Late thoughts: Saturday's 7-3 win and the Kansas Series Overall

[OUBeliever56A]

A lot has been said about the Kansas series and the final game on Saturday with the Sooners winning 7-3. Here are some late thoughts.

In the win on Saturday, the top five hitters (all Seniors) Coleman, Jennings, Brito, Hansen and Torres were 11 for 19 with 3 HRs, 7 RS, 7 RBIs and 3 walks were THE offense. Everyone else was 0 for 11 with only 5 walks in the game. To me that is a bit of a great thing and a bit of a concern. As we all thought, the experienced Seniors would lead the way for Oklahoma this year, but most also thought the others would be a good compliment to the seniors. On Saturday that was not really obvious for one of the few times this year.

In the circle the plan was to pitch by committee and the Sooners sent five to the circle in the 7-inning game. Deal and Keeney got things started well with 2.1 and 2.2 scoreless innings allowing 1 hit and 1 walk each with Keeney also picking up 2 Ks. Keeney got the win as the second pitcher since Deal could not qualify for the win with less than 3 innings pitched. Geurin followed with 1 inning of relied that saw her give up her first run allowed for the year on a HR. Monticelli followed and had a tough one-third of an inning as she got the first hitter on a ground ball before allowing a walk, a hit, and a HB to load the bases. May was brought in to nail down the win with a 7-1 lead. May gave up a single to the first batter for 2 Kansas runs. May then left a pitch in the dirt that got by Ludlam for a wild pitch to move the 5th run to second base. May then made a nice fielding play to get the 2nd out and kept the runners on 2nd and 3rd. The last out was a lazy fly to CF for the win.

BTW, Jayda showed once again why she is the best outfielder in softball defensively on two wonderful catches in the 6th. The first one was a line drive smash to CF that Coleman dropped step well on and ended up leaping up off of one leg to make an extended catch over her head with near perfect timing. Then for the final out, Coleman robbed the Kansas hitter on a short looper over 2B as Coleman dove flat out and reached forward to make the catch look routine. Coleman is just very, very good in CF. Period.

In addition to that, I thought that Brito, Jennings and Hodge played very well defensively in this game in the infield and Torres looks like she can handle 1B if needed.

Once again Kacey Hamilton, after a tough start, settled in again to pitched scoreless to end the game against the Sooners this time with 3 of them.

After Friday's 17-0 win over Kansas after Maxwell pitched a 1-hitter on Thursday as OU won 7-1, I thought OU was playing very well and was looking ready for Texas this weekend. After Saturday's game, I think the top of the lineup or the experienced Sooners are definitely ready for the Texas pitching. I am now wondering just a bit about the last four spots. We need a couple of them to have a good series in Austin. I trust that they will but just not sure who steps up. In the circle, I feel very good about Maxwell and May. I feel good about Deal and Keeney. I think out pitching will boil down to those four Sooners this weekend.

Oklahoma is playing as well as they have played this season. They are 34-1 while only 3 other teams in the country have less than 5 losses. Those are Duke at 29-3 and Boston U at 27-3 and LSU with a 29-4 record. that is it with less than 5. The Sooners are hitting 394 BA, .495 OB%, .733 Slug% with 63 doubles, 3 triples and 78 HRs. They have a 1.40 ERA and have only 13 errors for a fielding % of .985.

Texas is not playing their best. They have 3 conference losses now, and are now 29-5 and are looking for their bats as OSU held them to 2 runs thanks to Lexi Kilfoyl. They still have defensive issues and Kavan has not pitched well in two big games against top opponents. Gutierrez might be their best pitcher right now, maybe Morgan. Oklahoma has beaten both of those pitchers.

I think OU leads Texas in most every category for stats. Oklahoma's experience seniors are better than the Longhorns youngsters. I am looking forward to the weekend in Austin.

Boomer Sooner!