Friday DH at MNC: Two wins 9-3 and 10-2 - Jennings leaves her mark!

[OUBeliever56A]

The reviews of the Friday doubleheader will be mixed among fans I think. Some posters have already lamented about a couple of things, way too early in the first game especially. My thoughts are that the Sooner won the two games 9-3 over Mississippi State and 10-2 over Wisconsin and ran their streak to 64 consecutive wins. There should be a lot to be positive about. Oklahoma beat two P5 teams with MSU falling to 10-2 and Wisconsin falling to 6-8. The Sooners are 11-0.

In the first game the Sooners showed their determination and comeback ability. Nicole May, pitching her 3rd time against Mississippi State in 3 years, was not as sharp as we have seen her, but she managed to pitch well enough to get the win while pitching 4.0 innings giving up 3 runs and 7 hits along with 3 walks and 4 Ks. The Bulldogs scored two runs against May in the top of the first on a 2-run HR by a very good hitter, Blaine. MSU scored another run in the 2nd inning off of May. But May righted her own ship and pitched better in the 3rd and 4th innings and lead 7-3 after the bottom of the 4th for OU. SJ Geurin tossed her array of pitches for 1.2 innings, allowing 0 hits, 1 walk and 1 K before giving way to Kelly Maxwell to finish the final 1.1 innings of the game. Maxwell also did not allow a hit, but gave up 2 walks and picked up 4 Ks. 7 hits in 7 innings is good enough against MSU. the 6 walks could be better with the 9 Ks. All-in-all a good pitching effort against a hot hitting team.

In the top of the first, the Sooners and May picked up a break when the leadoff hitter who walked, was called out for leaving the base too early on a Cook double that got over Coleman's head in CF. With the call of leaving early, the double became an out at first base on the runner and put Cook base at the plate. She then singled before the 2-run HR by Blaine. The score might have been very different without the runner leaving the base too early.

On offense, Kinzie Hansen tied the score in the bottom of the first with her own 2-run HR to left field after a Jayda Coleman single to lead off the game. I think that HR by Hansen was a big key in this game. In the 2nd inning trailing 3-2, Rylie Boone tied it up on a RBI double to plate Ella Parker who scored from second base with Avery Hodge moving from first to third. Coleman then provided a SFLY to plate Hodge to give the Sooners a 4-3 that they would only build upon. A Parker RBI single made it 5-3 in the 3rd. A Tiare Jennings to double to RC (how many times has she done that) plated a run in the 4th before Alyssa Brito singled in Jennings to make 7-3. The Jennings RBI double tied her with Lauren Chamberlain for the 2nd most RBIs by a Sooner with 254.

In the 5th, the Sooners scored twice more in the 5th on an wild pitch as Kasidi Pickering scored from 3rd and and a Jennings RBI single to drive in Coleman to make it 9-3. Jennings surpassed the legendary Chamberlain with that RBI single! Congrats to Jennings and a salute to Chamberlain all at the same time.

The Sooners were 12 of 30 in the game with 3 doubles and 1 HR along with 3 walks and 1 ROE. The Sooners left 7 of 16 runners on base in the game. The 8 Ks were high though. They added 2 stolen bases (Coleman/Parker) and a SFLY (Coleman) to their tallies in the game. This offensive effort might have been OU's best of the season.

In the second game, the Sooners warmed up Kelly Maxwell and sent her back to the circle after finishing the first game. She pitched 4 solid innings with 3 hits, 2 runs 4 walks, with 2 Ks and a wild pitch. Maxwell got the win as she ever trailed in the game but the score was tied at 2-2 after 3 and a half innings. After OU blew the game open in the bottom of the 4th with 8 runs, Karlie Keeney entered the Sooner circle and pitched the 5th inning allowing just one walk to seal the victory. The strike zone was pretty erratic in this game as called by the home plate umpire as it was a moving target in and out as well as up and down.

On offense the Sooners did there damage in 2 innings. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Sooners scored on 2 RBI singles by Pickering and Boone to make the score 2-0. In the bottom of the fourth, Oklahoma sent 12 hitters to the plate as they picked up 4 hits, 3 walks and reached on 2 errors as they scored 8 runs for the second largest runs in an inning this season. Hansen got it started with a walk, included an RBI double by Pickering, a double steal with Parker scoring as Hannah Coor was safe on an obstruction call, a Jennings SFLY for one more RBI, and a Brito RBI single. That inning suddenly made the score 10-2 and a run-rule victory for the Sooners with Keeney finishing the top of the 5th.

OU was 6 for 19 in the game with 1 double, a SFLY, a SB, 4 walks, 2 Ks, 2 ROE and 2 runners LOB.

For the late evening DH'er the Sooners were 18 for 49 with 4 doubles and 1 HR. There were 2 SFLYs and 3 SB along with 7 walks, 3 ROEs and 10 Ks. Those Ks need to be reduced IMO.

Brito, Parker and Pickering had 3 hits by my initial count. Jennings lead with 3 RBIs (now with 256 RBIs as a Sooner) as Pickering, Boone, Hansen and Brito had 2 RBIs each. I really thought the two freshman, Parker and Pickering had good DH'ers for the Sooners as they showed their hitting talent, their speed and their overall abilities well. I also think Geurin is becoming an very intriguing Sooner in the circle with her mix of movement, speed changes and control. She is showing the that the game is not only about throwing the ball 67 mph.

While not outstanding the Sooner pitching was good enough by a long ways to pick up the two wins with 4 pitchers in the circle. There were also some tough defensive plays for the Sooners in the DH'er. The infield is pretty hard and the ball bounces up a lot. Sometimes the ball is just very hard to be in the right place and catch a random hop. I can not imagine playing baseball on these fields. The batters boxes and already showing 'holes' and the weather will not help the ball to bounce better. While some ball 'look' to be errors, the hops can be wicked. I am not fretting about a play here and there on these fields. The pickoff at 3B and rundown by Hansen was very good play in the 1st game. Hansen and Brito played the rundown well.

The Sooners face San Diego State today at 12:30 California time. They are 8-5 on the season as they have lost to three ranked teams and defeated 2 ranked teams. I think San Diego State may be sneaky good. I still think that either Deal of Keeney will start for the Sooners in the circle today with Monticelli probably pitching at some point as well as Deal and Monticelli did not pitch on Friday.

Good luck to the Sooners today and I hope we get those bats going early and often today.

Boomer Sooner!

[OU_Tom]

It is good to see SJ Geurin and Monticelloi out there against P5 teams. SJ, Deal and Monticelli are the future at least for 2025