Maybe this team just knows how to win
No. 1 Sooners may not be a machine, but they sure have a knack for coming out on top
Patty Gasso pulled what appeared to be a very strange move at Love’s Field three days ago when, during the series finale against Texas, she yanked Isabella Smith from the circle in the fourth inning.
Smith had been perfect until the moment before the change.
Through three innings, Smith retired all nine Longhorns she faced, yet after Ashton Maloney greeted her with a single to lead off the fourth, that was it, she was out and Audrey Lowry was in.
Lowry, as you may know, allowed all six batters she faced to reach, five eventually came around to score.
By the time the half-inning ended, Paytn Monticelli had come and gone, too, replaced by, who else, Sam Landry, who put out the fire in that frame only to allow two runs in the next one, making what had been an 8-0 Sooner advantage an 8-8 tie entering the bottom of the fifth.
What was Gasso thinking?
“We really have to give our pitchers opportunities and that’s what we did,” she said. “Didn’t go exactly the way we wanted it to, but we knew how far we would go. I really wanted to see Paytn in there and Audrey … We need a staff going forward.”
A few things:
Gasso should be taken at her word, because she’s spent most of the season trying to build a staff around Landry and she’s still trying to do it.
Also, she probably starts Landry in the Sunday game had OU not clinched the series the day before behind the resurgent circle mastery of Kierston Deal.
Gasso likely planned to insert Lowry by the fourth inning to begin with, but how could she lift Smith in the middle of a perfect game, yet Maloney took care of that by getting a hit.
Even if that wasn’t the original plan, the Sooners’ 8-0 lead after three innings gave Gasso the slack to enact a new one, taking a shot at building new confidence in additional pitchers.
Nothing wrong with that.
Though Gasso has three pitchers going well now — Landry, Deal, Smith — developing more makes sense for a coach who’s mostly had only one consistent pitcher through the season.
Bully for Patty.
She knew what she was going.
Also?
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