Week 6 OU Softball Report: Patty Gasso has found her ace in Sam Landry
The story is Sam Landry.
Two weekends ago she did not pitch against South Carolina and the Sooners gave up nine runs in each of their first two games against the Gamecocks, remaining unbeaten only because they scored 10 each time.
This past weekend, Landry was back in the circle and all she did was toss 11 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up five hits and striking out 10 against three walks and one hit batsman.
She saw action in all three contests, throwing a complete game three-hitter in the series opener, before coming on in relief to collect two extended saves in the next two games after her staff mates struggled
Because of her, and some big and timely hitting, too, top-ranked Oklahoma remains unbeaten entering the third week of Southeastern Conference play, a week that begins with a Wednesday night home game against East Texas A&M, before the Sooners travel to Missouri, one of the few unranked teams in OU’s new conference,
Landry, who appeared to be coach Patty Gasso’s first choice in the circle given the pattern of starts she’d received and her clear emergence as the Sooners' best strikeout pitcher, did not carry the earned run average of a presumed ace thanks to some shaky early season outings.
That, though, is a thing of the past, her ERA having come all the way down to 1.16, almost a full run less than her nearest teammate — Audrey Lowry: 2.10 — after running her scoreless-inning streak to 13 2/3 over four appearances.
The only question now is how Gasso choose’s to use Landry going forward, continuing to limit her to one start each weekend and bringing her in for relief work when needed; or, perhaps, give her starts on both Friday and Sunday in coming series, which is still not too taxing, even in a day and age in which softball coaches have quit abusing their best pitcher, a practice that used to be commonplace.
Whatever she decides, she’s found her ace.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. Tulsa 10-2 (6 innings)
— def. Arkansas 7-0
— def. Arkansas 6-4
— def. Arkansas 10-7
This week
— vs. East Texas A&M, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
— at Missouri, 5 p.m. Friday
— at Missouri, 2 p.m. Saturday
— at Missouri, noon Sunday
Record: 26-0
Streak: Won 26
Team numbers
Entering last week
Games: 22
Batting avg: .344
On-base pct: .481
Slugging pct: .680
Home runs: 46
Triples: 3
Doubles: 38
Stolen bases: 38
Caught stealing: 5
ERA: 1.78
SO/IP: 145/138
Fielding pct: .979
Errors: 12
Unearned runs allowed: 9
Entering this week
Games: 26
Batting avg: .339
On-base pct: .479
Slugging pct: .670
Home runs: 54
Triples: 4
Doubles: 46
Stolen bases: 41
Caught stealing: 7
ERA: 1.99
SO/IP: 171/165
Fielding pct: .981
Errors: 13
Unearned runs allowed: 10
Individual leaders
Batting average: Ella Parker .478. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas .400
On-base pct: Ella Parker .608, Cydney Sanders .548
Slugging pct: Sydney Barker, .964, Ella Parker .826
RBIs: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 28, Kasidi Pickering 28
Home runs: Gabbie Garcia 9, Kasidi Pickering 8, Isabela Emerling 8
Triples: Sydney Barker 2, Kasidi Pickering 1, Ailana Agbayani 1
Doubles: Ella Parker 12, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 9
Hits: Ella Parker 33, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 32
Runs: Ella Parker 30, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 30
Stolen bases: Dayton Abigale 10, Ella Parker 8, Ailana Agbayani 8
ERA: Sam Landry 1.16, Audrey Lowry 2.10
Wins: Sam Landry 7-0, Isabella Smith 7-0
Innings pitched: Sam Landry 48 1/3
Strikeouts: Sam Landry 69
Inside the numbers
• Garcia on fire: On Feb. 25, Gabbie Garcia went 0 for 2 against Bowling Green, dropping her batting average to .219. This is what she’s done in her 12 games since: Gone 18 of 34 (.529), bashed eight home runs, driven in 17, including seven against the Razorbacks, raising her batting average to .379 and her slugging percentage to .848. Oh, yeah, she’s a freshman.
• Difficult Deal: While Landry appears to have found all of her form, Kierston Deal is suddenly having a hard time getting opponents out, giving up 10 earned runs over her last 12 innings. Clearly struggling against Arkansas in two appearances, beyond allowing seven earned runs over 6 2/3 innings, she also walked the same number of batters she struck out: six.
• It’s still happening: Back when OU was 14 games into the season, Abigale Dayton had been hit by six pitches, while none of her teammates had been hit by more than three. Now she’s been hit by nine pitches, five more than any other teammate. It’s uncanny. A year ago, at Utah, she was hit by one pitch all season.
Notes of note
Missouri still dangerous
The Tigers, unranked, are just 16-14 (0-3 SEC) and slashing .281/.388/.512, a far cry from OU’s .339/.479/.670. They’re also coming off three straight losses to then-23rd-ranked Kentucky.
Still, they’ve had more success against one fantastic pitcher than anybody else perhaps ever has.
On March 2, against Nebraska, a 10-9 loss, Missouri walloped Husker starter and former Sooner Jordy Bahl for nine runs (seven earned) over seven innings of Bahl in the circle.
Erase that appearance from Bahl’s season stats and rather than having a 1.81 earned run average over 85 innings pitched, she’d instead have a 1.35 ERA over 78.
Two more notes on Bahl:
Somehow, she’s allowed 16 unearned runs this season, which is ridiculous; also, she’s not only the Huskers’ best pitcher, but their best hitter, too, exiting last weekend slashing .500/.557/1.071 with 11 home runs.
So good, so soon
The most effective offensive players on this Sooner team are all young.
It begins with a couple of sophomores:
Ella Parker, who’s two hits short of hitting .500 and is right now slashing .478/.608./.826, followed by Kasidi Pickering, who’s slashing .354/.547/.831 along with eight home runs and a co-team-high 28 RBIs.
Yet, a trio of freshmen are pushing them hard and, in some cases, surpassing them:
Gabbie Garcia is slashing .379/.453/.848 with a team-high nine home runs, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas is slashing .400/.478/.775 with a co-team-high 28 RBIs and Sydney Barker is slashing .357/.487/.964.
It’s an embarrassment of young riches.
Conference faves
OU is the only SEC team to have reached 6-0 in the conference standings.
LSU is 3-0 but has yet to play its second conference series. Texas is 2-0 pending the final game of its series against Florida later today in Gainesville. Mississippi State is 5-1. Texas A$M is 4-2.
Until next time …