Week 7 OU Softball Report: Sooners left to regroup after messy series with Missouri
When the Sooners get back on the field at Wichita State Wednesday night, they’ll no longer the best last team standing without a loss.
Instead, they’ll be the last team standing with one loss, given Texas and LSU both dropped a game last week: the Longhorns to Florida, the final contest of a three-game set held over to last Monday, and the Tigers to Georgia, even by run-rule, on Sunday.
If curious about the trivia aspect of Oklahoma’s first setback against the fortunes of the program’s last four championship teams, here it is:
OU’s 3-1 Saturday loss at Missouri arrived the 29th game of the season.
A year ago, the first setback came the 19th game of the season to Louisiana; and no, Sooner ace Sam Landry was not the Rajun Cajuns’ pitcher that day, but Chloe Riassetto, who’s now on staff with NiJaree Canady at Texas Tech.
In 2023, OU fell the ninth game of the season, a non-conference affair at Baylor.
In 2022, it was the 39th game against Texas, and in 2021 the 34th game against Georgia.
The issues leading to the loss were two-fold.
One, beyond Sam Landry, it’s unclear who coach Patty Gasso’s next best choice on her pitching staff might be and how that pitcher might perform on any given day.
Two, the Sooners flat didn’t get it done at the plate, despite having more than enough baserunners to do more than enough damage.
More on that below.
After coming home from Wichita, OU welcomes Tennessee for a three-game set beginning Friday at Love’s Field.
The Volunteers were ranked No. 7 entering last week, but that was before dropping the first two games of their series to visiting Arkansas, a team OU has already swept.
The Schedule
Last week
— def. East Texas A&M 8-0 (5 innings)
— def. Missouri 8-0 (5 innings)
— lost to Missouri 3-1
— def. Missouri 5-1
This week
— at Wichita State, 6 p.m. Wednesday
— vs. Tennessee, 6:30 p.m. Friday
— vs. Tennessee, 1 p.m. Saturday
— vs. Tennessee, 1 p.m. Sunday
Record: 29-1
Streak: Won 1
Team numbers
Entering last 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
Entering this week
Games: 30
Batting avg: .332
On-base pct: .469
Slugging pct: .650
Home runs: 60
Triples: 4
Doubles: 50
Stolen bases: 45
Caught stealing: 7
ERA: 1.90
SO/IP: 194/188
Fielding pct: .980
Errors: 14
Unearned runs allowed: 10
Individual leaders
Batting average: Ella Parker .436, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas .409
On-base pct: Ella Parker .556, Kasidi Pickering .546
Slugging pct: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas .839, Gabbie Garcia .831
RBIs: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 33, Kasidi Pickering 27
Home runs: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 10, Gabbie Garcia 10
Triples: Sydney Barker 2, Kasidi Pickering 1, Ailana Agbayani 1
Doubles: Ella Parker 12, Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 10
Hits: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 38, Ella Parker 34
Runs: Nelly McEnroe-Marinas 36, Ella Parker 31
Stolen bases: Dayton Abigale 11, Ella Parker 8, Ailana Agbayani 8
ERA (Min. 20 innings): Sam Landry 1.04, Audrey Lowry 2.10
Wins: Sam Landry 9-0, Isabella Smith 7-1
Innings pitched: Sam Landry 60 1/3, Kierston Deal 44 2/3
Strikeouts: Sam Landry 82, Isabella Smith 36
Inside the numbers
• Near perfect: The Sooner pitching staff came up with a combined five-inning no-hitter against East Texas A&M last Wednesday. Isabella Smith tossed two innings, striking out four, Kierston Deal threw a perfect inning and little-used Paytn Monticelli tossed two hitless and scoreless frames, striking out two but walking a batter, killing the perfect game.
• Parker slumping: Ella Parker continues to lead OU with her .436 batting average, yet a week ago that average was .478. Parker went 1 for 9 against Missouri, the only hit a Friday home run. She had been slashing .478/.608/.826 but is now slashing .436/.556/.782.
• McEnroe-Marinas ridiculous: The redshirt freshman went 6 for 13 at the plate last week, drove in five runs, scored six and hit three home runs, one per game against Missouri. She’s now tied for the team lead in home runs (10), leads the team in RBIs (33) and is slashing .409/.481/.839.
Notes of note
No. 2 in the circle?
While Sam Landry’s lapping the rest of her pitching staff, starting and completing both Friday’s and Sunday’s games against Missouri, allowing one run and five hits over 12 innings, striking out 13, walking only one and hitting two batters, the big question is who’s OU’s next best option.
Isabella Smith got the call against the Tigers on Saturday but gave up six hits and two runs before being lifted for Kierston Deal, who was effective over four innings despite walking three batters, allowing a hit and a run. Yet, in Deal’s two previous outings, each against Arkansas, she combined to throw 6 2/3 innings, allowed eight hits and eight runs, seven earned.
Paytn Monticelli has an earned run average of 1.87 but is hardly being used. She tossed two hitless and scoreless innings against East Texas A&M, but was not used against Missouri.
Audrey Lowry might be a possibility, yet hasn’t pitched since March 12 against Tulsa.
Not a Sooner kind of series
It’s not just that OU finally lost a game at Missouri, but that it wasn’t really itself the whole series.
OU won by run-rule on Friday, but put up zeroes in the second, third and fourth innings after scoring three times in the first, before exploding again in the fifth.
Saturday, the loss, in addition to getting five hits, the Sooners were also walked five times and hit by a pitch, which is a whole lot of baserunners (11) to get only one home.
Sunday, it was one run through five innings before scoring twice in both the sixth and seventh innings; OU finished with six hits total, making for 11 over two games, which isn’t much.
The Sooners also committed three errors in the series.
Conference standing
The Sooners continue to lead the SEC with an 8-1 league mark, but are now tied in the loss column with three other squads: Texas (5-1), LSU (5-1), Mississippi State (5-1).
Texas and LSU are both top-five teams, but the Bulldogs are a bit of a surprise, having swept Auburn before taking two of three at Alabama.
Until next time …