Softball

[sybarite]

Sometimes, it's who you play.
Tonight final: Maryland 4 Florida 2
Michigan 4 Notre Dame 6
Alabama 2 Louisiana-Lafayette 11

Not all favorites won. Who did they play?

 

[sybarite]

OU sweeps, 7-5 and 2-1, both in 8 innings

 

[BlackwellSooner]

I was following along with Gametracker, (I don't think that it was televised) so maybe someone of you who were listening to the PBP on radio can explain how OU only got one run out of our 4th inning:

Romero singles to open the inning, Knighten flied out, Aviu doubled to left center, Dalton doubled to right center, with runners holding at 2nd and 3rd, and Romero scoring - - the ONLY score, since Mendes struck out looking and Takelauho flied out to RF.

Just overly cautious baserunning, or did the announcers cast some light at the time why back to back doubles following a single would not have scored at least 2 runs? I would have thought that Aviu would've scored behind Romero.

 

[sybarite]

I was following along with Gametracker, (I don't think that it was televised) so maybe someone of you who were listening to the PBP on radio can explain how OU only got one run out of our 4th inning:

Romero singles to open the inning, Knighten flied out, Aviu doubled to left center, Dalton doubled to right center, with runners holding at 2nd and 3rd, and Romero scoring - - the ONLY score, since Mendes struck out looking and Takelauho flied out to RF.

Just overly cautious baserunning, or did the announcers cast some light at the time why back to back doubles following a single would not have scored at least 2 runs? I would have thought that Aviu would've scored behind Romero.

I think it was overly-cautious base-running. If you haven't noticed, we do pinch run for Aviu a bit. I think she hesitated before leaving second, making sure it got down before she took off. Then, it was too late to go from second to home.

 

[SoonerSpock]

OU wins game 2 against Houston 2-1 in extra innings. Lowary had good control. Threw 4 innings, 4 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 WP and 0 HBP. Lopez gets the win on 3 innings, 0 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB's, 2 K's, 0 WP and 0 HBP.

Won with the international rules of a runner on 2nd to start extra innings and Clifton drove Arnold in as after Pendley flied out to start the 8th innning.

 

[sybarite]

NCAA stats

http://stats.ncaa.org/team/522.0/12580

 

[sybarite]

Alabama went to Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend and lost two of three: 3-0, 2-11, 0-7. It makes a difference when teams get away from home. Some haven't been on the road at all yet.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

Alabama went to Louisiana-Lafayette this weekend and lost two of three: 3-0, 2-11, 0-7. It makes a difference when teams get away from home. Some haven't been on the road at all yet.

Excellent Point. Coach Gasso obviously likes to play AWAY from home in warm weather locales early in the season. Look at the last 5 seasons. The following list details the number of games played AWAY from home to start each OU Softball season.

Start of Season Outside Norman
Season ... Games ... Losses
> 2017 ....... 14 ........ TBD
> 2016 ....... 14 .......... 4
> 2015 ....... 17 .......... 3
> 2014 ....... 15 .......... 5
> 2013 ....... 15 .......... 0

Florida has played all 11 of their games so far this season inside the State of Florida ... 5 at home in Gainesville ... 5 in Tampa ... 1 in Jacksonville.

 

[tycat947]

Excellent Point. Coach Gasso obviously likes to play AWAY from home in warm weather locales early in the season. Look at the last 5 seasons. The following list details the number of games played AWAY from home to start each OU Softball season.

Start of Season Outside Norman
Season ... Games ... Losses
> 2017 ....... 14 ........ TBD
> 2016 ....... 14 .......... 4
> 2015 ....... 17 .......... 3
> 2014 ....... 15 .......... 5
> 2013 ....... 15 .......... 0

Florida has played all 11 of their games so far this season inside the State of Florida ... 5 at home in Gainesville ... 5 in Tampa ... 1 in Jacksonville.

I think also our weather is so unpredictable at this time of year that we could have multiple cancellations if we scheduled many games in Norman during Feb. It's probably to our benefit in that we won't have games missed and also develops cohesion of players being away from home.

 

[sybarite]

Louisville ---Thursday 2:30
Tennessee --- Thursday 5:00
North Carolina State --- Friday 5:00
UCLA --- Friday 7:30
Notre Dame --- Saturday 12:00

Compliments of the Marquis de Sade.

Louisville 7-2
http://www.gocards.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball

Tennessee 9-0 with 6 run-rule games
http://www.utsports.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/

North Carolina State 2-7 lost five games to ranked teams
http://gopack.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball

UCLA 10-1
http://www.uclabruins.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball

Notre Dame 4-5 Has 1-5 record vs ranked teams
http://www.und.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/nd-w-softbl-sched.html

 

[scrybe]

The only thing hand-wringing gives you is…sore hands.

The Sooners are about due to start putting together all phases of their game. Wouldn't surprise me if they go 4-1 or even 5-0 this week.

 

[sybarite]

Louisville

SS Sidney Melton Jr 382
LF Jordan McNary Sr 333
DP Maryssa Becker Sr 385 3 15
DP/P Megan Hensley Soph 345 2 16
3B Lillie Goetz Soph 250
C Jenna Jordan Jr 321
CF Nicole Pufahl Jr 417 1 8
2B Jamie Soles Jr 182
RF Jordan Vorbrink Soph 083
1B Tiarra Sanabria Sr 000

C Alison Szydloowski Jr 385

P Maryssa Becker Sr 6-1 0.94
P Megan Hensley Soph 1-1 3.55


Tennessee

2B Aubrey Leach Soph 393
LF Jenna Holcomb Fr 500
DP Brooke Vines Soph 500
SS Meghan Gregg Jr 607
RF Megan Geer Sr 522
1B Taylor Rowland Fr 462
C Scarlet McSwain Jr 318
3B Chelsea Seggern Fr 200
CF CJ McClain Jr 316

P Matty Ross Soph 5-0 1.30
P Caylan Arnold Fr 4-0 0.00


Oklahoma

CF Nicole Pendley Jr 433 3 10
2B Caleigh Clifton Soph 400
DP Fale Aviu Soph 385 1 5
1B Shay Knighten Soph 417 0 9
3B Sidney Romero Soph 385 0 5
LF Alissa Dalton Fr 250-0 5
RF Macey Hatfield Sr 200
C Lea Wodach Jr 059
SS Kelsey Arnold Jr 227

P Paige Parker Jr 2-1 2.37
P Paige Lowary Jr 2-1 2.53
P Mariah Lopez Fr 1-0 2.25
P Nicole Mendes Fr 1-0 0.00

 

[sybarite]

2B Clifton
CF Pendley
3B Romero
1B Knighten
RF Aviu
DP Parker
LF Dalton
C Wodach
SS Arnold

P Lowary

 

[sybarite]

OU won 2-1 over Louisville with Paige Lowary pitching a four-hitter. We used a shift throughout since Louisville seemed only to hit slaps.

We only had four hits. Romero and Clifton had doubles. Knighten squeezed home Romero with the first run in the first. Pendley's grounder to the pitcher became an error that scored Clifton in the fifth.

 

[sybarite]

OU loses 2-1 to Tennessee as Romero lines to right with runners on first and third. The right fielder dove and caught it. If it gets down, OU ties or wins.

 

[SoonerSpock]

Definitely not expected with a veteran national championship squad but OU's start eerily similar to last year. Now we just need to get the focus and finish like we did in 2016.

Definitely see how repeating is a difficult task when all your opponents are focus on defeating the the defending national champs. Have go to start scoring some runs by bunching some hits together. This year we had 5 starters hitting .375+ and 3 over .400 and are hitting .304 as a team. Last year we hit .351 for the season with 7 over .345. We have played 1 more power 5 school and 1 more top 10 teams in the first 10 games this year than last year.

Also hit only 4 HR's on the season and did not have any in our first two games of this tournament. Last year 70 HR's in 65 games. Last year we had 4 games in which we scored 2 run or less this year we have already had 5 games in which we have scored two runs or less this year. Just got to hit'em where they ain't.

 

[sybarite]

Sometimes, you just have to step back and look at who they are playing.

The first weekend, OU lost two one-run games to Auburn and Washington, both highly-ranked.

So. Florida moved into the #1 slot, only to lose 2-4 to a Maryland team that was 0-8 going into that game.

So, Florida State moved up to #1. Tonight, they lost 2-0 to Texas A&M, a team that has lived off beating up on the Stephen F. Austin's of the world.

Georgia was blowing people out as long as they stayed at home. They were 12-0 with nine run-rule games, all in Athens, GA. Tonight, they ventured west to lose to BYU 4-0 and UCLA 10-5.

 

[Speedy17]

I think we are missing the leadership from last year. Erin and Kady were huge, this year we have one senior. The one thing about Erin is that she kept the team loose and happy. Yes, she could hit but she was the personality of the team. She had spent a ton of time with Lauren so confidence at the plate was not an issue. You just have this feeling of pressing when they are hitting against top teams right now.

 

[scrybe]

Tough loss (to Tennessee), no doubt. The Sooners have simply not been able to get the bats going. I have no doubt that will come; however, the strengths of this 2017 team may be pitching and defense more so than hitting.

RPI is, of course, crucial. As we get deeper into the season, the RPI needs to be high enough to assure ourselves of hosting a regional and super regional.

 

[j2d2]

I think we are missing the leadership from last year. Erin and Kady were huge, this year we have one senior. The one thing about Erin is that she kept the team loose and happy. Yes, she could hit but she was the personality of the team. She had spent a ton of time with Lauren so confidence at the plate was not an issue. You just have this feeling of pressing when they are hitting against top teams right now.

I agree.m They dont look or play as freely as they did last year. I dont see a lot of smiles.