• last year
AllSooners Softball Show Ep. 3
Transcript
00:00 And they're off.
00:03 The softball season officially opened up.
00:06 Headlines all across the country,
00:08 but here on the All-Sooners Softball Show,
00:10 we obviously are focused on Oklahoma
00:13 and everything Patty Gasso's crew was doing.
00:16 Oklahoma started the season off in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
00:20 A perfect four and O.
00:22 A couple of wins over top 11 teams in the NCAA poll,
00:26 a run rule victory, and a victory over Patty Gasso's
00:30 all-time.
00:31 We're going to break all that down and so much more coming up
00:33 here.
00:33 Stay tuned.
00:34 It's episode three, first in-season episode
00:37 of the All-Sooners Softball Show coming at you right now.
00:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:43 Welcome in.
00:49 Brian Chapman here for allsooners.com.
00:52 It's finally here.
00:53 We waited, we waited, we waited.
00:54 The 2024 softball season off and running.
00:58 Oklahoma, a couple of wins on Thursday.
01:01 The 13 to nothing run rule victory over Utah Valley.
01:04 A 3-0 shutout over the number 11 Duke Blue Devils,
01:08 then number 11 Blue Doodles.
01:09 A thriller, 4-3 over number 7 Washington in eight innings.
01:14 And then close out business 11 to 3 over Long Beach State.
01:19 We're going to break it down.
01:20 It's our first Tuesday episode, our first true Tuesday episode.
01:23 We're going to recap the weekend.
01:24 Typically, we'll have some guests, things like that.
01:26 But it was so action-packed, we're
01:28 just coming straight at you.
01:29 On Thursday, we'll be back.
01:30 So Tuesday is when this publishes, Tuesday at noon,
01:32 obviously.
01:33 Tuesday evening, we're going to meet with Patty Gass.
01:35 We're going to meet with some Oklahoma players.
01:37 Think it might be Riley Ludlum and Kelly Maxwell,
01:39 early indications.
01:40 Hopefully, plans can change.
01:41 We'll let you know.
01:42 And I'll recap all of that on Thursday,
01:44 preview the weekend ahead.
01:45 That's going to be our rhythm here all week long.
01:48 But where do we start?
01:50 It was a thunderous entrance into the college softball
01:54 season, 13-0 over Utah Valley on Thursday.
01:58 If you missed it, I don't know how you could.
02:00 We heard so much about true freshman Ella Parker
02:04 coming into the season.
02:05 But it was true freshman Cassidy Pickering
02:08 who opens up her account at Oklahoma
02:10 with a first inning grand slam.
02:13 It helped Oklahoma absolutely put it on Utah Valley.
02:17 Ideal start for the true freshman.
02:18 She didn't stop there.
02:20 She finished the day with a second at bat
02:23 that delivered an RBI, five RBIs.
02:25 She added another one against Duke,
02:27 we'll get to that here in a second.
02:28 Cassidy Pickering, just a picture perfect opening
02:31 weekend for her.
02:32 We saw Ella Parker start off with a couple
02:34 of walks against Utah Valley.
02:36 She showed all weekend long great plate discipline.
02:40 You can see why Oklahoma's very excited, not just the power
02:42 that we know that she has from talking to JT Gasso,
02:45 talking to Patty Gasso, but also that eye going to be huge.
02:48 And that kind of rolled into-- that
02:50 was the first game on Thursday, the second game on Thursday.
02:53 You got to see the official Oklahoma
02:56 debut for one Kelly Maxwell.
02:58 It was stellar.
02:59 Five scoreless innings.
03:01 You saw a couple of base runners there in the first.
03:04 Wonder if there was just a little bit of nerves for Kelly.
03:06 You saw the one base runner there in the second inning.
03:08 Immediately the lead off gets pushed over the sacrifice.
03:11 Then from there, Kelly Maxwell tied 11 straight
03:14 to close that bad boy out.
03:15 Carly Keeney then came in.
03:16 You really got to see Oklahoma.
03:18 They're going to be able to do a lot of what Patty Gasso
03:21 and Jennifer Rocha love to do, which is start Kelly
03:24 Maxwell, a lefty, a hard-throwing lefty,
03:25 and then switch that up and roll over
03:27 to Carly Keeney, the right-hander.
03:29 That's a matchup you'll be able to see.
03:30 You saw that actually against Utah Valley.
03:32 Start with Nicole May, then move into Kirsten Deal.
03:35 That's a righty in May.
03:36 Obviously over to the lefty in Kirsten Deal.
03:38 So there should be a lot of mixing and matching as well.
03:42 That Duke contest, it was some clutch hitting from Oklahoma.
03:46 But I think covering Patty Gasso, covering the Sooners
03:49 the way that I had the last three years,
03:50 one thing she might point to-- and she does this so often
03:53 early in the season-- is you look at the 10 runners left
03:56 on base.
03:56 Oklahoma had a couple of big opportunities,
03:59 big-time opportunities to really bust that thing open.
04:02 Cassidy Pickering might have stepped in.
04:04 You might have had another grand slam, something
04:06 like that against Duke.
04:07 A really strong matchup.
04:08 But you saw that Oklahoma, they led off against Cassidy Kurd,
04:12 Duke's excellent ace.
04:13 And that first time through the lineup,
04:15 Kurd held up OK.
04:17 And then as we've seen so often with this Oklahoma lineup,
04:20 that second time through is when the Sooners really got to Kurd.
04:24 And then you kind of looked at, OK,
04:26 we talked about this last year with Patty Gasso early on.
04:29 They're bringing in so many new pieces.
04:30 Haley Lee, Sydney Sanders, Alina Torres, all new last year.
04:35 Jocelyn Erickson was so huge early on in the season.
04:39 How long does it really take for not just the pass the bat
04:42 mentality, but being able to--
04:44 hey, everyone's familiar with your hitting system,
04:46 how you attack hitters, how you come in.
04:48 And you see that communication in between every single bat.
04:52 If you're at an OU game, you get to see, OK, Jada Coleman,
04:55 if she flies out, she gets some information.
04:57 She comes, she covers her mouth like this,
04:59 and she starts talking to the next batter.
05:01 She's passing that along to Tiara Jennings.
05:03 Tiara Jennings is passing along the knowledge to Kinsey Hanson
05:05 and all those batters later on in the lineup.
05:07 And basically what it amounts to is
05:09 Oklahoma doesn't have to get all the way through the lineup
05:11 once to really start and make those adjustments and attack
05:14 pitchers.
05:15 Sometimes it takes all the way through the lineup
05:17 one time to kind of see it.
05:18 But you saw Cassie Curd, who was a sub-2 ERA pitcher a year ago
05:23 for Duke.
05:24 She couldn't hang with Oklahoma that second time.
05:27 3D really saw kind of the second inning.
05:28 Oklahoma was seeing her really, really well.
05:31 Didn't always amount to pushing a ton of runs across.
05:34 This is obviously finished 3-0.
05:35 But that's a good, good start.
05:37 Riley Ludlam came in against Utah Valley.
05:40 You got to see her make her debut.
05:41 And then she was huge against Washington.
05:43 But the big news there was Ella Parker, Cassie Pickering,
05:48 the two freshmen, got on base a great deal.
05:50 Pickering with those six RBIs on day one.
05:53 Huge, huge, huge start for Oklahoma.
05:55 And then that rolled you into the absolute battle
05:59 with Washington.
06:00 Oklahoma immediately gets on the board early
06:03 as Washington doesn't start Ruby Malin.
06:05 You kind of wondered what was going on there.
06:07 And then everything broke loose the second inning.
06:11 Nicole May had a couple of runners on.
06:13 And then you get to that strike into Kinsey Hansen.
06:17 The interference call, she was called for blocking the plate.
06:21 Did not look like Kinsey Hansen was blocking the plate
06:24 from here.
06:24 Oklahoma ended up getting that back where that eighth inning
06:28 run--
06:29 or the sixth inning run, excuse me,
06:31 the safe out call for Washington to play.
06:34 It was pretty close on second review.
06:36 But if you felt hard done by by that, Washington,
06:39 it was offset by the Kinsey Hansen obstruction at the plate.
06:44 And so it became a question of--
06:46 Nicole May had a couple of base runners on.
06:48 Washington was able to bring those around the second inning.
06:51 All three of those runs were unearned runs for Nicole May.
06:53 So Nicole May still has not given up an earned run
06:55 this year.
06:56 So I think the first thing that stuck out
06:58 about that Washington game is that in the Duke game,
07:02 you really, really missed Grace Lyons.
07:04 It's not that Terry Jennings played poorly.
07:06 It's not that Terry Jennings had errors or anything like that.
07:08 It's just the impossible standard
07:11 that Grace Lyons sets in the field.
07:13 It didn't matter who was playing shortstop.
07:15 There are simply plays that Grace Lyons makes
07:17 that no one else can make, or Grace Lyons
07:19 made that no one else can make.
07:20 And that's why Patty Gasso said Grace Lyons is the best
07:23 shortstop she's ever seen, bar none, full stop.
07:27 And there are a couple of those that you just wondered,
07:29 Terry Jennings' impossible plays, diving left, right,
07:31 the ball that snuck through the left side.
07:34 You wondered, hey, nothing that Tiare did incorrectly.
07:36 But was that something that Grace Lyons prevented,
07:39 covered up some of those double plays?
07:40 And that's how you got into the situation
07:41 where you had the obstruction call that I think
07:44 if you had all the cameras, even that are in Norman
07:46 or any of the normal replay stuff
07:48 that you have once you get into Big 12 play,
07:50 think that you give a couple of looks at that,
07:51 it probably is overturned, especially at the Women's
07:54 College World Series.
07:54 Because Kinsey Hanson was in front of the plate.
07:57 And as the throw comes in, that's what brings her across.
08:00 To me, that's what the rule is for.
08:02 Kinsey Hanson certainly thought so.
08:03 And we talked to her on the franchise on Monday morning.
08:06 But one of those things that the calls to call, so you move on.
08:10 And for Oklahoma, it really became a tale of, again,
08:14 runners left on base for a great deal.
08:15 10 against Duke.
08:17 You had 10 total against Washington
08:18 until you got to that sixth inning.
08:22 And it was just as improbable as it gets, right?
08:25 Stories go, all that stuff.
08:27 Riley Ludlam, someone that we talked to in the fall,
08:30 someone that was very excited to be at Oklahoma,
08:32 the Furman transfer, the reserve catcher,
08:34 she had kind of talked about.
08:36 Put my name in the transfer portal.
08:38 Let's just see what opportunities are out there.
08:41 And the opportunity that came was
08:43 Patty Gasso giving her a call.
08:45 Coach Gasso, she talked to us in the fall
08:47 and said she really didn't know a ton about Riley Ludlam.
08:50 There wasn't a ton of video available.
08:51 So kind of going off some word of mouth, some raw numbers,
08:54 what they could get of Riley Ludlam.
08:56 And I wanted to bring her in is obviously
08:58 Sophia Nugent and Jocelyn Erickson.
08:59 Those were Oklahoma's backup catchers behind Hayley Lee,
09:03 who graduated out.
09:04 Sophia Nugent, now at Tennessee.
09:06 She had a great weekend at Tennessee, by the way.
09:08 Going yard, Jocelyn Erickson now at Florida.
09:10 It was one of those things that they
09:11 needed the backup catcher.
09:12 And so they make the call to Riley Ludlam.
09:15 And Riley Ludlam has three plate appearances this weekend.
09:19 The first plate appearance was a sack fly RBI scores Jada Coleman
09:23 against Utah Valley.
09:24 The second one was that massive moment.
09:28 She comes into the game.
09:29 If you listen to Chris Plank on the radio call,
09:31 he was talking to--
09:32 asking Patagasso what went into that.
09:35 And Patagasso basically said, just told Riley, swing away.
09:39 You don't need to hit a home run, anything like that.
09:42 And it was as good as you'd like.
09:43 She just lifts it, kind of pokes it right over the shortstop,
09:47 lays that bad boy down into the outfield.
09:49 Riley Ludlam, the huge RBI.
09:52 And it felt like, certainly on the flow stream,
09:55 that was as big a moment, as big a roar from Oklahoma as any.
10:01 And Riley Ludlam delivers.
10:03 But let's back up a little bit.
10:04 Right before that, it was the transfers, right?
10:06 Riley Ludlam delivers that.
10:07 But in the fifth inning, it was Peyton Monticelli who came in.
10:11 Nicole May finally gets pulled by Patagasso.
10:13 It's something that she had talked about, right?
10:15 She wants a starter, middle reliever, closer.
10:17 If that's what they have to do, that's what they have to do.
10:20 Nicole May gave Oklahoma some great innings against Washington.
10:23 None of those runs that Nicole May had were earned runs.
10:26 They were all unearned runs on Nicole May.
10:28 Would you like her to rise to that level
10:30 and get those outs anyway?
10:31 Sure.
10:32 But Kinsey Hanson, again, she told us Monday,
10:34 the obstruction call is called correctly.
10:37 Washington doesn't score.
10:38 Oklahoma's still up 2-0.
10:40 You're not having to worry about that.
10:42 But Peyton Monticelli comes in, induces a quick pop-up,
10:45 a fly out.
10:46 And then she gets that third pitch strike.
10:48 And you saw Monticelli.
10:49 She can come in.
10:50 She can hurl.
10:51 She can hit high, high numbers on the gun.
10:54 And then she emits those two or three really big roars
10:57 to the Oklahoma dugout, a group that looked a little flat.
11:01 Not totally lifeless, but totally flat.
11:03 So Monticelli comes in in relief of May, delivers.
11:07 Riley Ludlum, the sixth inning, delivers.
11:10 Then when Monticelli ran into just a smidge of trouble,
11:12 Patagasso pulled her in the sixth.
11:14 Carlechini, two batters face, a little bit of trouble.
11:17 Patagasso pulls her.
11:18 And then Kelly Maxwell comes in and is absolutely
11:21 dominates to close.
11:22 Her first play is a great defensive effort
11:26 to come forward and field the ball
11:27 and get the fielder's choice out at home.
11:30 Then she gets the ground ball that ends up--
11:32 it was Tiare Jennings over to Alyssa Brito at third base.
11:35 Gets out of the inning.
11:36 And then Washington didn't look close.
11:38 Like Riley Boone, she's the one that delivered.
11:42 Often forgot about in the top of the eighth inning.
11:45 But she singles through the RBI.
11:48 And then Kelly Maxwell comes in and shuts that bad boy down.
11:51 Washington had that runner at third,
11:53 kind of similar to how Oklahoma got everything going.
11:56 And Kelly Maxwell's like, boom, boom.
11:58 No issues, no worries, no problem at all.
12:01 And that's what Oklahoma got in a veteran in Kelly Maxwell
12:04 that Carlechini's pitched a ton of innings.
12:07 So she has that veteran ability to her.
12:09 We saw that against Long Beach State.
12:10 We'll talk about here in a second.
12:12 But what Oklahoma got in Kelly Maxwell
12:13 was someone that is battle tested.
12:15 You don't have to worry about throwing her
12:17 into the Women's College World Series environment.
12:19 She's pitched in front of the rowdy fans in Norman.
12:21 She's pitched in a huge atmosphere
12:23 in Bedlam and Stillwater.
12:24 She's pitched against Texas in Austin.
12:27 You don't have to worry about what she's
12:29 going to bring to the table.
12:30 And then from there, you've just got
12:31 killers up and down the lineup.
12:32 Like, they took turns.
12:34 Alyssa Brito had the huge two-home run day
12:38 against Long Beach State.
12:39 The Sooners senior finished the weekend with three home runs.
12:42 You had Tiare Jennings delivering at various points.
12:45 She was excellent against Duke, specifically.
12:48 Jada Coleman leading things off.
12:50 And the one we talked about there
12:51 in the top of the eighth against Washington, Riley Boone.
12:54 What more could you ask from her?
12:56 It feels like every year, that little bunt that just
12:59 dies right outside the batter's box
13:02 so she can sprint down the line gets more and more lethal.
13:06 And that's what you got out of Riley Boone.
13:08 So that was huge.
13:09 That was big time.
13:10 But again, the 10 runners left on base against Duke,
13:12 10 runners left on base against Washington,
13:16 those are what, as the season presses on
13:19 and Oklahoma rounds into shape, they
13:22 talk about it all the time.
13:24 These are the moments that you have
13:25 to improve and get better and better and better
13:29 as you get closer and closer to June, right?
13:31 And peak and play your best softball.
13:33 Stuff like that.
13:35 Just ratcheting up, converting on more of those opportunities.
13:38 That is where Oklahoma really turns on.
13:40 That's how they get better and better throughout the season.
13:41 And there was plenty of room to improve.
13:44 And that rolled you into Saturday, the final one.
13:46 Long Beach State, Patagasso's alma mater, they've met a bunch.
13:49 And you saw Chris Plank, he was talking about how muggy it was.
13:53 I'd be interested to talk to Patagasso and see
13:55 if how muggy it was affected Kirsten Deal, who looked
13:59 absolutely fine on the Thursday contest
14:02 when she kind of came in.
14:03 Brief, brief cameo against Utah Valley.
14:06 But looked like she struggled with control a little bit.
14:08 Oklahoma jumped out early on Long Beach State.
14:12 But then Long Beach State actually comes back and ties
14:15 the softball game.
14:17 And you just wondered for Kirsten Deal,
14:19 what was the situation where maybe it was muggy,
14:22 things like that.
14:23 Her line wasn't what it's become accustomed
14:25 to against Long Beach State.
14:28 But then what does Patagasso do?
14:30 She brings in the Liberty Transfer, Carly Keeney.
14:33 And what does Carly Keeney do?
14:34 She comes in, faces 13 batters, retires
14:37 all 13 of those batters, a couple of strikeouts.
14:41 And it gave Oklahoma enough time for Alyssa Brito
14:44 to hit a second home run that really got that rally started.
14:48 It gave Oklahoma enough time to throw Peyton Monticelli in there
14:51 to close that thing out.
14:52 And it was really, really comfortable from the moment
14:55 that Carly Keeney stepped in.
14:58 And she just double checked, guaranteed,
15:00 made sure that there was no funny business,
15:03 nothing like that, as Oklahoma kind of closed out the weekend.
15:06 So what you're looking at there is the Sooners again,
15:10 couple of shutouts on Thursday, no earned runs given up,
15:14 though the game was 4-3 against Washington on Friday.
15:16 And then just a little touch and go bit from Deal on Saturday,
15:20 nothing to be really concerned about.
15:22 And you roll out of that thinking, man,
15:25 Oklahoma had big performances.
15:26 It felt like they really got all those newcomers involved.
15:29 For me, that was the biggest story of the weekend,
15:31 is that Ella Parker came in.
15:32 And those shouldn't maybe steal the headlines
15:34 that a Cassie Pickering did with the home runs
15:36 and things like that.
15:37 She racked up the walks, had three walks.
15:39 It was a pretty, pretty good batting average.
15:41 Cassie Pickering, she came in and announced herself
15:45 but continued through.
15:46 She got a little bit maybe of a--
15:49 Washington got some video on her from those two games
15:52 on Thursday.
15:52 And you saw that Ruby Malin, especially,
15:54 was attacking the lower outside part of the zone.
15:57 When Pickering came up, it felt like Washington
15:59 was giving her a steady diet of low and away.
16:02 So that's a good thing, right?
16:03 It gives JT Gasso something to sit down with Cassie Pickering
16:07 and say, great, the instincts are good.
16:09 Now let's work on this, start to improve those holes,
16:11 things like that.
16:12 And then Riley Ludlam, we mentioned the sack
16:15 fight against Utah Valley, the single against Washington.
16:18 She steps in and draws the bases loaded walk.
16:20 So you saw the patience from Ludlam against Long Beach State
16:25 on Saturday.
16:26 And from there, Carly Keeney shouldn't have any nerves.
16:29 Kelly Maxwell shouldn't have any nerves.
16:31 Peyton Monticelli came in.
16:32 And she contributed in a big spot as well.
16:34 When you talk about--
16:36 and Maya Bland, even.
16:37 Maya Bland was used as a pinch runner.
16:38 And she scored a huge run there against Washington.
16:41 So you look at it.
16:42 And really, the three freshmen that Oklahoma
16:44 are going to use, as Patty Gasso told us,
16:46 that Nellie McEnroe-Marina, she's
16:47 going to redshirt probably with a little injury.
16:50 So you had that going on.
16:51 So you've got your three true freshmen
16:53 that are not redshirting.
16:54 Then you've got your three pitching transfers
16:56 plus Ludlam.
16:58 What more could you want?
16:59 And oh, by the way, Tiara Jennings, Jada Coleman,
17:03 Kinsey Hanson, Alyssa Brito, Riley Boone,
17:06 they all look like themselves.
17:07 The battle at second base raged on.
17:10 You saw Alina Torres do it with her bat
17:12 on Thursday, which kind of earned her
17:14 some of those starting time--
17:15 starting innings on Friday and Saturday.
17:19 You saw Avery Hodge in a couple of spots
17:21 come in and say, OK, maybe you go with Alina Torres
17:24 to start the game.
17:25 And then when you want to shut down those innings late
17:28 and put your best defensive lineup on the field,
17:30 that's when Avery Hodge steps in.
17:32 Then you saw-- to second base, that is.
17:34 Then you saw Pickering.
17:36 And you saw Hannah Coor kind of split some time
17:38 in the outfield.
17:40 It feels like that's really rounded into shape,
17:42 as we only saw a little bit of Quincy Lillio.
17:44 I'm curious to see as Oklahoma heads out to Lake Charles
17:46 this next weekend, which, again, we
17:48 will preview that on Thursday.
17:50 I'm kind of curious to see where that develops,
17:52 if Q could get more at bat.
17:55 So if you're watching us on YouTube, though, let me know.
17:57 Drop us a comment.
17:58 What player were you most impressed by the opening
18:03 weekend?
18:03 It can be a returner, or it can be one of the newbies.
18:06 But let me know in the comments section what player,
18:08 if you're on YouTube, were you most impressed by.
18:10 Because I'd love to see what you guys are thinking.
18:12 Love to kind of pick Alex Staropko's brains.
18:15 I talk to her every week on some of those just debutantes
18:19 and see what all they brought to the table.
18:21 Because now it's all about really focusing on improvement,
18:24 as you've got Central Arkansas and McKinney State
18:27 a handful of games, five games total this upcoming weekend.
18:31 And I'm interested to see in Dillon exactly what
18:33 Patti Gasso wants to improve on.
18:35 But what more could you want?
18:37 I mean, elsewhere around the country, you saw UCLA.
18:40 Doesn't look like the UCLA that you're accustomed to.
18:43 But Texas, a huge run rule victory over UCLA.
18:46 Oklahoma State gets a run rule victory over UCLA.
18:48 So the Longhorns, the Cowgirls look excellent.
18:52 Oakland, Texas might be one, too, in college softball,
18:55 which would be a whole lot of fun down in Austin
18:57 if that's a top two battle happening there, just based
19:00 on how Texas played this weekend.
19:01 Obviously, the really bad news if you missed it,
19:04 Jordie Ball, that injured ankle at Puerto Vallarta.
19:07 Haven't seen anything else kind of come out on that
19:09 to see what her status is.
19:10 And she went down against Washington.
19:11 So something to watch there is across the country.
19:14 It was an action-packed, really, really fun weekend
19:16 all across college softball.
19:18 You saw Charlotte pop up and upset Florida State.
19:20 So the upsets were a plenty.
19:22 But again, as was the story a year ago, parody, upsets,
19:27 all that, you look up.
19:29 The Oklahoma Sooners are still trucking along
19:31 on a big, long win streak.
19:33 We'll see what other fun we can get into on the All Sooners
19:37 softball shows.
19:38 We preview Oklahoma headed out to Lake Charles,
19:41 headed out to participate in the Cowgirl Challenge
19:43 out at the State.
19:45 Remember, allsooners.com is your place
19:47 to be for all your softball coverage all season long,
19:49 whether you want the stories, whether you want game coverage,
19:51 whether you want those live blogs for those big games,
19:54 especially those games on Flow.
19:55 I'll be giving a live blog for you.
19:57 You don't want to pay for Flow.
19:58 That's totally fine.
19:59 All those Flow games, we should have live blogs humming.
20:02 So be sure you're headed to allsooners.com.
20:04 Myself, John Hoover, Randall Sweet, Bryce Gittes,
20:07 great job talking about it, making sure
20:09 that we're covering Oklahoma softball,
20:11 giving you all the coverage you want here at allsooners.com.
20:14 That's it for today.
20:16 We'll talk to you guys on Thursday.