Quick Notes for the Huge Marquee Matchup with the LSU Tigers Tues Night

[TropicalSooner]

The Sooners have NO time to rest after sweeping the series with Taco Tech over the last few days. Regardless of the sentiments you may feel about the wins--whether we won and that's all that matters or we won but it was a far stretch from what you expected...those are now in the past and looming large directly in front of us is the Battle in Baton Rouge with LSU. And make no mistake: This is NO Paper Tiger.

LSU currently stands at 33-7 with 6 of those 7 losses coming at the hands of SEC Conference play. Last week, the Tigers were in the 10-13 range in the polls and as of April 8 they are ranked #5 in RPI with an SOS rank of 17.
An injury to their star Shortstop Taylor Pleasants in early March undoubtedly contributed to some of those losses. Pleasants has returned to the lineup and appears to be fieldiing her position normally but at the plate she has suffered a hindrance to her power and has had to rely on her short game. Pleasants is to LSU as Grace Lyons is to the Sooners--or Baylee Klinger is to Washington--or Sidney McKinney is to Wichita St--you get the picture, a very important piece to their team not only in production but also in team leadership.
Remember how we felt when Hansen returned to the team after her surgery? And how the team spirits were lifted when Lyons returned after her illness? That is how the Tigers have responded after Pleasants return, even if in a somewhat reduced capacity.

So what do the Tigers look like?
They are mostly a veteran team with mostly Juniors and Grad students with a Soph outfielder and Frosh Pitcher sprinkled in.

Offense:
As a team, the Tigers are hitting .326 with an OB% of .420 and a SLGG% of .486. Collectively, they have 53 2Bs, 9 3Bs, and 32 HRs. They also have walked 158 times against 172 SO's. Their starting lineup features six hitters batting over .300 with Jr 3B Danieca Coffey leading the way at .442, but none of their starters are hitting less than .283. 5th yr DP Georgia Clark leads the team with 9 HRs followed by Jr. SS Taylor Pleasants with 8 and Soph Redoutey at 5. The rest have 3 or fewer.
The team has scored 236 runs for an average of almost 6 runs a game. And just because Pleasants' return has been with limited power, she has made adjustments to her game to remain a big threat at the plate.

Pitching:
Also as a team, the Tigers have a 1.97 ERA and have allowed 88 runs for about 2.2 runs/gm. The main 3 pitchers are Grad Ali Kilponen, Freshman Sydney Berzon, and Soph Raelin Chaffin.
Berzon is 11-2 w 1.71 era, has allowed 6 2Bs, 1 3B, and 4 HRs. She has 22 BBs and 84 SOs over 86 IP.
Kilponen is 10-4 w 2.05 era, has given up 7 2Bs and 10 HRs. She has 34 BBs and 82 SOs over 92 IP.
Chaffin is 5-1 w 2.86 era, has allowed 4 2Bs, 1 3B, and 6 HRs. She has 11 BBs and 20 SOs over 36.2 IP.
The Tigers have a total of 6 pitchers on staff. The remaining 3 are 2 freshmen and a RS Soph. While it's not likely we will see any of those, Fr Alea Johnson does have a 6-0 record and 0.97 era over 29 IP. I do not know who those innings were against.
With the lineup that the Sooners present, I've been told that the best chance the Tigers have will be to not leave the ball up in the zone and Berzon represents that success the best. Kilponen will be the first in if Berzon gets in trouble. Chaffin has had decent success lately but has a tendency to give up the long ball.

Defense:
The Tigers have made 27 errors for a fld% of .975. Perhaps here is where we may be able to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself.

Summary:
The Tigers will be ready to play the Sooners. Very early in the year when schedules were first announced, this game, along with the ones with Washington, UCLA, Florida State, and Auburn, were on my list of "Marquee Games" for the Sooners this year. This game is very important to both teams in spite of it not being a conference game for either. The two highly ranked teams are now positioning for post season hosting for Regionals and Super Regionals. The winner of this game gets a good boost in that direction.
While our Sooner offense has become more steady rather than explosive as of late, our pitching and defense continue to provide continuity for our team as we head to Baton Rouge. We have been hitting well, but at times right at the defending fielders. We are fortunate that we have many sources of power in our lineup. If Hansen slows down, Brito picks up. If Erickson slows down, Haley Lee picks up. Coleman has been on a tear. We have many weapons at our disposal and we are going to need everything we've got when we make the trip to Baton Rouge. Are we ready to take on LSU?
Sure!
And you can be certain the Tigers will be ready for us!

Boomer!

[SwampSooner]

It is disappointing that this top 10 match-up is not televised. I was hoping the SEC network would have picked it. Alas, reruns of an SEC football game was their choice.

[OU Guy]

It is disappointing that this top 10 match-up is not televised. I was hoping the SEC network would have picked it. Alas, reruns of an SEC football game was their choice.

It shows up as on ESPN2 at 6pm on my box

[waddy's ghost]

ditto

[BudaSooner]

It is disappointing that this top 10 match-up is not televised. I was hoping the SEC network would have picked it. Alas, reruns of an SEC football game was their choice.

It shows up as on ESPN2 at 6pm on my box

There is conflicting information as to the starting time of the game. The OU softball schedule indicates that starting time is 6PM CDT.
And the DirecTV schedule for Tuesday night indicates start time at 6 PM.
But the recap of the SoonerSports article covering the TTech sweep had this to say at the end of the article:

The game will be shown to a national audience on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. CT with Beth Mowins and Michele Smith on the call. The contest can be heard via 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.

We have a couple of days, so I imagine that any discrepancy will be ironed out in the meantime...

[TN Sooner]

I’m pretty sure the article you found is the mistake.

Official SoonerSports publications and on-air presentations have been noting Eastern time more and more, just like national tv does - all ESPN notes are done in eastern time and I’m sure OU is officially trying to do that also. I notice that Chad McKee always does it, Chris plank and Toby Rowland do it less often, but it does seem they are moving in that direction.

I think it’s bs, we are a central time zone school and that is what our information should be presented in. Fine to present central and eastern, but put central first and eastern in parens. Just one grumpy old man’s opinion.

[TropicalSooner]

It is disappointing that this top 10 match-up is not televised. I was hoping the SEC network would have picked it. Alas, reruns of an SEC football game was their choice.

It shows up as on ESPN2 at 6pm on my box

There is conflicting information as to the starting time of the game. The OU softball schedule indicates that starting time is 6PM CDT.
And the DirecTV schedule for Tuesday night indicates start time at 6 PM.
But the recap of the SoonerSports article covering the TTech sweep had this to say at the end of the article:

The game will be shown to a national audience on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. CT with Beth Mowins and Michele Smith on the call. The contest can be heard via 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.

We have a couple of days, so I imagine that any discrepancy will be ironed out in the meantime...

I suppose err on the side of caution and tune in at 6pm CDT and see if we're starting. FWIW, it show as 6pm CDT on the LSU Softball Schedule page on their school website as well.

[TropicalSooner]

Seems like I heard a few days ago, probably from Plank? that the team was going to fly down to Baton Rouge today. Does anyone know if we are taking a private jet like we did last year on the Kentucky trip? or are we going commercial?

[The Far Journey]

Yes, they're going by charter flight. In PG's post Texas Tech game presser, 3rd game, she said that when she called Beth Torina about playing them, the LSU coach was so excited, Patty asked if she would pay for the charter flight too.

[TN Sooner]

This “charter” flight to an SEC game is a huge PR coup for the Sooners - it really gets talked about in the softball world and in the women’s sports world. We get a lot of positive mileage from the donors that step forward and provide funding for this.

[inconnu]

Here's hoping we turn on the hitting spigot(wide open mode)

[OU Guy]

For those bored beforehand the #5Tenn/#17Virginia Tech game is on at 5pm on ESPNU (Tue)

[SwampSooner]

Thanks. All I can guess is that I confused the LSU game with another OU softball game that was on ESPN+ and didn't think to look at ESPN2.

Now to have a victory tomorrow.

[TropicalSooner]

Rain delay down in Baton Rouge.....
Lightning at first delayed the start and now they've pulled the tarp over the field.

[portalball]

I wouldn't be surprised if LSU wins, their fans can be nasty, don't know how well OU girls will handle it.
Maybe tiger softball fans ain't so bad??