Softball

I don't think the idea of playing us and OSU every year is any more challenging than playing UCLA, Washington, Arizona and Arizona St. He should be able to recruit to Texas just fine. I don't think his Oregon was bad at defense as texas is this year, but he should be able to get that righted.
 
gwydion said:
I don't think the idea of playing us and OSU every year is any more challenging than playing UCLA, Washington, Arizona and Arizona St. He should be able to recruit to Texas just fine. I don't think his Oregon was bad at defense as texas is this year, but he should be able to get that righted.
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I agree. No where is the Big 12 as challenging as the Pac 12 but I tend to think M. White felt is only real concern in the Big 12 would be OU and in 3 years he could narrow the gap significantly. Instead he may have taken a step back.

Also think he is finding the pukes much more challenging than he anticipated. White is an excellent coach and will continue to elevate the program. But it is not going to be as easy as he may have once thought. But few anticipated how good of a job Kenny Gajewski is doing in Stoolwater.
JMHO.
 
Pukes sweeps whorns 6-4. Next weeks series in Stoolwater with the pukes is for the Big 12 regular season championship. OU is 14-0 and Pukes 14-1.
 
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TheMont said:
Though it doesn't break my heart when Texas falls short of expectations, it should be noted that Texas's star pitcher/hitter Miranda Ellish opted out for the season. She's a conference POY type player, and they would be much stronger with her.
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True but the issue has not just been in the circle for the whorns in 6 games against OU (30 runs) and OSU (14 runs) the whorns have scored 1, 2, 0, 1, 1 and 4 runs. Scoring 9 runs in 6 games is going to get you beat against OU and OSU's offenses. Especially when both have the quality pitching they have.
 
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How a California travel-ball squad became an Oklahoma star pipeline

By Joe Buettner
Transcript Sports Editor

Without Sydney Romero, perhaps Oklahoma doesn’t land Jocelyn Alo.

Without Alo, perhaps it doesn’t get Tiare Jennings.

What a different world that would be for OU softball, which enters Bedlam this weekend at 40-1 and the top-ranked team in the country, in part to the recruiting pipeline that keeps on giving.

Both Romero and Alo earned All-America selections in 2018 and ‘19. Jennings, a freshman and USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist, is poised to join the club.

Their common link?

Playing for the Orange County Batbusters.

The youth travel-ball organization has been kind to veteran OU skipper Patty Gasso, who’s built a strong relationship with the club’s coaches in her efforts to identify talent to bring to Marita Hynes Field.

“When they say this girl is a prime-time, big-time collegiate athlete, that is what they said about Tiare Jennings,” Gasso said, “and that coach I really believe in and trust in his opinions, and he was 100% right.”

Jennings, a San Pedro, California, native, is batting .500 with 70 RBIs, 65 hits and a nation third-leading 22 home runs.

Did we mention she’s a freshman?

Right with her is Alo, the fellow former Orange County Batbuster, who has 68 RBIs, 59 hits, a .492 batting average and a nation- leading 25 home runs. Though getting past ninth-ranked Oklahoma State might make things trickier, the pair ought to be a major reason OU has a chance to finish undefeated in Big 12 play this weekend for the third consecutive season.

The Sooners’ supply of Batbusters doesn’t stop with Alo and Jennings.

Alanna Thiede, Kinzie Hansen, Nicole May, Olivia Rains, Taylon Snow and Zaida Puni played for the Orange County organization.

But it all started with Romero.

It could have, however, began with her older sister,

Sierra.

Gasso did everything she could to land Sierra Romero before she ultimately signed with Michigan.

Sierra Romero didn’t pressure her younger sister into following her. She actually encouraged her to attend OU after she left her Norman visit with a feeling she didn’t experience anywhere else. Sierra Romero went on to win the 2016 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award and was a four-time All-America selection.

Gasso’s consolation prize of the recruiting pipeline that’s partially fueled her program’s dominant run over the last half-decade has turned out just fine.

It’s difficult enough to find players ready for the pressures of competing for an elite program, especially one that’s captured three national championships since 2013 and back-toback titles in ‘16 and ‘17.

It wasn’t long before Jennings showed her abilities, arriving to campus last fall, hitting home runs in practice off of an OU pitching staff that led the team to the 2019 Women’s College World Series championship against UCLA.

“The competition was just absolutely off the charts over the fall,” Hansen said. “That was when I kind of sat back and I was like, they’re gonna be unreal.”

Sydney Romero, who’s now a student assistant coach on Gasso’s staff, feels the same, watching the program littered with talent from the same travel-ball club she once played for.

“It’s been really fun to watch,” Romero said. “To be completely honest, I thought our class and team was good, but I see this group and I’m like, they’re unreal.

“Unreal.”

Romero, nor Alo, needed much time to find their groove in Norman, and Jennings is doing the same.

Their common link is the organization that’s been generous to OU.

Their talent and mentality, fostered within the elite youth program, is another.

“There are other athletes that I get that I have great expectations for, and they come out here and I’m like, ‘whoa, wait a minute,’ this is gonna take us some time,” Gasso said.

“... Some of it isn’t even athletic ability, it’s more of mindset, and uncertainties. Just a lot of different insecurities, uncertainties. Do I belong here? Am I good enough? It can really spiral out of control. So, what you’re really looking for is those kids that are really quietly confident in themselves. and Tiare was that to a T.”
 
Pukes lead OU 5-4 top of the 5th. Juarez succumbed to her achilles heel allowing 3 HRs in 3 innings for 5 runs. Not a good sign going forward. OU only has 3 hits off Eberle but 2 were 2 run HRs (Coleman & Alo). May in the circle.

Eberle is going to be tough to beat. OU down in the top of the 5th with no hits.
 
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Down 6-4... The bottom of our lineup has been horrible this game and it seems like all we can do is pop up with the exception of Coleman and Hanson. I'm convinced that we are not the best team in the country at this point. We have a week schedule and the three times I've seen us play we have lost one against Georgia and possibly a second against OSU. Even if we lose tonight I doubt OSU will take us in the series, but I don't think we are capable of beating the likes of UCLA after what I've seen :-(
 
No question Juarez facing a quality hitting team for one of the very few time this season and allowing 3 dingers in 2.1 innings is a declaration that she has not recovered her surgery sufficiently to successfully face the top team in the post season or be expected to likely lead us to winning the WCWS. But who knows how far the Sooners can advance before facing their demise. You cannot have you ace get hammered like she did by the pukes.
 
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OU 11 pukes 8. OU scored 7 unearned runs as the pukes puked with 4 errors should have been 5. Nicole May had the save.
 
A big shout out to the whole team (great defense) and possibly player of the week.....

Nicole May
 
Sooner04 said:
Our pitching concerns me.
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Big ditto. Our close games this season feel a lot the 2017 and 2018 football teams -- we need every bit of our electric offense to win games, and I nervously bite my nails to the bone when we don't have the ball.

Though, to be fair, OU's pitching this year is nowhere near as bad as OU football's defense was at the end of the Mike Stoops era. I just hope the pitching woes don't hold us back from a championship like the Stoops defense did. I don't see us running the table without an elite game or two out of G.
 
TheMont said:
Big ditto. Our close games this season feel a lot the 2017 and 2018 football teams -- we need every bit of our electric offense to win games, and I nervously bite my nails to the bone when we don't have the ball.

Though, to be fair, OU's pitching this year is nowhere near as bad as OU football's defense was at the end of the Mike Stoops era. I just hope the pitching woes don't hold us back from a championship like the Stoops defense did. I don't see us running the table without an elite game or two out of G.
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I expect UCLA to be a relatively heavy favorite to win the Natty because they have most of their 2019 national championship team still available. The have two outstanding with Garcia who beat us twice in the 2019 WCWS and Faraimo a near elite starter. And while we know that great pitching normally beats great hitting but this year's Sooner are not just a great hitting team they may be the best hitting team of all time. We will definitely have more than just a chance for that Natty. JMHO!
 
SoonerSpock said:
I expect UCLA to be a relatively heavy favorite to win the Natty because they have most of their 2019 national championship team still available. The have two outstanding with Garcia who beat us twice in the 2019 WCWS and Faraimo a near elite starter. And while we know that great pitching normally beats great hitting but this year's Sooner are not just a great hitting team they may be the best hitting team of all time. We will definitely have more than just a chance for that Natty. JMHO!
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Our pitching concerns me, too. Our offense is really good, I’m just not sure they can manufacture enough runs to beat the best teams we’ll face later on if G or Shannon don’t improve. I’m hoping one of them, or both, will rise to the occasion when the tournament lights come on.

Nicole May has been the most reliable of the three lately. Any chance Patty moves her into a starting position, or is that too much too soon for our freshman closer?
 
AdaSooner said:
Our pitching concerns me, too. Our offense is really good, I’m just not sure they can manufacture enough runs to beat the best teams we’ll face later on if G or Shannon don’t improve. I’m hoping one of them, or both, will rise to the occasion when the tournament lights come on.

Nicole May has been the most reliable of the three lately. Any chance Patty moves her into a starting position, or is that too much too soon for our freshman closer?
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Interesting question. May had 10 starts in her 21 appearances but only 2 (ISU & Texas) of her 10 starts were against conference teams or Georgia. Her last 6 appearances were all in relief as were 8 of her 10 appearances after the conference season began.

I don't see that changing as I see Patty and Rocha not wanting to take Juarez out of starting game 1 of a series for fear of damaging her confidence. And Saile who was her primary reliever/closer in 2019 has had massive recent control issues as we witnessed in game 3 against the pukes when she walked 4 and hit a batter in 2/3 of an inning.

Patty and Rocha are in a quandary.
 
I think the fears are way overblown. We just won 2 out of 3 against the second best offense in the country. It wasn't surprising that our pitchers struggled somewhat against a team with hitting as good as OSU's.

We've lost two games all season – one because we were tired and disinterested (yeah, if Bama can use that excuse, so can we) and the other against a Top 5-6 team that was jacked out of their minds wanting to beat OU.

Though I'm not a betting man, I predict that G and Shannon will pitch much better in the Big XII tourney and the rest of the postseason. The Sooners will have no problem beating the teams we'll see in regionals and SR. When we get to the WCWS, we can still win with great offense and average-to-good performances from G, Shannon and Nicole.

I'd say our chances of beating Montana Fouts or Gabbie Plain are about 60 percent. Not more than 50 percent chance of beating Garcia.
 
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