Sooner Softball Travels to Wichita to play Shockers Today - Tues

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Softball team will try to rebound from their trip to Austin as they travel to Wichita today to play the Wichita State Shockers. Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game at 6 PM. The game will be aired on ESPN+ with radio coverage on 107.7 FM The Franchise and 1560 AM/103.3 FM The Franchise 2.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/4/8/ ... hita-state

There is one very unique thing about today's game against Wichita State. I think it is the first time that two players have played against each other with more than 80 HRs each. For Wichita State, Addison Barnard currently has 83 HRs in her career. For Oklahoma, Tiare Jennings has 88 career HRs. It is a pretty big moment. Both have a shot to finish above 90 HRs for their career, maybe 95.

Here is the Batting, Pitching and Defensive lines for Wichita:

.294 BA, .393 OB%, .549 Slug% with 48 doubles, 5 triples and 53 HRs, 19 steals in 25 attempts.
4.93 ERA, .280 BA Against, 55 doubles, 7 triples and 19 HRs allowed, 372 baserunners allowed in 206.0 IP.
33 errors for a .961 Fielding %

Wichita State is 18-14 for the Season. They have four hitters that can cause concern.

CC Wong - 486 BA, .568 OB% and .905 Slug% - 7 doubles, 2 triples and 11 HRs
Addison Barnard - .389 BA, .508 OB% and .905 Slug% - 7 doubles and 14 HRs
Krystin Nelson - .346 BA, .427 OB% and .526 Slug% - 8 doubles and 2 HRs.
Taylor Sedlacek - .299 BA, .466 OB% and .724 Slug% - 5 doubles, 1 triple and 10 HRs

Their pitching is not strong. The lowest ERA is held by Chloe Barber with a 4.12 ERA. All four of their pitchers allow at least 1.5 baserunners per inning or 10.5 per 7 innings. But they do not allow many HRs with only 19 in their 206 innings pitched for 1 every 11 innings approximately.

I will be interested to see who gets the start today in the circle for OU. I wonder if we will see some variation in the lineup at 1B or 2B also. OU should be able to rebound today offensively and win today's game with a solid pitching effort in the circle by the Sooners.

Good luck to the Sooners today as they try to start another winning streak tonight.

Boomer Sooner!

[TropicalSooner]

Since they don't allow much in the way of triples or HRs and do have a healthy baserunners allowed number, I wonder how many of those are due to walks/HBP, or free bases?

Also, doesn't appear they are inclined to run on the bases very much.

I hope we get to see Deal start, but my expectations are that Keeney gets the call, with maybe Deal coming in in the 4th or 5th, depending on our offense.

Edit:
Is Barber a lefty or a righty? If a righty, maybe we see Hodge get a start at 2B and put her in the nine hole to slap or bunt but get on base to roll back over to Coleman.

Depending on how her finger is healing, maybe we see Ludlam at DP and Parker at 1B?

[OUBeliever56A]

Cooper is the only lefty for Wichita State.

[TropicalSooner]

You driving up for the game?

[OUBeliever56A]

Yes

[TropicalSooner]

Can't wait to read your post game.

Safe Travels.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners traveled up to Wichita yesterday and won their game over the Wichita State Shockers 7-0 in 7 innings. The shutout win was the the 17th shutout for Oklahoma this year. The star of the game was Kierston Deal who pitched 5.1 innings of 1 hit softball with a HB as the only other baserunner with 12 Ks. It is true that the Shockers is not the modern day version of the 2021 Alo-led Sooners, but they are a D! team with an 18-15 record after their loss to Oklahoma last night. The win for Deal raised her record to 8-0 and lowered her ERA to 1.02 for the season and upped her innings pitched to 41.1 for the season.

Karlie Keeney finished the game for the Sooners and allowed 3 hits and 1 walk with 3 Ks in her 1.2 innings pitched to complete the shutout. The Shockers were averaging 19 bases earned (total bases plus W/HB) per game coming into the game. The duo of Deal and Keeney allowed a total of 7 to the Shockers last night. (BTW, OU is averaging 23 bases earned per game.) Deal tossed 52 strikes in her 77 pitches thrown last night. It was a nice start for her against the Shockers. Deal allowed 2 bases earned in her 5.1 innings.

Oklahoma's offense earned 20 bases last night in the game. Wichita State chose to start their least effective pitcher, Lauren Howell, against the Sooners. She entered the game with a 7.00 ERA in 31.0 IP. Somehow she had 2 CG and 1 shutout this season. Howell lasted for 1.0 inning as she faced 11 batters and got 3 outs into the 2nd inning. OU sent 7 batters to the plate in the first inning and had 2 hits, 2 walks two doubles by Brito and Hansen in the inning to score 3 runs. In the second against Howell, the Sooners had a single and three walks to score a run before the Shocker coach pulled Howell to bring in Alison Cooper. By the end of the inning, OU scored a run on a SFLY and 2 more runs on a double (Hansen's 2nd) to score four total runs in the inning and led 4-0. With the 3 runs added to Howell's stat line, her ERA for the game became 49.00 (7 runs in 1.0 IP). Her ERA is now 8.31. thru the first two innings, the Sooners were 4 for 10 with 5 walks, 3 doubles and a SFLY.

The other side of the story on offense was the next 5 innings. The Sooners were 5 for 17 with 1 walk, 2 doubles and 5 Ks. Cooper, for WSU, pitched pretty well in her 6 innings allowing 6 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and a wild pitch. She allowed 1 base runner in four of her innings and 2 base runners in the other after the 2nd inning. Cooper entered the game with an 4.91 ERA. She left the game with a 4.59 ERA after 4 'shutout' innings allowing no runs of her own but allowing 3 runs in relief that counted for Howell.

Overall the Sooners hit like this. The 9 starters were 7 for 18 with 6 walks, 1 K and 5 doubles. The non-starters were 2 for 11 with 0 walks, 4Ks and no EBH. The starters scored all 7 runs and had all 7 RBIs. The 2 hits by the non-starters were by Ludlam and Torres (Hodge started at 2B). Brito, Hansen and Hodge each had 2 hits in the game. Brito and Hansen each had 2 doubles. Hodge had the other double. Hansen had 3 RBIs, Brito had 2 RBIs while Jennings (SFLY) and Pickering (ground out RBI) each had 1 RBI.

The substituting of starters started in the top of the 3rd inning. the offense slowed down. Here is the starting batting order and the final batting order.

Coleman - Coor
Jennings
Brito
Parker
Hansen - Ludlam
Pickering - Bland
Sanders - Torres
Hodge
Boone - Lilio

Only Jennings and Hodge remained in the game in their original positions that they started in.

Yesterday's a game was essentially a good practice against another team. The Sooners returned home from Austin on Sunday, did not practice on Monday and traveled to Wichita to play a game on Tuesday. The other four Sooner pitchers threw a full bullpen session during the game just like it was a practice. All the players got to see live pitching and got to play defense. It also counted as a win against a Quad 1 opponent. (Not sure I agree that WSU is a Quad 1 team, but they are certainly not a Quad 4 team either.)

There is a significant difference for the Sooners in 2024 between the primary players and the substitutes. Right now the Sooners are dependent upon 7 maybe 8 players to create the offense. When they do that or they get some help from 1 or 2 of the other players the offense is very good. Last night they scored 7 quick runs and then were silent for 5 innings and missed out on a quick 5-inning run rule game. But that is not really too important in the big picture. Let it be what it is, no more, no less.

The Sooners are now 36-3. They host BYU for a rare Thursday-Saturday series starting tomorrow. BYU is 21-17 and 4-11 in the Big 12. BYU is comparable to Wichita State on offense and pitching to give you a sentence of a preview here.

Don't read too much into the small picture, look long term and the picture will be a much prettier as a fan. Stay calm, and just watch and enjoy when you can and don't break a hand punching a wall when you can't find the silver lining in the clouds of despair.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooners win over Wichita State.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/4/9/ ... s-shockers

Boomer Sooner!