New softball thread

[Speedy17]

Shelby can pitch to the good teams but she won't. She pitched well against Texas two weeks ago. Just like every other year including the national title year, OU will throw their ace in virtually every game. The only exception was Game 2 of the National Championship Series when Michelle threw the clincher.

 

[tycat947]

I figure that it will be Stevens or Pendley. I think Patti knows that Pendley really can't pitch to the best teams and would love to see Stevens back.

I think Shelby is at 93. That leaves seven, and those won't be easy. It will take another hot streak. The good news is that Texas and Baylor are behind us, and Shelby will be facing Utah Valley, North Texas, OSU, and Kansas in the rest of the regular season. That would give Shelby thirty in her senior year, same as Lauren in each of the first two years.

Patty's quotes last night on Kelsey:

On Shelby Pendley pitching well in relief:
“That was very important. That was part of our game plan to give Paige the night off. Shelby needed to get in a game and get some work because she is going to be very valuable, as well. We keep trying with Kelsey (Stevens). I don’t know what else to say other than we are making progress. It may not look like it to anyone else, but we see it every day and we know what it looks like. It is still not quite good enough for what we are looking for, but its baby steps until we can take one big leap.”

On what her message is to Stevens:
“I think the biggest thing is to let her know that we all support her. I would never turn my back on a player and these guys would never turn their backs on a teammate. Quite honestly it is frustrating. We are frustrated, and she is frustrated. The momentum and the style of the game becomes very slow and almost monotonous. It is not very fun for fans or for the defense and she knows that. If it was something that could be fixed easily it would be fixed by now. I feel for her. It is a hard situation and that is one of the toughest things for a great athlete. They get into a funk and as a coach how do you help them. We are just doing the best we can right now.”

 

[SoonerNorm]

I think Patty is doing the right thing by still trying to get a few innings for Stevens. As long as Patty sees some improvement, that's good enough for me.

 

[j2d2]

I think Patty is doing the right thing by still trying to get a few innings for Stevens. As long as Patty sees some improvement, that's good enough for me.

I agree absolutely. There's no magic bullet so it's amatter of the coache's best guess and I'll take Patty's best guess anytime.

I dont do twitter or that junk but it would be good, I think, to let Kelsey know that we are pulling for her and support her. How(outside of twitter, facebook, etc)?

 

[womenssports]

I agree absolutely. There's no magic bullet so it's amatter of the coache's best guess and I'll take Patty's best guess anytime.

I dont do twitter or that junk but it would be good, I think, to let Kelsey know that we are pulling for her and support her. How(outside of twitter, facebook, etc)?

email the coach

 

[scrybe]

I think Patty is doing the right thing by still trying to get a few innings for Stevens. As long as Patty sees some improvement, that's good enough for me.

I totally agree, Norm. And I still maintain that we will need quality innings from Stevens when we reach the postseason – especially if we make the Super Regionals and the CWS.

Speedy says he expects Patti to go with her ace in virtually every game in the postseason. But we need to remember that Kelsey was our ace last season. And the only reason that title has gone to a freshman (Paige) this year is by default. I love Paige Parker, but she's still a freshman, and a pitcher who may be asked to do more than she's capable of if we try to ride her arm through the entire postseason. And even if she is up to the task, where would we turn if she were to get injured (heaven forbid)?

I continue to believe Patti will do everything in her power to get Stevens back on track in time for postseason play. We'll need her if we have any hopes of winning another national title.

 

[Speedy17]

I totally agree, Norm. And I still maintain that we will need quality innings from Stevens when we reach the postseason – especially if we make the Super Regionals and the CWS.

Speedy says he expects Patti to go with her ace in virtually every game in the postseason. But we need to remember that Kelsey was our ace last season. And the only reason that title has gone to a freshman (Paige) this year is by default. I love Paige Parker, but she's still a freshman, and a pitcher who may be asked to do more than she's capable of if we try to ride her arm through the entire postseason. And even if she is up to the task, where would we turn if she were to get injured (heaven forbid)?

I continue to believe Patti will do everything in her power to get Stevens back on track in time for postseason play. We'll need her if we have any hopes of winning another national title.

People forget that Paige is battle tested. She is one of the few pitchers in the United States to have beaten Team Japan (the best team in the world today). She is not the ace by default, she was always going to be the ace this year just like Keilani Ricketts was going to be the ace when she was a frosh. Unfortunately, I think that may be one of Kelsey's problems because she was not expecting to be recruited over so quickly. As for Paige, she is actually ahead of Keilani at the plate and in perfect games. Her ERA is 1.46 and she has thrown well in tough places like Baton Rouge and Austin. Her strike to ball ratio is at 70% while Kelsey is sitting at 56%. You can't walk people and win.

Keilani Ricketts dominated the pitching innings in the post season and Michelle Gascoigne is one of the best pitchers in the world. Out of 35 post season games over 4 years, Ricketts started 33 of the games. In these games, Ricketts pitched 213 innings, Gascoigne pitched 28 innings, and Allen pitched 1 inning.

Freshman
2010 Regional at College Park, MD
Syracuse 10-0 (5) Ricketts 4 IP and Gascoigne 1 IP
Fordham 1-0 Ricketts 7 IP
Fordham 2-0 Ricketts 7 IP

2010 Super Regional at Seattle, WA
Washington 6-1 Ricketts 7 IP
Washington 0-3 Ricketts 6 IP and Gascoigne 1 IP
Washington 0-4 Ricketts 6 IP

Total
Ricketts 37 Innings Gascoigne 2 Innings

Sophomore
2011 Regional at Norman, OK
Iona 7-1 Ricketts 7 IP
Tulsa 6-0 Ricketts 6 IP and Gascoigne 1 IP
Tulsa 3-4 Ricketts 8.2 IP and Gascoigne . 1 IP
Tulsa 5-0 Gascoigne 7 IP

2011 Super Regional at Norman, OK
Arizona 6-0 Ricketts 7 IP
Arizona 5-2 Ricketts 7 IP

2011 WCWS
Arizona State 1-3 Ricketts 6 IP
Missouri 1-4 Ricketts 6 IP

Total
Ricketts 54.2 Innings Gascoigne 8.1 Innings

Junior
2012 Regional at Norman, OK
Lehigh 19-3 (5) Ricketts 3 IP Gascoigne 1 IP Allen 1 IP
Tulsa 7-1 Ricketts 7 IP
Oregon State 6-0 Ricketts 7 IP

2012 Super Regional at Norman, OK
Arizona 6-0 Ricketts 7 IP
Arizona 7-1 Ricketts 7 IP

2012 WCWS
USF 5-1 Ricketts 7 IP
California 3-0 Ricketts 7 IP
Arizona State 5-3 Ricketts 7 IP

2012 Championship Series
Alabama 4-1 Ricketts 7 IP
Alabama 6-8 Ricketts 3.1 Gascoigne 3.2
Alabama 4-5 Ricketts 6 IP

Total
Ricketts 68.1 Innings Gascoigne 4.2 Innings Allen 1 Inning

Senior
2013 Regional at Norman, OK
Marist 17-0 (5) Ricketts 3 IP Gascoigne 2 IP
Arkansas 10-5 Ricketts 5.2 Gascoigne 1.1
Arkansas 14-1 (5) Ricketts 2.1 Gascoigne 2.2

2013 Super Regional at Norman, OK
Texas A&M 10-2 (6) Ricketts 6 IP
Texas A&M 8-0 (5) Ricketts 5 IP

2013 WCWS
Michigan 7-1 Ricketts 7 IP
Texas 10-2 (5) Ricketts 5 IP
Washington 6-2 Ricketts 7 IP

2013 Championship Series
Tennessee 5-3 Ricketts 12 IP
Tennessee 4-0 Gascoigne 7 IP

Total
Ricketts 53 Innings Gascoigne 13 Innings

 

[sybarite]

Thanks. Good information.

 

[sybarite]

Thanks to oldenslow of SoonerTimes for this link:

https://gc.com/t/spring-2015/sooners-542961b13eb3f800b1970c35/stats

Gamechanger is free.

 

[scrybe]

I don't recall Ricketts giving up eight runs to any team during her last couple of years as a Sooner. But I wouldn't be surprised if it happened occasionally during her freshman and sophomore seasons.

As a freshman, Paige is not as dominant a pitcher as Ricketts was in her senior year. Paige is a great young pitcher, and by the time she's a senior she may be even better than Ricketts was in her final season. She'll never have the velocity that Keilani had, but she may already have a greater variety of pitches, and the command she has of those pitches is extraordinary.

However, we witnessed in the first game of the Baylor series what can happen when all of Paige's pitches aren't working for her and she doesn't have her usual pinpoint control. Hopefully, she won't have one of those type outings against teams like Florida or Oregon. But if that does happen, we'd better hope we have a workable Plan B (Stevens? Pendley?) or we'll be in trouble.

Patti knew in 2013 that our chances of winning the CWS title were greatly enhanced by having Gascoigne available. Would Keilani have dominated Tennessee if Patti had gone with her again in game two of the CWS finals? Maybe. But Patti understood that having two world-class pitchers gave her a huge advantage over just about every other team in the CWS.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I totally agree, Norm. And I still maintain that we will need quality innings from Stevens when we reach the postseason – especially if we make the Super Regionals and the CWS.

Speedy says he expects Patti to go with her ace in virtually every game in the postseason. But we need to remember that Kelsey was our ace last season. And the only reason that title has gone to a freshman (Paige) this year is by default. I love Paige Parker, but she's still a freshman, and a pitcher who may be asked to do more than she's capable of if we try to ride her arm through the entire postseason. And even if she is up to the task, where would we turn if she were to get injured (heaven forbid)?

I continue to believe Patti will do everything in her power to get Stevens back on track in time for postseason play. We'll need her if we have any hopes of winning another national title.

I agree with you. I think it is very unlikely we can win a NC without Stevens returning to form. Paige is good but she is not as dominant as some top pitchers. Great pitching beats great hitting.

 

[SoonerNorm]

http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=210039066

 

[j2d2]

For the life of me I cant find an email address for any coach. Ive seen them in the past but, if they are available, OU has done a good job of making thier location hard to find.

 

[sybarite]

Paige did NOT give up eight runs to Baylor. She gave up four runs in five innings. Leslie Miller gave up four runs in one inning in relief.

 

[scrybe]

Paige did NOT give up eight runs to Baylor. She gave up four runs in five innings. Leslie Miller gave up four runs in one inning in relief.

My point stands, syb. If Patti had not pulled her when she did, Paige likely would have given up more than eight runs.

 

[tycat947]

My point stands, syb. If Patti had not pulled her when she did, Paige likely would have given up more than eight runs.

She could have, but that night the whole team was in a funk. Haven't seen that in a long time. I think the weight of Lauren's race to the record was weighing heavy on everyone that game. Although Stearns was pitching well, her record was like 13-6 at that time and hadn't really shown to be that strong to shut down a powerful offense like we have. Leslie was pulled also or she would have given up more runs as well. Hypocrite U had the game of the year for them and we had one of the poorer, if not worst, performances that we've had this year. All around, not just in the circle. We've had games like that before and Patty always uses to her advantage. We were run ruled at home against the whorns last year.

 

[sybarite]

The game today is at 6:30 on FSN. It is 648 on UVerse in Dallas. While OU leads the conference with an 11-1 conference record, OSU is next-to-last (sixth) with a 3-9 record. They did shut out Baylor in Stillwater. In conference play, OU is out-hitting OSU 336 to 268. There is a 21-8 home run differential. OSU's ERA is 5.14. OU's is 2.30. Shelby Davis is a good hitter at 500 in conference play, twenty singles and two triples.

Probable OU lineup
Chamberlain 435 18 55
Pendley, S. 454 23 58
Miller, E. 436 7 44
Self 398 9 34
Casey 303 2 16
Parker 387 9 35
Pendley, N 383 6 30
Ellis 314 1 18
Arnold 315 2 17

Bench
Nirschl 400 2 9
Wodach 346 4 17
Vest 429 3 16
Parsons 321 0 5

 

[Speedy17]

I don't recall Ricketts giving up eight runs to any team during her last couple of years as a Sooner. But I wouldn't be surprised if it happened occasionally during her freshman and sophomore seasons.

As a freshman, Paige is not as dominant a pitcher as Ricketts was in her senior year. Paige is a great young pitcher, and by the time she's a senior she may be even better than Ricketts was in her final season. She'll never have the velocity that Keilani had, but she may already have a greater variety of pitches, and the command she has of those pitches is extraordinary.

However, we witnessed in the first game of the Baylor series what can happen when all of Paige's pitches aren't working for her and she doesn't have her usual pinpoint control. Hopefully, she won't have one of those type outings against teams like Florida or Oregon. But if that does happen, we'd better hope we have a workable Plan B (Stevens? Pendley?) or we'll be in trouble.

Patti knew in 2013 that our chances of winning the CWS title were greatly enhanced by having Gascoigne available. Would Keilani have dominated Tennessee if Patti had gone with her again in game two of the CWS finals? Maybe. But Patti understood that having two world-class pitchers gave her a huge advantage over just about every other team in the CWS.

People have to remember a couple of things about last week. The Thursday night game came on ESPN with the Chamberlain Home Run situation going full tilt. Paige was coming off being National Player of the Week by one poll and National Pitcher of the Week by the other poll. The focus was completely off on that Thursday game. Would she have given up 4 additional runs to make it 8-0, I doubt it. Instead, OU pitches Leslie Miller (which says a lot of where Kelsey Stevens is at this point) who had pitched 1 inning all season. Missing in this entire conversation is the the Baylor Coach Moore saying that they had scouted Paige for weeks going into the series. She

As for velocity, OU has slowed Paige down. They also slowed Ricketts down to focus upon control. Paige can hit the low 70's easily right now but is throwing about 65-66 for location. Ricketts was normally throwing 68 when she could reach the low to mid 70's even when she was a senior.

Comparing Ricketts senior year to Paige's freshman year is not a fair comparison. Frosh to Frosh is a much better comparison. Ricketts could not throw the crop duster when she was a frosh. As far as Frosh to Frosh, Paige is right there with Ricketts.

As far as the #2 pitcher in the NCAA, it will be Shelby. Shelby can hit 65 as well. The only thing either pitcher needs to do is keep the ball in the park and not walk people. I don't believe Kelsey can do that at this point. If Patti had left her on the mound on Monday, OU would have lost to North Texas. It will be Shelby as the #2 when it counts.

Next year, OU has Brittany Finney coming in who is more highly rated than Paige. The year after Mariah Lopez is coming to Norman who is the #1 rated player in the nation as a pitcher.

 

[sybarite]

Jayden Chestnut is also coming in. I'm not sure about the ratings with Finney vs Parker. She is rated higher than Paige, but that seems to be due to more exposure in summer ball.

Melanie Olmos and Nicole Mendes come in with Mariah Lopez, and all are rather highly-rated. Mendes is also an outfielder. Then, we get Brooke Vestal and Gracie Green. Good times ahead.

 

[tycat947]

People have to remember a couple of things about last week. The Thursday night game came on ESPN with the Chamberlain Home Run situation going full tilt. Paige was coming off being National Player of the Week by one poll and National Pitcher of the Week by the other poll. The focus was completely off on that Thursday game. Would she have given up 4 additional runs to make it 8-0, I doubt it. Instead, OU pitches Leslie Miller (which says a lot of where Kelsey Stevens is at this point) who had pitched 1 inning all season. Missing in this entire conversation is the the Baylor Coach Moore saying that they had scouted Paige for weeks going into the series. She

As for velocity, OU has slowed Paige down. They also slowed Ricketts down to focus upon control. Paige can hit the low 70's easily right now but is throwing about 65-66 for location. Ricketts was normally throwing 68 when she could reach the low to mid 70's even when she was a senior.

Comparing Ricketts senior year to Paige's freshman year is not a fair comparison. Frosh to Frosh is a much better comparison. Ricketts could not throw the crop duster when she was a frosh. As far as Frosh to Frosh, Paige is right there with Ricketts.

As far as the #2 pitcher in the NCAA, it will be Shelby. Shelby can hit 65 as well. The only thing either pitcher needs to do is keep the ball in the park and not walk people. I don't believe Kelsey can do that at this point. If Patti had left her on the mound on Monday, OU would have lost to North Texas. It will be Shelby as the #2 when it counts.

Next year, OU has Brittany Finney coming in who is more highly rated than Paige. The year after Mariah Lopez is coming to Norman who is the #1 rated player in the nation as a pitcher.

Thanks for the info! I agree about the Paige versus Keilani comparisons. I'm not so sure that Paige isn't stronger than Keilani was as a freshman but she's not close to what Keilani was as a junior/senior. Paige has a much better offense behind her than Keilani did as a freshman though. We are very fortunate to have had Keilani and are very fortunate to have Paige and I think she will be All-American before her career is over. After working with Melyssa and Tripp the next couple of years, I think Paige's best days are ahead of her in spite of how good she is now. I doubt she can reach where Keilani was when she graduated, but really, who can? Paige may have an advantage over Keilani as a freshman in that she doesn't seem to get rattled at all. I think Shelby is a very capable backup but I think she's more important on defense so I'm hopeful Kelsey can get back to at least providing a couple of innings relief at some point. Our chances will be a lot better if that happens.