Interesting softball weekend, good and bad. And maybe worse.

[Plainosooner]

OU played in a very tough tournament over the weekend. Five games in three days. One undefeated ranked team, and four ranked teams, two were in the WCWS last weekend. It's sort of good news that the Sooners went three and two.

They opened the tournament with a 6-4 loss to Oregon State. For the second time this season. Paige Parker gave up a walk off home run in a tournament loss. The first was 1-0 to Minnesota. Thursday, it came with two outs and the Sooners leading 4-3 in B7.

The Sooners came back to get a Thursday split, beating Utah, also of the Pac 12, 6-2. Utah is 12-5 this season so far, but all five losses are to ranked teams: Notre Dame, Kentucky, Fresno State, OU and Florida. Florida, Kentucky and ND all beat them by a run. Fresno shut them out 2-0. Only the OU game was not a nail biter.

Friday, the Sooners got another split, and maybe the most noteworthy news of the weekend. After her game one loss, Parker didn't throw a pitch the rest of the weekend. She was nursing a knee problem during the off season. She's not been as effective so far this season as last year. Let's hope the rest will help.

Again, ,they lost the first game of the day, to number two ranked Michigan. The offense was pretty good. After falling behind 4-0, the Sooners took a 6-4, then after a three run home by the Wolverines, OU tied it 7-7 after five. But Michigan's offense is tough, and without Parker, and with starter Kelsey Stevens over 130 pitches, after a complete game win the day before, the Sooner freshman pitchers came in and it ended up 16-9, after a seven run sixth for Michigan.

Fresno was next. Undefeated entering the weekend, but the Sooner freshman Jayden Chestnut , had a momentum turning coming out party. Stevens started, and walked the first three batters, and threw two wild pitches. Chestnut came in down 0-1 with no outs and runners at second and third and struck out three straight. She then cruised through the sixth, gave up a one out solo homer in the seventh, then a two out walk, but caught a line drive for the final out. That made the Sooners 9-4 for the year.

The highlight of the weekend was a Saturday win over tenth ranked UCLA, 11-7, the other WCWS team for the weekend, to go to 10-4. Stevens started again, walked the first two again ... on eight pitches, two wild pitches again and Chestnut entered again in the first with no outs and runners at second and third. UCLA put up a four spot, but afterward, she yielded only three more. The Sooners scored six in the 2nd and never trailed again. Eleven runs on 18 hits including homers by Romero and Wodach. Patty is playing with her batting order a lot. She seems to have settled on Miller hitting third and Wodach fourth. Right now Romero is leading off, partly because of Aviu dealing with a leg injury. And she moved Pendley to ninth in the order. Nicole went four for four, scored three runs and drove in two.

But these five game weekends have been pretty taxing on the pitching staff. Parker only pitched in one of the five games. Gave up six runs in a 6-4 loss. Stevens started four games. The first one was a well earned win. The second she gave up 12 runs. The other two, she faced five batters and wallked all five, throwing four wild pitches and 20 balls in 26 pitches. Chestnut saved the weekend. After the loss to second ranked Michigan, she pitched seven innings in both wins, cleaning up Steven's messes coming from those same control problems that plagued her a year ago.

It is great to have found an apparently reliable freshman pitcher. But the rest of the staff looks a little shaky right now. We need some quick healing. Next weekend is the home opener, double header against Dartmouth. Then a couple of midweek games the net two weeks, and two more weekends after of five team tournaments, one in Norman. Then they'll be getting into a more regular schedule, with a game a day on the weekend and maybe one during the week. The conference opener is one Wednesday game against OSU in Oklahoma City, March 30.

 

[Plainosooner]

Oh yeah, and the other interesting softball thing this weekend, Tulsa went to Austin and gave the Horns their first loss of the year, 3-0 on a two hit shutout. Texas has played every game in Austin except for one trip to Houston for a five game weekend. Then TU got beat by Abilene Christian the next day. The Horns still just have the one loss.

 

[sybarite43]

I'm not sure how much concern there should be about Paige at this point. She gave up four hits in the opener. It just so happened that the last one was a walk-off home run. She came back to pitch three scoreless innings against Lamar and three more against Long Beach State, a team that destroyed Minnesota.

The next week, she pitched five innings of four hit ball and six innings of four-hit ball as she held down New Mexico State to one run and held New Mexico State scoreless. Basically, that's about 24 innings with two runs scored.

She did allow several extra-base hits to Oregon State, the last of which was a three-run home run. Later that day, she allowed a three-run home run in relief of Kelsey against Michigan..

There is a pattern. Going back to last year, we have lost some games late due to home runs allowed by Paige in the sixth and seventh innings. I wonder if she doesn't tire or lose concentration. This year, every home run has been after she has pitched several innings that day. Supposedly, she tweaked her knee, and we'll have to see how that develops.

Kelsey had been doing pretty well until she was blasted by Michigan. Well, Michigan hits a lot of teams. They are 11-2, having lost 8-0 to Florida and 6-5 to Washington (there are the Huskies again). They tend to score a lot of runs. After that, Kelsey never seemed to throw another strike all weekend.

But, I think Jayden and Brit indicated that they can win the average game. Both have pitched well, except in relief. Both have wins in starts. I don't know if they are ready to face Florida just yet. Give them time.

We might have a different picture had not we faced an All-America pitcher in our first game with all of these freshmen. She beat us 1-0. She is now 7-2 (Washington killed her, too). I wonder if she could hold us to two hits now that our rookies have begun to hit. We were able to score a lot of runs against some good teams, and our big hitters are freshmen and sophomores.


Arnold 515
Knighten 455
Romero 426
Wodach 409
Pendley 364
Miller 364
Clifton 333
Aviu 289
Self 286
Montgomery 250

Team 366

Doubles
Romero 7
Wodach 4
Pendley 3
Miller 3
Knighten 2

Triples
Miller 3
Self 2
Clifton 2

Home Runs
Wodach 4
Knighten 4
Romero 2
Miller 2

RBIs
Knighten 15
Wodach 14
Romero 12
Miller 11

Our biggest hitters are Knighten (FR), Wodach (SOPH), Romero (FR), and Arnold (SOPH). In a week or two, we'll see Minnesota again. Somehow, I don't think Groenewegen can shut down these kids again.

 

[Plainosooner]

I'm not sure how much concern there should be about Paige at this point. She gave up four hits in the opener. It just so happened that the last one was a walk-off home run. She came back to pitch three scoreless innings against Lamar and three more against Long Beach State, a team that destroyed Minnesota.

She did allow several extra-base hits to Oregon State, the last of which was a three-run home run. Later that day, she allowed a three-run home run in relief of Kelsey against Michigan..
.

I'm not sure if you're confusing week one and week three. I know Paige gave up a three run dinger on her first pitch in relief in the blowout loss to UDub. But the box score on the official site doesn't show Paige pitching against Michigan.

Now that box score is a little messed up, so you may be correct. But it doesn't show her in that game.

http://www.soonersports.com//ViewContent.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&CONTENT_ID=1686564

 

[sybarite43]

I'm not sure if you're confusing week one and week three. I know Paige gave up a three run dinger on her first pitch in relief in the blowout loss to UDub. But the box score on the official site doesn't show Paige pitching against Michigan.

Now that box score is a little messed up, so you may be correct. But it doesn't show her in that game.

http://www.soonersports.com//ViewContent.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&CONTENT_ID=1686564

You're right. It was Washington. But, the circumstances were the same. She had given up a walk off. Later that day, she gave up a three run shot in relief. The problem appears to be that she is susceptible to the long ball when tired.

 

[Plainosooner]

I think she's dealing with multiple issues. Knee problems for a pitcher can be a killer. It obviously depends on the specifics, but it's tougher for a woman to overcome, even one in great shape. And it's hard to be in great shape, when dealing with an aching knee.

 

[sybarite43]

I think she's dealing with multiple issues. Knee problems for a pitcher can be a killer. It obviously depends on the specifics, but it's tougher for a woman to overcome, even one in great shape. And it's hard to be in great shape, when dealing with an aching knee.

Think back to last year. Didn't we lose late inning games on walk-off home runs (or near it) to Kansas, LSU, and Alabama? That was pre-knee injury.

 

[Plainosooner]

Sure. But there were fewer runs per out. By a lot.