Mary Nutter day 2 sweep. Over NC State 7-5. Run rule #4 UCLA 10-1 in 5. ND on Saturday.

[Plainosooner]

Game one Friday, the Sooners are playing a 3-8 NC State team, and they are still not great at the plate.

They led 7-1 against a pitcher with an ERA over 5.00 but gave up a run and then a three run homer in B6 and it's 7-5 heading to B7. NCSU is the home team.

The bottom of the order is still very unproductive.

Lopez pitched six, allowing five earned runs. Lowary is pitching the seventh. Immediately after they fix the field after this game, the Sooners will face UCLA. The Bruins is ranked fourth in one poll and OU is fourth in the other. It's ought to be tight. Parker will start. And the bats need to get going.

The tying run is up with one out in B7 after a bunt single.

OU is playing without Kelsey Arnold, who is at the hotel with some sort of virus that they hope is a one day thing. After a wild pitch, it's getting more interesting, Sooners still up 7-5.

 

[Plainosooner]

Sooners win 7-5 after a strange play by Clifton. Two run lead, runner at second and on a grounder to Clifton, she threw to third to get the runner, than the easier play at first. She did get the out, but with two outs to get, the conventional play is to throw to first.

Then Lowary got a grounder to third and Romero got the out at first to end it.

The top of the order, especially Dalton batting second and playing short, her high school position. The had two doubles and three hits. Clifton was on base three times.

They play UCLA in 25 minutes.

=====================

Turns out, I dozed off and missed an inning where the bottom of the order produced two runs. Two outs, nobody on, Pendley singled. Lundberg playing first, doubled her home and Rodgers in her first ever start, singled Lundberg home. Then Wodach got her second hit of the season getting Rodgers to third, though they were stranded. But the bottom six in the order put some runs together.

 

[sybarite43]

Pendley singled, Lundberg doubled, Rogers singled, and Wodach singled to score runs six and seven. That's about as productive as the bottom of the lineup has been in any game.

NC State had just won against New Mexico State 7-4, running their record to 4-8. Lopez sailed through five. Tires?

 

[Plainosooner]

Pendley singled, Lundberg doubled, Rogers singled, and Wodach singled to score runs six and seven. That's about as productive as the bottom of the lineup has been in any game.

NC State had just won against New Mexico State 7-4, running their record to 4-8. Lopez sailed through five. Tires?

Maybe not tired, so much as the third time through the order. NCState had pretty good productivity from the top of their order. And Patty let some people play that haven't started. Lundberg started and played first. Knighten was the DP.

Because Arnold was back at the hotel, they moved Dalton to short and Rodgers played left. Aviu was the other starting outfielder. She had an RBI on a ground out. They brought Hatfield in for her defensively, and Hatfield had a single after. Knighten was oh for four and still doesn't really have her stroke back.

Clifton has been the only player to really hit good pitching and Aviu as been pretty good at the plate too. In fairness, they've been playing some pretty good teams with pretty good pitching. But Patty feels like they've been pretty undisciplined at the plate. I've only seen one game and a couple of highlights, but that doesn't surprise me that it would be true.

 

[sybarite43]

#4, 6 Oklahoma 10 #4,5 UCLA 1 (5)

Everyone hit. Grand slam by Shay. Clifton was 4-4. Wodach had two hits.

 

[Plainosooner]

Huge win long term for the Sooners in game two. They run ruled UCLA 10-1. As Sybarite mentioned Knighten hit a grand slam in the third that took a 1-0 Sooner lead up to 5-0. UCLA cut it to 5-1, but the offense scored five more in the next two innings and Parker shut them down for a five inning run rule. UCLA was ranked fourth in one poll and sixth in the other. OU was fourth in one and fifth in the other. That kind of win will be huge at the end, especially of UCLA wins the Pac 12 or stays in the top ten.

Knighten's first huge hit of 2017, and Clifton continues a torrid pace. She's hitting .469 which is 120 points higher than any other Sooner player. And she's up over .600 OBP. Hit by a pitch four or five times and lots of walks.

 

[sybarite43]

It isn't all wins for the top twenty-five:
#1 Florida State lost to Texas A&M, 2-0
#11 Georgia came into the weekend 12-0 with nine rule wins (all at home). Thus far, they have:
---lost 4-0 to BYU
---lost 10-5 to #6 UCLA
---lost 10-7 to Notre Dame
#15 Tennessee lost to Utah, 3-0
#19 Pittsburgh lost 1-0 to Lipscomb on a walk off home run in the seventh.
#20 Missouri lost 10-3 to Texas
#23 BYU after beating Georgia, they lost 9-0 to Arizona, but also lost to LIU--Brooklyn 10-5.

 

[Plainosooner]

I understand. But a loss after last night would be a potential challenge down the road. We needed a good top ten win. A run rule, even better. Two years ago, OU deserved to be a top eight school, but with the losses to LSU down there, and down years elsewhere in the conference, they called the Sooners an 11 seed, where we got hosed by strike zones in Tuscaloosa where Bama was a six seed.

A loss against UCLA would have started to make this season potentially seem like that one, despite being defending national champs. I don't believe UCLA is one of the top four teams in the country. but they were ranked there tonight, before THEY GOT RUN RULED.

There is such a difference between eight and nine. So it's a pretty good idea to be closer to six, or higher than eight. Schools with SEC conference schedules or ACC or even Pac 12 will have much more opportunity late in the season to improve their resume's. We need a nice lead before that.

 

[mcbrider]

I understand. But a loss after last night would be a potential challenge down the road. We needed a good top ten win. A run rule, even better. Two years ago, OU deserved to be a top eight school, but with the losses to LSU down there, and down years elsewhere in the conference, they called the Sooners an 11 seed, where we got hosed by strike zones in Tuscaloosa where Bama was a six seed.

A loss against UCLA would have started to make this season potentially seem like that one, despite being defending national champs. I don't believe UCLA is one of the top four teams in the country. but they were ranked there tonight, before THEY GOT RUN RULED.

There is such a difference between eight and nine. So it's a pretty good idea to be closer to six, or higher than eight. Schools with SEC conference schedules or ACC or even Pac 12 will have much more opportunity late in the season to improve their resume's. We need a nice lead before that.

Went to Houston last weekend to watch the sooners and I have watched the Mary Nutter games on the Flosoftball website. Lowary is really impressive throwing at 70. As you probably know OU is using the shift against right hand batters bringing the left fielder in to play in the second base position and moving the third baseman to short stop. They believe no one will be able to pull Lowary. Plaino or Sybarite, to your knowledge has OU ever done this in the past? It would seem that when the shift is on that Lowary would be throwing nothing but her hard stuff. If she threw off speed and they pulled the ball down the third baseline with no left fielder, you are looking at a triple or possible inside the park home run. I thought Parker really looked sharp last night. Best she has looked all year. Clifton seems to have nailed down the leadoff spot.

 

[Plainosooner]

I don't think they're doing it against every right hand hitter. Just the ones who don't pull normal pitching much. But I've not seen it as frequently, if ever.