The Sooner women start the post season tonight against Wichita at home. The Sooners are the third seed nationally and host all the games in the four team regional, and would host the Super Regional if they win the first weekend tournament. The game against the Shockers is scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday night and is on ESPN.
Any Sooner who is a real baseball fan, but hasn't watched much OU softball, will really love watching the OU women this year. They are very sound fundamentally on defense, and when Paige Parker is throwing, are hard to score against. She started the year kind of shaky after off season knee problems, but has improved over the season to become as good a pitcher as there is in college softball. She had a streak earlier this year of over 30 scoreless innings and is now in a streak of over 30 innings without giving up an earned run.
If they stay in the winners bracket, she can likely pitch every inning. If they lose one of the first two, then the rest of the staff will have to help out.
The team has won 22 straight and have had their season take off with several changes made along the way. Parker is a quality hitter. But they have plenty of quality hitting, and she is slow enough that it slows down the offense on the bases when she gets on. She ceased to be part of the regular batting order just before the 22 game streak started. And it seems to make her fresher as the game goes along in the circle.
The second big change was taking freshman Caleigh Clifton and making her the regular second baseman. She is very solid defensively. That was not happening when she was playing only occasionally. She's also moved up in the batter order, to the point that she has batted second, third, fourth or fifth for the last month.
The entire batting order individually bats over .300. Right fielder Erin Miller is the conference co player of the year. She hits over .400 and bats lead off. The next four Sooner batters are all true freshmen. Of the ten in the starting line up, only the corner outfielders, Miller and Kady Self are seniors. Everybody else is a freshman or soph. Maybe the most impressive part of the Sooner defense is at catcher, where they lost a returning starter less than halfway through the season. But Lea Wodach her back up has played every inning since and has allowed few steals since entering the lineup. Most teams don't try.
Shelby Pendley's little sister Nicole plays center. She has gone from slap hitter to showing some power this season. The other sophs are at short, pitcher and catcher. Every other starter is a true freshman. And they can all play, and they all play plus defense.
The two best teams in the conference besides OU, were Baylor and Texas. OU swept both. The three game series with Baylor was in Waco. The Sooners' only conference loss was to Kansas, who finished fifth of seven conference teams with softball programs. But since, they have also beaten besides the Horns and the Bears, they OU has a dozen wins against teams who made the NCAA tournament including three who are hosting regionals this week, Alabama, UCLA and Tennessee. A team has to be seeded in the top 16 in the country to host a regional. UTenn's only home loss of the year was a 9-0 pasting by the Sooners a month ago. Alabama was ranked in the top four when the Sooners beat them in a Cali tournament two months ago.
Overall, OU is 47-7 and has won 29 of their last 30.
Any Sooner who is a real baseball fan, but hasn't watched much OU softball, will really love watching the OU women this year. They are very sound fundamentally on defense, and when Paige Parker is throwing, are hard to score against. She started the year kind of shaky after off season knee problems, but has improved over the season to become as good a pitcher as there is in college softball. She had a streak earlier this year of over 30 scoreless innings and is now in a streak of over 30 innings without giving up an earned run.
If they stay in the winners bracket, she can likely pitch every inning. If they lose one of the first two, then the rest of the staff will have to help out.
The team has won 22 straight and have had their season take off with several changes made along the way. Parker is a quality hitter. But they have plenty of quality hitting, and she is slow enough that it slows down the offense on the bases when she gets on. She ceased to be part of the regular batting order just before the 22 game streak started. And it seems to make her fresher as the game goes along in the circle.
The second big change was taking freshman Caleigh Clifton and making her the regular second baseman. She is very solid defensively. That was not happening when she was playing only occasionally. She's also moved up in the batter order, to the point that she has batted second, third, fourth or fifth for the last month.
The entire batting order individually bats over .300. Right fielder Erin Miller is the conference co player of the year. She hits over .400 and bats lead off. The next four Sooner batters are all true freshmen. Of the ten in the starting line up, only the corner outfielders, Miller and Kady Self are seniors. Everybody else is a freshman or soph. Maybe the most impressive part of the Sooner defense is at catcher, where they lost a returning starter less than halfway through the season. But Lea Wodach her back up has played every inning since and has allowed few steals since entering the lineup. Most teams don't try.
Shelby Pendley's little sister Nicole plays center. She has gone from slap hitter to showing some power this season. The other sophs are at short, pitcher and catcher. Every other starter is a true freshman. And they can all play, and they all play plus defense.
The two best teams in the conference besides OU, were Baylor and Texas. OU swept both. The three game series with Baylor was in Waco. The Sooners' only conference loss was to Kansas, who finished fifth of seven conference teams with softball programs. But since, they have also beaten besides the Horns and the Bears, they OU has a dozen wins against teams who made the NCAA tournament including three who are hosting regionals this week, Alabama, UCLA and Tennessee. A team has to be seeded in the top 16 in the country to host a regional. UTenn's only home loss of the year was a 9-0 pasting by the Sooners a month ago. Alabama was ranked in the top four when the Sooners beat them in a Cali tournament two months ago.
Overall, OU is 47-7 and has won 29 of their last 30.
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