AllSooners Softball Show, Ep. 13
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Another weekend, another dominant showing for the Oklahoma Sooners.
00:05 The top ranked team in the land took three from Texas Tech in Lubbock.
00:11 A emphatic series victory for Oklahoma.
00:14 We're going to recap everything that happened in Lubbock and so much more here on the All
00:19 Sooners Softball Show.
00:20 Stick with us.
00:21 What's up?
00:30 Ryan Chapman back in the saddle here on the All Sooners Softball Show recapping another
00:36 huge weekend for Patty Gasso's crew as the Sooners went a combined 40-3.
00:43 That was the combined score across three games in Lubbock.
00:47 It was emphatic.
00:49 It was dominant.
00:51 Anything you could ask for.
00:52 Despite the fact that Oklahoma was down their starting catcher for most of the series.
00:57 Despite the fact that the weather conditions were awful.
00:59 It looked really cold, rainy of course.
01:03 On Sunday it really appeared like the wind was blowing in.
01:05 But it was an offensive avalanche for Oklahoma.
01:10 Tiare Jennings getting it done on Friday.
01:13 She had six RBIs all by herself paired with Kelly Maxwell's 10 strikeout performance.
01:19 Tiare had 12 RBIs combined the entire weekend.
01:24 Just a massive monumental weekend.
01:26 We mentioned it last week that she had moved into number two on the all-time double list.
01:31 She tied Sidney Romero for number one with 58 doubles.
01:35 Tiare Jennings did.
01:37 It looked like the same old, same old Tiare.
01:39 Patty Gasso has talked about how she's the most clutch hitter that she's ever seen.
01:45 Today Jada Coleman, Monday that is, Jada Coleman talked with us on the radio show about
01:51 how Tiare Jennings is the most consistent hitter that Jada Coleman's ever seen.
01:56 You saw every bit of it.
01:57 Whether it was just some hard hit, well placed doubles into the gap to move runners around.
02:02 Whether it was the home run derby, the home runs.
02:05 It got going.
02:07 On Friday specifically it came on a game where Craig Snyder, Texas Tech's head coach, last
02:12 year the pioneer of the new pitcher every single inning, decided to give Oklahoma something
02:16 a little bit different, a little wrench.
02:18 He just didn't let his team pitch to Sidney Sanders.
02:21 Sidney Sanders who's having as scorching hot a march as anyone in college softball.
02:26 She was walked four times, right, in Friday's game.
02:30 It took until her last at-bat where there were runners on, all that stuff, for Texas
02:34 Tech to finally pitch to her.
02:36 And she did deliver with a sacrifice fly.
02:38 But this is what Oklahoma's lineup found.
02:41 It wasn't just any one player.
02:43 It was the energy in that Iowa State series from game one to game two.
02:48 That energy that allows Oklahoma to attack every single pitch the way that Patty Gasso,
02:53 JT Gasso, everyone wants that to happen.
02:56 And the result of that is you get not just one, not just two, but when the lineup from
03:00 top to bottom is humming, it makes it impossible to pitch to, right?
03:03 On Friday you looked at it.
03:05 No Sidney Sanders just going to issue a ton of walks.
03:07 And guess what, Tiara Jennings absolutely assaulted Texas Tech with a battery of just
03:13 anything she wanted.
03:14 She got it.
03:15 You look at what happened on Saturday.
03:16 It was another steady performance top to bottom.
03:19 And this time it was Ella Parker who went three for four.
03:22 You look at what happened on Sunday.
03:24 Alyssa Brito stood tall.
03:26 A pair of home runs for Alyssa Brito on Sunday.
03:30 And it wasn't just the big names, the headlines.
03:33 That's how you got Oklahoma pouring it on.
03:37 They converted in the seventh inning on Friday.
03:39 They rolled that into a monumental, massive first inning on Saturday.
03:46 Twelve batters sent to the plate.
03:47 Twelve runs scored before they even recorded an out.
03:51 That only happens if you're getting contributions from top to bottom.
03:55 And then of course on Sunday busted that thing open late thanks to Alyssa Brito.
03:58 You even got Avery Hodge getting on the action on Sunday.
04:02 She went two for two.
04:03 She picked up a hit on Saturday as well.
04:06 It really feels like Pattie Gasso's lineup from top to bottom is starting to gel.
04:10 And not in the sense of, hey, Pattie Gasso has settled on this person's always batting
04:15 one, this person's batting two.
04:17 We know this by now, right?
04:18 Pattie Gasso's going to roll a different lineup every single day.
04:22 And that's fine because it doesn't really matter where the hitters hit.
04:26 For the most part, you can put Jada Coleman at the top, Riley Boone at the bottom, so
04:29 they'll turn that thing over.
04:30 But it hasn't mattered whether you've seen Cassidy Pickery and Ella Parker hitting in
04:34 the 2-3 hole, whether you've seen Terry Jennings, and then it goes Coleman-Jennings back to
04:39 back, which is just an incredible headache for any pitcher.
04:42 It has been really, really impressive.
04:44 And it really feels like Oklahoma's lineup is starting to figure that out.
04:48 And like I mentioned, you're even getting the battle from Alina Torres and Avery Hodge
04:52 still battling at second base.
04:54 And then if Hannah Kaur and Maya Bland continue to come in, and not that they're going to
04:58 take a starting spot in the outfield from Cassidy Pickering or Jada Coleman or Riley
05:02 Boone, but you're still getting that push every single day at practice.
05:07 That can only be healthy for Oklahoma, especially as they work through the only little blip,
05:13 not even like a negative, just something to monitor from this weekend, which is the status
05:17 of Kinsey Hanson on Tuesday evening.
05:20 So Tuesday at noon is when we'll publish this.
05:22 Tuesday evening is when we'll get a chance to talk to Patti Gasso.
05:26 The first time we've gotten to talk to Patti Gasso since the postgame of the Tarleton State
05:30 doubleheader a whole Tuesday ago.
05:33 That is when Patti Gasso said, "Hey, Kinsey Hanson was held out of that doubleheader for
05:36 an illness, basically a precautionary thing.
05:38 She said she should be ready to go by Friday."
05:41 Lo and behold, we get to Friday.
05:42 Kinsey Hanson gets the star.
05:44 Everyone sees her home run there in the second inning.
05:47 And then we don't see her the rest of the weekend.
05:49 She does not play on Saturday or Sunday.
05:52 On Saturday, she could be seen in the dugout on the ESPN+ stream, but because all-sooners
05:58 certainly didn't get to travel to Lubbock, don't know if anyone else got to travel to
06:01 Lubbock on the media side, that meant we didn't get postgames with Patti Gasso to ask about
06:05 Kinsey Hanson, what was going on there.
06:08 So we'll find that out, hopefully, Tuesday night.
06:11 So stay tuned to allsooners.com to get everything you need there on Kinsey Hanson.
06:17 Everything as Oklahoma rolls into their midweek game on Wednesday against UT Arlington, and
06:21 certainly as they're at Hall of Fame Stadium on Friday against Baylor, and then back at
06:24 Loves Field Saturday and Sunday against Baylor.
06:27 So when we talk about that competition top to bottom, where we've really seen that play
06:31 out is with Oklahoma's pitching staff, specifically the rotation, the starting rotation.
06:37 We saw Big 12 play game one of that doubleheader.
06:41 Kelly Maxwell got the nod against Iowa State.
06:44 She was your game one starter for the Sooners against the Cyclones.
06:49 Go to Lubbock, exact same situation.
06:51 Kelly Maxwell gets that Friday start.
06:54 And as I mentioned earlier, she fires 10 strikeouts, isn't really stressed, even until really like
06:59 the sixth inning, and she was in a little bit of a jam, and it seemed that Patti Gasso
07:03 was content just to let Kelly Maxwell work her way out of that.
07:07 No worries, no doubts at all from what you're getting.
07:10 Kelly Maxwell, a veteran of the Big 12, and you've seen her turn it on as of late.
07:14 Something we talked about last week on the All-Sooners Softball Show that she said, she
07:18 mentioned at this point in the year, she is really feeling comfortable with everything
07:22 that Jen Rocha has brought, and if you've listened to Alex Duraco as she works with
07:27 us on the franchise on radio on the road to OKC, she's talked about that when you make
07:32 that move from non-conference to conference play, that's really where she got to take
07:37 a huge step forward as well, because in the non-conference, these multi-team events where
07:42 you're preparing for four, maybe five teams over the course of three days, you're having
07:47 to prepare for 12 to 14 hitters for every single one of those teams for every single
07:51 one of those games across, compacted into a three-day window.
07:55 For Iowa State, you're just preparing for Iowa State's 12 to 14 hitters for Texas Tech.
08:01 You are just preparing for Texas Tech 12 to 14 hitters that Oklahoma's really scouting,
08:06 which Alex Duraco said really allowed her to digest everything that Jen Rocha wanted
08:11 to do as far as how she wants to attack an opposing lineup.
08:15 Feels like Kelly Maxwell is really settling into that exact same rhythm as we've seen.
08:19 She's been excellent, excellent against both Iowa State and Texas Tech.
08:24 Business will obviously pick up against Baylor, but maybe the, I don't know if it's a surprise,
08:28 but the thing that was different this weekend in Lubbock, it was not Nicole May that got
08:33 the Saturday start, it was Kirsten Diehl, the sophomore who hadn't given up a run since
08:39 opening weekend against Long Beach State.
08:41 That was 27 straight innings scoreless.
08:45 She got the Saturday start, and though she did give up a solo home run in the first inning,
08:49 it was really the only blip for Kirsten Diehl throughout a really strong performance.
08:55 She even had to wait through that 12-run first inning, so she's gotten all warmed up in the
08:59 pregame and then just had to sit in a really cold dugout.
09:03 That didn't bother her one bit, and it's been really nice to see the sophomore take those
09:07 steps forward, because that bumped Nicole May to Sunday.
09:11 While Nicole May had an okay day, if you just look up at the scoreboard, runs allowed a
09:16 very, very low number.
09:18 Nicole May has still had some of these issues that, when you look at her freshman and sophomore
09:22 season, it was a lot of free passes, walks that Nicole May would get herself into trouble,
09:27 then she'd work herself out of that jam.
09:29 It felt like she would flip the switch, she was clutch, but it was almost jams of her
09:33 own making due to free bases issues, whether it be a walk or a hit batter.
09:37 On Sunday, it wasn't really the walks, only one of those, it wasn't really the hit batters,
09:41 it was the fact that Texas Tech was able to square up and get seven hits.
09:45 Now, the seven hits did not translate to six runs or anything gaudy like that, but it'll
09:50 be interesting to see.
09:51 I can't wait to pick Patty Gass's brain as far as, is it just the fact that Nicole May
09:55 has been a contact pitcher a little bit?
09:58 Because it's year four and she's got four years of film, like three and a half years
10:03 of film on her that Big 12 teams are very familiar, is it another gear that Nicole May
10:08 has to hit?
10:10 It's so weird talking about this because Nicole May not giving up a ton of runs, it's just
10:14 not the totally locked down, shut down performance you've been used to seeing from a Kelly Maxwell
10:18 or a Kirsten Deal as far as not really a ton of base traffic, not much on the base path.
10:23 So that'll be something to look at, but the good news is too, you continue to get strong
10:28 relief innings out of Peyton Monticelli, strong relief innings out of Carly Keeney.
10:33 The knuckle in the pitching staff still looks like it's at the worst, five strong, even
10:37 if S.J. Guerin doesn't get a ton of look, and so there's plenty of time for Nicole May
10:41 to round herself into shape, but that's been the one little thing to track for me, thing
10:46 to monitor has been Nicole May.
10:48 There have been instances where she's had a lot of walks, there have been instances
10:50 now where she had given up a bunch of hits, not a ton of hard hits, but a bunch of hits
10:54 against Texas Tech.
10:55 So something to look at is again, Oklahoma has another busy action pack loaded slate.
11:00 Wednesday night, the Sooners will be back at Loves Field.
11:04 UT Arlington is the opponent, then they'll have Thursday night off, at least from the
11:09 game perspective, before they head up to Hall of Fame Stadium on Friday, a really big series
11:15 against the Baylor Bears.
11:16 The Baylor Bears, a team that had some preseason ranking buzz, but just got swept by Kansas.
11:22 So how is Baylor going to respond?
11:24 You know that they'll be desperate.
11:25 Obviously the Baylor Bears, the only team to beat Oklahoma a year ago, coming into Hall
11:30 of Fame on Friday, Dariana Orme, Govon, players to look out for.
11:36 Then Saturday and Sunday, the Series will close out at Loves Field, just like the Texas
11:40 Series was last year.
11:41 Not that complicated, Oklahoma fans know it.
11:43 One game at Hall of Fame Stadium on Friday night.
11:45 Saturday, Sunday at Loves Field as the Sooners look to extend their lead atop the Big 12
11:50 Conference.
11:51 Oklahoma State and Texas both swept through their weekends.
11:55 So Oklahoma sitting all alone, 6-0, Texas, Oklahoma State still the chasing pack at 5-1
12:02 apiece.
12:03 And you look across the country, and LSU lost their first game this weekend, so they are
12:08 unbeaten no longer.
12:10 It is pretty much Oklahoma unquestioned your number one ranked team at the top of college
12:13 softball, which is not a shock, but it is just funny that here we were a couple weeks
12:18 ago coming off of one lone loss against Louisiana, and it was like, "The sky is falling, the
12:22 sky is falling."
12:23 Like a lot of you guys and girls, the intelligent ones that watch this show, you know, "The
12:27 sky was not falling, everything was going to be fine."
12:29 If anything, it felt like a weight was lifted off the shoulders of these Sooners, and they
12:33 are playing free and easy yet again, which is really good to see heading into Wednesday's
12:37 game against UC Arlington.
12:38 And then the pair, the trio, excuse me, the pair at Loves Field, the game at Hall of Fame
12:43 Stadium, the three game set against Baylor on the weekend.
12:46 So come on back, allsooners.com, like we said, as soon as we find out anything more about
12:51 Kinsey Hanson, why she played a little bit Friday but not Saturday and Sunday, that will
12:54 be up at allsooners.com.
12:56 On Thursday, we'll circle back here for the All Sooners softball show, recapping everything
13:01 that Patty Gasol had to say, the players we got to talk to, all that fun stuff.
13:05 Probably won't have the recap of the UT Arlington game, so probably have to shoot the show before
13:10 the UT Arlington game.
13:11 Oh, the joys of working in morning radio, right?
13:14 But like I said, if anything huge, massive, noteworthy, I'll circle back, I'll tack on
13:19 something to the end of the show, or maybe at the beginning.
13:22 You'll know about it if there's massive, massive anything breaking from that UT Arlington game.
13:26 But a recap of everything that Patty Gasol and the Sooners had to say on Tuesday is coming
13:32 on Thursday, as well as a more in-depth preview of that Baylor series.
13:37 It should be a ton of fun.
13:38 I'll be at Hall of Fame, I'll be at Loves Field.
13:40 You see me, come say what's up.
13:42 Always appreciate talking to you guys.
13:44 But for the whole All Sooners crew, John Hoover, Randall Sweet, Bryce McInnis, Rod Loveplace,
13:50 I'm Brian Chapman.
13:51 Remember, allsooners.com is the place to be for all of your softball news, every single
13:57 press conference video, game recaps, game stories, my weekend wrap for home series,
14:02 we get to talk to Patty Gasol a couple times, all that stuff is always at allsooners.com,
14:07 which of course is your place to find the All Sooners softball show.
14:11 So for everybody, I'm Brian Chapman, I'll talk to you guys back here on the All Sooners
14:16 softball show on Thursday.