WEEK 11 SOONER SOFTBALL REPORT: Sooners in search of themselves
WEEK 11 SOONER SOFTBALL REPORT: Sooners in search of themselves
The Skinny
Oklahoma’s mostly staying home this week, first meeting Tulsa (27-14, 12-6 AAC) on Tuesday evening at Hall of Fame Stadium, before returning to Love’s Field to meet Houston Friday through Sunday, and of the two opponents, the Golden Hurricane would appear to be the most stout.
Tulsa’s slashing .325/.389/.490 with a collective earned run average of 3.95. Houston (22-20, 3-15 Big 12) slashing .307/.411/.478 with a team ERA of 5.79.
Yet, following the Sooners’ second straight conference series in which they’ve taken a loss, and given coach Patty Gasso’s comments after that loss, a 9-4 Saturday setback to BYU that saw the Cougars plate runners in six of seven innings, including three in the top of the seventh that surely made it easier for Kate Dahle to finish the job in the circle … the Sooners’ internal story is far more interesting than that of their opponents.
Gasso’s postgame comments were fascinating.
First, there was the general, “they beat us today” type of thing you hear from coaches all the time.
“We didn’t have our game today,” Gasso said. “We had a lot of things that didn’t go right today … I can’t take it away from BYU, they were outstanding. We got out-coached, we got out-hit, we got out-pitched, we got outplayed.”
Then it became much more interesting as Gasso continued, not needing another question to keep going.
“We sometimes feel like we’re not allowed to have a little glitch in our season. Oh my God, we’ve lost three games already … We are allowed, we should be allowed, and we just don’t care if people allow us to or not,” she said. “It is what it is.”
It was honest, also telling, because nobody’d asked her what went wrong, what the temperature of her team was or any question designed to elicit such an introspective response. But it was a though Gasso felt she had to clear the space herself for her players to fully process what they were dealing with, to actually be allowed to work through such a “glitch.”
Eventually, in a kind of very long run-on sentence, still without a new question, Gasso reached to explain her version of where her team’s still bound to go, as well as what she feels her players are going through before taking the road to get there, and here it is, punctuated with commas only:
“What I’m really anxious, and actually excited about, is to see when this team steps up and steps forward, we’re going to be at a different level, we just haven’t been there yet. And it’s just a constant, constant, constant, constant, and sometimes it feels like we just can’t breathe, and I think tonight, I’m really anxious to see what comes of this, and how we need to take a deep breath and reset and really understand what we need to do better.”
Again, so interesting.
The small horde of reporters that covers her team game in and game out is very non-critical and the program has been so good for so long, its fans are not fair-weather in the least, but truly committed. Sure they have high expectations, yet are bound to be very forgiving, too. Nonetheless, it would appear the pressure the Sooners feel is very real, palpable and so great it can feel “like we just can’t breathe” according to the head coach.
If that’s really what OU’s feeling, it’s an issue that goes beyond a loss here and there and beyond simple execution. What it sounds like is the Sooners must learn to have fun again, which is no small thing.
Stay tuned.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. Wichita State 7-0
— def. BYU 8-0 (5 innings)
— lost to BYU 9-4
— def. BYU 7-3
This week
— vs. Tulsa, 6 p.m. Tuesday, at Hall of Fame Stadium (ESPN+)
— vs. Houston, 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)
— vs. Houston, 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)
— vs. Houston, 1 p.m. Sunday (ESPN+)
Record: 38-4
Conference record: 15-3
Streak: Won 1
Numbers
Entering last week
Games: 38
Batting average: .382
On-base percentage: .482
Slugging percentage: .703
Earned run average: 1.47
Strikeouts/innings pitched: 233/229
Opponent batting average: .180
Fielding percentage: .986
Errors: 13
Unearned runs allowed: 7
Entering this week
Games: 42
Batting average: .379
On-base percentage: .483
Slugging percentage: .692
Earned run average: 1.65
Strikeouts/innings pitched: 258/255
Opponent batting average: .185
Fielding percentage: .985
Errors: 16
Unearned runs allowed: 7
Leaders
Batting average: Rylie Boone .443 (Jayda Coleman .434)
On-base percentage: Jayda Coleman .565 (Cydney Sanders .509)
Slugging percentage: Tiare Jennings .909 (Alyssa Brito .884)
Runs batted in: Tiare Jennings 51 (Alyssa Brito 44)
Home runs: Tiare Jennings 16 (Alyssa Brito 15)
Triples: Rylie Boone 1, Alyssa Brito 1, Avery Hodge 1
Doubles: Tiare Jennings 12 (Rylie Boone 10)
Hits: Alyssa Brito 51 (Tiare Jennings 50)
Runs scored: Jayda Coleman 49 (Alyssa Brito 47)
Stolen bases: Ella Parker 13 (Maya Bland 8)
Earned run average: S.J. Geurin 0.70; 10 IP (Paytn Monticelli 1.29; 16 1/3 IP)
Wins: Kelly Maxwell 13-1 (Nicole May 11-1)
Innings pitched: Kelly Maxwell 85 1/3 (Nicole May 57 2/3)
Strikeouts: Kelly Maxwell 96 (Nicole May 64)
Inside the numbers
• Trending downward: Being Sooner softball means never having to panic. There’s too much talent, too much tradition, too much institutional knowledge and experience from the coaching staff. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Patty Gasso and staff having to confront anything entirely new.
Nonetheless, there is cause for alarm, or urgency, or whatever similar word you’d care to put in there, because for a second straight week, this time against a pitching staff that’s no great shakes and a team that’s one spot out of the conference cellar, OU’s numbers went down.
The team batting average fell from .382 to .379, its on-base percentage basically stood still, moving from .482 to .483 and its slugging percentage, probably the most important number of the three, fell from .703 to .692.
Also, the squad’s earned run average jumped from 1.47 to 1.65, which is a lot when your game total has passed 40.
• Brito’s big week: You might have noticed via the leaders list that two Sooners keep showing up next to each other and they’re Tiare Jennings and Alyssa Brito. In fact, Jennings and Brito are Nos. 1 and 2 in three categories: slugging percentage, home runs and RBIs and Nos. 2 and 1 in another, hits. Part of that is the very productive week Brito just enjoyed: 6 of 11 at the plate, reaching base three more times via walk, two doubles, a home run and six RBIs. Additionally, the Sooners’ “rebound” after losing to BYU, at least at the plate, was mostly her. In OU’s 7-3 Sunday victory, Brito went 3 for 4 with a home run and drove in four. Interestingly, she did it out of the seven-hole after batting in the 3- and 4-holes in the week’s first three games.
• Sanders still getting it done: Earlier this season Cydney Sanders, in the span of 12 games from March 1 to March 12 — the Sooners played two games on a few of those days — Sanders raised her batting average from .250 to .395. Since, however, a span of 15 games, Sanders’ batting average has dropped to .295. Nonetheless, she’s still third on the team with 12 home runs, tied for third on the team with 36 RBIs and second on the team with a .509 on-base percentage thanks to being second on the team with 31 walks. One wonders, given that on-base percentage, if Gasso might ever want her batting leadoff or two-hole while OU’s best hitter for average — Rylie Boone — mostly maintains the nine-hole. Or, perhaps, if Sanders might drop to the nine-hole thereby giving Boone the opportunity to ascend in the order.
Diamond Notes
Circling the issue
A week ago the suggestion was made Patty Gasso should give her mid-week start to the pitcher she hopes to become her No. 2 option come the postseason, the reason being only Kelly Maxwell was completing games and whoever the No. 2 was most likely to be should be placed in a position to notch them herself and gain confidence.
Gasso may have split the difference.
She started Kierston Deal against Wichita State and Deal was fantastic, allowing one hit, no runs, walking none and striking out nine. Nevertheless, Gasso still brought Karlie Keeney in to get the last six outs. Keeney allowed three hits and a walk, but no runs.
Then, over the weekend, the pitcher who’d been the clear No. 2 all season, Nicole May, struggled, allowing three hits, two walks and three runs in OU’s 9-4 loss to BYU. Gasso then went with Deal, who struggled even more, allowing two hits, a walk and two runs over a single frame. Next up, Karlie Keeney struggled still more, allowing six hits, two walks and four runs over just 2 2/3 innings. Essentially, Gasso’s Nos. 2, 3 and 4 pitchers, in whatever order, failed against the Cougars.
“We can’t rely on one arm and we need fighters. I’m not making excuses for anybody but it’s hard sometimes to play in this program, because of the expectations, and the pitchers really want to be perfect, and when you’re trying to be perfect you’re not going to be perfect.”
— Gasso, following the loss
Who’ll get the mid-week start against Tulsa on Tuesday, who’ll get the Saturday start against Houston and who’ll eventually be No. 2 behind Maxwell come NCAA play remain anybody’s guess.
Maxwell’s mastery
If you only look at Kelly Maxwell’s numbers, you may not fully grasp how effective she’s been leading the Sooner pitching staff recently. Her season numbers are thus: 13-1, 1.72 ERA, 85 1/3 IP, 96 SO, 29 BB, .160 OBA. Also, it might surprise you, but for Nicole May’s 2.06 ERA, Maxwell’s 1.72 is the second highest on the team. That number, however, is misleading. This past week, she beat BYU twice, throwing a five-inning shutout and a seven-inning victory in which she allowed three runs. Two of those, however, came in the top of the seventh, the Sooners already on top 7-1. The previous weekend, she went the distance in a 5-2 victory over Texas, surrendering both runs in the seventh inning. Ergo, she knows how to pitch with the lead. She may not be the nation’s best pitcher, but she’s among them and clearly the Sooners’ best.
Look at the polls
As has been the case most of the season, only Softball America updated its top 25 on Monday. In it, Texas (35-6) is on top, OU is No. 2, Duke (37-4) is No. 3, Tennessee (32-7) is No. 4, Stanford (34-7) is No. 5 and Oklahoma State (35-8) is No. 6. Also, with Kansas dropping out, that’s it for Big 12 programs. Of the 19 remaining spots, nine belong to the SEC, including, amazingly, the next seven: Texas A&M, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Alabama. Mississippi State and Kentucky are also in the poll.
Though Texas has only now ascended into the top spot on Softball America’s list, it was already there in the ESPN.com/USA Softball top 25 and the D1Softball.com top 25. Believe it or not, OU remained No. 1 in the NFCA coaches’ poll despite losing two of three to the Longhorns.
Look at the conference race
Here are the Big 12 standings right now:
OU 15-3
Texas 14-4
OSU 13-5
Kansas 11-7
UCF 10-8
Texas Tech 6-9
Iowa State 5-10
Baylor 5-13
Houston 3-15
Until next time …