North Oconee High School in Bogart, Ga.
Think she’s seen Casablanca?
That’s more home runs than anybody’d ever hit prior to this season, though UCLA’s Megan Grant’s hit one more this one with the Los Angeles Super Regional still on her docket.
Wells has one, two or at least four games remaining, it’s momentarily unclear, which brings us to this.
Want some real news?
Here’s some real news.
On the very day Wells broke out of her slump, popping two home runs and driving in six — holy cow! — raising her batting average from .351 to .364, OU played horrendous defense, pitched horrendously, chose its pitchers horrendously (again!), to lose on a day it deserved to lose, 11-9, to Mississippi State, coached by former Sooner Samantha Ricketts, without whom we might never have met Keilani Ricketts and Sooner softball might not be where it is today.
But that’s another column.
This one?
Navigating on the fly.
Somehow, a team that entered slashing .273/.357/.461, averaging just 5.5 hits per game against SEC competition, cranked out 15 hits against Sooner pitching, reached base three other times on Sooner errors, reached additional bases, including home plate three times on a fourth error, a wild pitch and a passed ball, and struck out only five times; often the case even when Sooner pitching is solid, something pointed out all season as less than ideal and Friday afternoon at Love’s Field proved it.
Would you believe the Bulldogs had not once scored 11 runs in a single game all season, topping out at 10 against North Texas on Feb. 15. Or that they had not accumulated 15 hits all season, topping out at 14 at Florida on April 4.
Mississippi State did it against an OU pitching staff that’s been a bit sketchy all season, yet nothing like this.
Miali Guachino got the start, pitched three innings, allowed five hits, two runs, struck out three, walked two and hit a batter.
Sydney Berzon tossed 2 2/3, allowed four hits and four runs, just one earned, struck out one and walked nobody.
Audrey Lowry threw 1 1/3, allowed six hits, five runs, four earned, walked two and struck out one, and somehow pitched to all 10 batters the Bulldogs sent to the plate in the seventh inning, allowing three singles, a double and a walk to five of the first six she faced in the frame.
To be fair, the walk was intentional and the third single came after it, yet still she remained in the game to walk another batter and give up another single, which, combined with Ailana Agbayani’s error on the same play, accounted for the Bulldogs’ 10th and 11th runs.
Gasso appeared to figure out her pitching last weekend in a trio of regional victories over Binghamton, Kansas and Michigan, Guachino shutting out the Jayhawks over five innings in the middle and Lowry starting the others, allowing one hit and no runs over two innings against Binghamton and three hits and one run over 4 2/3 against Michigan.
Yet, a few days later, Guachino drew the first start against Mississippi State, despite carrying a higher earned run average than Lowry all season (2.92 to 2.62), in conference play (3.45 to 3.32), too, and despite not being discernibly better last weekend.
Of course, Lowry was worse Friday, though she did not get to pitch from her comfort zone — starting — instead coming in with two outs, runners at the corners and two runs already across in the top of the sixth, the Sooners still up 6-4.
She immediately let go with a high riser Wells failed to snag and it was 6-5, before allowing a single to Morgan Bernadini, making it 6-6.
Gasso’s circle choices made little sense in the weeks leading up to Friday.
She appeared to attempt one of two things: supplanting Lowry with Guachino as her new No. 1 or spreading her arms out almost randomly hoping to earn everybody confidence.
If the first, she had to believe in something beyond the numbers.
If the second, trying to get everybody going, she got nobody going instead.
What does OU do in the circle next?
I can make a case for Lowry.
I can make a case for Berzon, who retired six of seven Bulldogs in the fourth and fifth innings before the sixth cratered around her, who also led the Sooners with a 2.18 ERA over 25 2/3 innings of conference play.
I can even make a case for Kierston Deal, having allowed two hits and one run over her previous five outings, a span stretching back to April 12 at Texas.
None are great cases.
Call me old school, but whatever happened to throwing your best starter until they demand to be relieved and then doing it again?
But Gasso’s gone a different direction and here we are.
Of course, whatever happens Saturday must be better than Friday.
It just has to be.
That, or it’s over.