WEEK 10 SOONER SOFTBALL REPORT: After Texas, it's a whole new ballgame
WEEK 10 SOONER SOFTBALL REPORT: After Texas, it's a whole new ballgame
The Skinny
Sometimes you have to tip your cap to a fellow sportswriter and today, that sportswriter is The Oklahoman’s Ryan Aber who used his story, written Sunday after Texas secured its second straight victory over Oklahoma, to put what the Sooners failed to in historical context.
OU topped its Red River rival 5-2 in last Friday’s contest at McCombs Field, only for the Longhorns to drop the Sooners both Saturday and Sunday by the same 2-1 score and here are a few of the things Aber but together.
It was the OU’s first series loss since the 2011 season. It was the first time it had lost back-to-back games since the 2020 season. Scoring seven runs, it was the first time since 2012 the Sooners had scored so few or fewer over a three-game series.
Using that as a guide, here are the specifics:
Back when Big 12 squads played each conference opponent only twice, Missouri swept OU 3-2 and 1-0 in games totaling a collective 20 innings on April 16 and 17, 2011, in Columbia.
Though the 2020 season was killed by the COVID pandemic, OU still played 24 games before it ended, losing back-to-back at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic to Washington and Wisconsin. Yet, if those games don’t count, the Sooners last lost two straight at the WCWS championship series in 2019, falling to UCLA in consecutive games.
In 2012, OU managed just seven runs over three games against Baylor in Waco. Later, the same season, it scored only six over a three game series against Missouri in Norman. OU still won four of those six games.
Incidentally, 2011 and 2012 were huge seasons for the program. In 2011 behind sophomore pitcher Keilani Ricketts, OU topped super regional opponent Arizona in Tucson and returned to the World Series for the first time since 2005. In 2012, it reached the WCWS championship series, falling to Alabama after midnight in a rainstorm. Those seasons led to 2013 when Ricketts and Lauren Chamberlain led the program to its second national championship.
If history’s not your thing, here’s what last weekend meant.
The Sooners are not impenetrable. Great, or perhaps just fear-free consistent pitching — the Longhorns issued just six walks over the three games — can still get OU out often enough, giving an opponent the opportunity to one, stay in the game, and two, eventually, maybe, prevail.
It pays to be lucky, too.
In the Saturday loss, Texas starting pitcher Teagen Kavan allowed three hits and walked three over 3 2/3 innings, yielding just a run. It’s hard to imagine the Sooners getting that many base runners over that span and not plating more than one again.
It also pays to be great.
Longhorn reliever Estelle Czech threw six innings of relief at the Sooners between Friday and Sunday’s contests, allowing four baserunners, total — three hits, one hit batter — none of which scored.
Good chance OU will see her again.
As for this week, after traveling to Wichita State today, the Sooners play host to BYU, which is slashing a stout .331/.420/.499. Too bad the Cougars can’t pitch, sporting a 4.94 team earned run average that’s bound to creep higher through the weekend.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. Texas, 5-2
— lost to Texas, 2-1
— lost to Texas, 2-1
This week
— at Wichita State, 6 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN+)
— vs. BYU, 6 p.m. Thursday (ESPN+)
— vs. BYU, 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)
— vs. BYU, 1 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)
Record: 35-3
Conference record: 13-2
Streak: Lost 2
Numbers
Entering last week
Games: 35
Batting average: .394
On-base percentage: .495
Slugging percentage: .733
Earned run average: 1.40
Strikeouts/innings pitched: 210/211
Fielding percentage: .985
Errors: 13
Unearned runs allowed: 7
Entering this week
Games: 38
Batting average: .382
On-base percentage: .482
Slugging percentage: .703
Earned run average: 1.47
Strikeouts/innings pitched: 229/233
Opponent batting average: .180
Fielding percentage: .986
Errors: 13
Unearned runs allowed: 7
Leaders
Batting average: Jayda Coleman .449 (Rylie Boone .443)
On-base percentage: Jayda Coleman .570 (Ella Parker .509)
Slugging percentage: Tiare Jennings .937 (Alyssa Brito .873)
Runs batted in: Tiare Jennings 48 (Alyssa Brito 38)
Home runs: Tiare Jennings 15 (Alyssa Brito 14)
Triples: Rylie Boone 1, Alyssa Brito 1, Avery Hodge 1
Doubles: Tiare Jennings 11 (Rylie Boone 9)
Hits: Tiare Jennings 48 (Alyssa Brito 45)
Runs scored: Jayda Coleman 46 (Alyssa Brito 44)
Stolen bases: Ella Parker 12 (Maya Bland 8)
Earned run average: S.J. Guerin 0.72; 9 2/3 IP (Karlie Keeney 1.08; 39 IP)
Wins: Kelly Maxwell 11-1, Nicole May 11-1
Innings pitched: Kelly Maxwell 73 1/3 (Nicole May 54 2/3)
Strikeouts: Kelly Maxwell 85 (Nicole May 63)
Inside the numbers
• The wrong direction: Had you known Texas topped Oklahoma twice last weekend but did not know the scores, you might have guessed the Longhorn victories to be in 8-7, 9-8, 10-9 territory, not the 2-1 territory. Yes, the Sooners entered with the nation’s third best earned run average and Texas with the fourth. Still, each team’s offense felt more dangerous. OU entered hitting .394 and Texas .377. Nonetheless, in the final two games, Longhorn pitching shut the Sooners down. OU entered the series slashing .394/.495/.733 and exited at .382/.482/.703. That means, over just three games of a thus far 38-game season, the Sooners’ batting average fell 12 points, it’s on-base-percentage fell 13 points and it’s slugging percentage fell 31 points.
• A new deal in the circle? The length of the season, Kelly Maxwell and Nicole May have sort of been pitchers 1A and 1B in OU’s rotation. That changed against Texas, with Maxwell getting two starts and throwing 11 2/3 innings to May’s 4 2/3. May also pushed her complete game total to five while May’s remains stuck at one. Naturally, the gap between their innings totals widened, with Maxwell reaching 73 1/3 and May 54 2/3. Also, what seems like the first time this season, Maxwell’s earned run average (1.72) has finally dipped below May’s (1.79).
• Not putting hits together: Above, the Sooners’ slash numbers from one week to the next were laid out. Well, here’s part of what that looks like individually, because even as OU claims five players batting better than .400 — Jayda Coleman .449, Rylie Boone .443, Tiare Jennings .432, Alyssa Brito .409, Ella Parker .404 — only four Sooners collected more than one hit in any one of last weekend’s three games. Coleman and Boone collected two hits in Friday’s victory. Kinzie Hansen collected two in Saturday’s loss. Ella Parker collected two, including a home run, in Sunday’s loss. That was it.
Diamond Notes
In the nine-hole, really?
It seems like there ought to be a better place in the batting order than the spot Rylie Boone so often finds herself. She entered last weekend hitting .455, second best on the team, yet hit from the nine-hole both Friday and Saturday against the Longhorns. True, she’s no power hitter, with one home run. Nor does she walk much, working just seven free passes all season. And, yes, moved to the five-hole for Sunday’s contest, she went 0 for 3. But she’s still hitting .443, which remains second on the team and moving her to the leadoff spot would give OU’s power hitters at least one more opportunity to come to the plate with her on base if the move was made. Also, Jayda Coleman, now batting leadoff, who’s terrific, hitting a team-high .449 and getting on base at a team-high .570 clip, would still be wonderful in the two-hole, especially given the fact she’s become a legitimate power hitter, hitting 17 home runs last season and nine already this one. Bat her second and about half the time — Boone’s on-base percentage is .486 — she’ll come to the plate in the first inning with Boone waiting to be driven home. It’s hard to question the most successful coach in America but a .443 hitter in the nine-hole?
Pay attention to the mound
Actually, there’s no mound in softball. Nonetheless, Patty Gasso calls it a mound, so why not. Anyway, it’s now clear Gasso sees Maxwell as her ace, after giving her two starts against the Longhorns. It’s presumed she sees Nicole May as her No. 2. Also, two losses to your Red River rival and two straight losses for the first time in years can jar a skipper into managing with more urgency rather than simply trying to keep everybody involved. So, keep an eye out, because if May’s her No. 2, May should start against Wichita State today and Gasso should hope she fires a complete game, her second of the season, taking the confidence that would come with that with her. If Gasso still doesn’t trust May, she should start whoever she hopes to supplant May against the Shockers and see if that pitcher can go the distance. In the end, a deep pitching staff is something you brag about at the beginning of a season, yet come the postseason, having two arms you really trust — in the old days, one was plenty — is far more important, so watch for Gasso to begin making choices with that in mind.
The SEC will be insane
Momentarily, the Big 12 remains the biggest dog in the game.
Duke, if you can believe it, who OU topped 3-0 opening day in Puerto Vallarta, is Softball America’s new No. 1 team in the nation. The Sooners are No. 2, followed by No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 4 Texas, spots that makes sense and reflect the Big 12 standings. Yet, after that, six of the next seven ranked teams are all out of the SEC: No. 5 Tennessee, No. 7 LSU, No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Georgia, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 11 Mississippi. Also, Arkansas’s ranked 13th, Alabama 15th, and Missouri 18th, putting nine SEC programs in the top 18.
Next season, they’ll all be joined by the Sooners and Longhorns.