Day 2 in Lake Charles: OU SB wins 2, 2 SHO, 1 R-Rule, Deal deals

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners played 2 games yesterday in Lake Charles on a cold dreary, windy day and managed to pitch 2 shutouts over 12 innings of play while scoring 11 runs in 11.2 innings of play to defeat Lamar 8-0 in 5 innings and host team McNeese State 3-0 in 7 innings. The Sooners are now 8-0 on the season and have won 61 straight games since the second week of last year's season. The Sooners have not lost a game on a softball field since Feb 19th, 2023. I think that calculates to 366 days ago. In every way that is pretty amazing.

In Game #1 the "star" had to be Kiersten Deal. Coming off an appearence that perhaps caused a few questions last weekend, Deal was "spot-on" yesterday. She pitched 5.0 of shutout ball with 2 walks and 1 single allowed. Each of the baserunners were in separate innings. Deal also dealt with 10 strikeouts, 8 swinging and 2 looking. Deal had at least 1 K in each inning. She threw 94 pitches with 55 being strikes for 58.5% strikes. Deal's effort yesterday was the longest outing of her young career and the most Ks in an outing in her career. It is her first CG shutout as well. A critic might say, "well it was Lamar", but I think that is what critics do. She pitched well and tossed a 1 hit, CG shutout with 2 walks, and 10 Ks which has to be positive in every way.

Offensively, Coleman, batting 6th, and Pickering had 2 hits with Boone, batting leadoff, and Ludlam had 2 RBIs each. Hansen and Jennings each had solo HRs. The Sooners scored in 4 of the 5 innings in which they batted. The Sooner scored the 8th run for the run-rule victory on a 2 RBI single by Ludlam in the 5th inning with 2 outs. The Sooners were 8 for 28 with 5 walks, 2 Ks with 2 SB and 1 CS in addition to the two HRs. Pickering and Bland had the SBs and Parker was caught stealing second base. they left 4 runners on base. On a cold day, it was a good offensive performance. Every hitter reached base either on a hit or via a walk.

In game #2, starting about 7 PM, with everyone bundled to the max. The game was probably headlined by the relief effort of Shaelyn Sanders of McNeese State. She entered the game in the 1st inning in relief and pitched the following 6.1 innings against the Sooners allowing 4 singles, 3 walks, 1 BH, with 4 Ks and allowed only 1 run. Sanders entered the game with runners on 1st and 3rd, walked Hansen and then got the 3rd out of the first inning to end a Sooner potentially big inning. She stranded 10 Sooners runners on base in her outing.

For the Sooners, Coach Gasso and Rocha sent 4 different pitchers to the circle in the game. All were effective in the game. The four Sooners tossed a seven-inning shutout allowing only 4 hits, 2 walks and 1 HB with 7 Ks in the game. Keeney got the start, the first of her Sooner career, and pitched 3 innings, allowing 3 singles with 1 walk. She induced two Cowgirl hitters to ground into 2 double plays in the 2nd and 3rd innings to escape unscathed in her outing. Keeney got 6 outs via ground balls and 3 balls balls via fly balls.

SJ Geurin entered the game to pitch the 4th innings with the Sooners leading 2-0. She picked up her first strikeout vs her first hitter with a nice swinging strike on a 2-2 count. Against her second batter, she got the out on a line drive hit right at Jennings on a 1-0 count. At that point, Geurin's day was over but it was a big success after a full year of being a red-shirt. She threw 5 strikes in 8 pitches for 62.5%. The Sooners opted to bring in May to finish the 4th inning. May struck out the final batter of the inning and was off to a good start. May pitched a total of 2.1 innings and allowed 0 hits with 1 walk, 1 HB and 5 strikeouts. May threw 38 pitches with 24 Ks for 63.2%. May got the win for the Sooners in game #2 for her 51st career win. Maxwell got the ball for the 7th inning leading 3-0. The lefty allowed a single up the middle to the first hitter she faced but then she buckled down and to retire the next three hitters. and ended the game with a strikeout against a looking hitter. Maxwell did have one wild pitch outside to allow a runner to reach second base. Maxwell picked up her 2nd save of the season with her outing.

On offense, the Sooners were led by Ludlam, batting cleanup, and Coleman, batting 6th again, as they both had two hits. Ludlam had an RBI single, Jennings had an RBI single with both in the 1st inning while Sanders had a solo HR in the 6th inning. Brito opened up the hitting in the first with her 1-out triple to RF that off the RF's glove at the top of the wall. Coleman had a SB, with a HBP also to reach base twice in the game. Jennings was the only other Sooner to reach base twice in the game. Boone reached on an error by the shortstop. The Sooners were 8 of 30 in the game with 3 walks with 1 HB and 4 Ks.

It was not a strong game by the Sooners offensively. I am sure the weather had something to do with it, But it may just be that the Sooner bats are not hitting on all cylinders with an ever changing lineup as the season progresses. The Sooner pitching is allowing the Sooner offense to start a little slowly. On Saturday, the Sooners hit .276 BA, .373 OB% and .482 Slug% for the day with 5.5 runs per game. Yes, it was cold, but those are not really the Sooner offensive numbers we usually see. One of the issues for the Sooner offense is the ratio of walks/HB to strikeouts. The Sooners have 37 walks/HB versus 29 Ks in their first 8 games. Normally, well over the last three years the ratio for the Sooners has been 1.85 and the Sooners have not struck out more than 167 times in the 60/62 games. The Sooners stand at 1.27 ratio currently but those 29 Ks are very high in with about 1 extra K per game.

But I will say, the Sooners are hitting .344 BA, .435 OB% and have a .571 Slug% with over 7 runs through the first 8 games. They have also stolen 11 bases out of 12 attempts.

But the Sooner pitching has been strong so far thru 8 games with 5 shutouts and allowing only 7 total runs with only 4 earned. The Team ERA is now 0.55 for the season thru 8 games. the Sooners do have 9 hitters hitting over .333 with two more hitting .267 or better. Not all is bad offensively. Just those strikeouts are a real concern right now.

In the game on Sunday, at 11 AM after a cold night, if we are going to see Monticelli start a game, it might be today. But it could also be Deal or maybe Keeney. I doubt it will be either May or Maxwell, but one will be ready to go if needed early in relief. Central Arkansas has scored 7 runs and allowed 38 this weekend in Lake Charles. So far, every Bear pitcher has allowed at least 2 runs in each outing this weekend. On offense, Coor has not started yet this weekend, I wonder if she gets a start today.

It looks to be low 40's at 11 AM with a north wind this morning. Stay warm girls.

Boomer Sooner!