2023 Sooner Softball Season--Final Exams === Did We Study Hard Enough???

[TropicalSooner]

The Sooner Softball semester has run its course and now we're at the end of the term. Some are at the end of their College Career. Which brings us to Final Exams. This is what we have been going to class for all semester. Cramming to learn everything we could....Studying hard, burning the midnight oil, pulling all-nighters.....you all remember those days, right? And here we are, our beloved Sooner Softbal Team will now take their final exams over the next two or three days. So, the inevitable question we face, that we all faced way back when......Did We Study Hard Enough?

I won't go into a deep dive on Florida State. For a much deeper dive into their strengths and weaknesses, go to the thread that OUBeliever56A posted up right before this. He gives an extremely detailed and thorough analysis of the Noles and what to expect in the game and the series. He is a very talented writer, anaylist, and poster.

We do, however, know all of the Noles very well. We've watched them closely all the way through the Women's College World Series. We've already played against them back in March. Many of the players on both teams remember playing against each other back in 2021. The Noles are well known to the team, the coaches, and to us. They are an excellent team in many ways. Excellent offense and pitching. And they run like the wind---129 SB / 147 AT. To compare the Sooners are 52 / 61. If there is any chink in the Noles' armor, it might be in their defense--56 errors for .969 fld%.

We know their clutch players: LF Kaley Mudge, SS Josie Muffley, C Michaela Edenfield, DP Katie Dack, 1B and P Mack Leonard, all these players will find a way to get a hit or somehow get on base and before you blink there are in scoring position for any little bloop hit, bunt, slap, deep drive to the wall, whatever. What they may lack in HR's, they more than make up for in doubles and triples. They find a way to score. They help their pitchers--unlike Stanford.

And their pitchers? Well, they might not have Nija Canady, but their pitching staff is very very good and it has got them to the Championship Series on the back of Kathyrn Sandercock, along with freshman Makenna Reid and Jr Allison Royalty and Sr Ali DuBois. They are a well seasoned staff.

Lonnie Alameda is one of the best coaches in Softball. Of course she is, she's a Sooner Grad, playing for the 89-92 Sooner teams. She has installed and masterd the rotating pitching staff and uses it almost every game. I fully expect Sandercock to start game one and go one or two times through the lineup, and then hand off to Royalty and/or DuBois. I also expect Sandercock to come in to close the game. Tomorrow swap out Sandercock for Reid.
This is the one team that seems to me the most likely to steal a game from us, and not out of the question--although I don't think they do--to actually win the series.

Here's how I see the lineups starting out:
Florida State:
LF Kaley Mudge
CF Jahni Kerr
3B Kalei Harding
C Michaela Edenfield
2B Devyn Flaherty
1B Mack Leonard
RF Hallie Wacaser
DP Katie Dack
SS Josie Muffley
SP Kathryn Sandercock

Sooners:
CF Coleman
2B Jennings
DP Lee
C Hansen
3B Brito
1B Sanders
SS Lyons
RF Torres
LF Boone
SP Bahl

We are staring Final Exams right in the face. Did we burn enough midnight oil? Pull enough all-nighters? Did We Study Hard Enough???

Today we find out!

Boomer!!

[AllSooner]

TropicalSooner, OUBeliever56A is absolutely a very talented writer, annalist, and poster.....as are you! Kudos to you both!

[TropicalSooner]

TropicalSooner, OUBeliever56A is absolutely a very talented writer, annalist, and poster.....as are you! Kudos to you both!

You're very kind.
Thank you.

[OUBeliever56A]

'TropicalSooner' is very appreciated by me!