The first real test of the season - OU vs UCLA

[OU_Tom]

So are we really good? This big game at 6pm will tell us a lot about whether this is a championship caliber team.

[OU_Tom]

We know this team can hit

But are Bahl, May, and Trautwein talented enough and ready to take us to OKC?

Regardless of the final outcome of the game, it seems if the pitchers hold UCLA to 2 runs or less then I would say the answer is yes.

If OU wins then the answer is probably still yes.

It is just a game but if OU plays really we will have a good idea if this team is as good as last year's national championship game

[EMan]

This early in the season I'm not sure just how much this game really means other than being a good win on the resume for seeding purposes. Patty's teams have a history of playing their best ball late in the season, which is exactly what you want. I feel pretty confident that the team that takes the field this evening will look different from the one that's taking the field come tournament time. And UCLA will probably be in a similar boat.

[OUBeliever56A]

This early in the season I'm not sure just how much this game really means other than being a good win on the resume for seeding purposes. Patty's teams have a history of playing their best ball late in the season, which is exactly what you want. I feel pretty confident that the team that takes the field this evening will look different from the one that's taking the field come tournament time. And UCLA will probably be in a similar boat.

I agree with your thoughts. Tonight's game is just one of 60 games. So far, about half of the offense for the Sooners has not showed up. Tonight would be a good time to show up. The pitching on both sides will be interesting to watch.

Boomer Sooner!

[TropicalSooner]

Does the whole team travel on tournament and road games or is there a limit to the travel squad?

[White River]

This early in the season I'm not sure just how much this game really means other than being a good win on the resume for seeding purposes. Patty's teams have a history of playing their best ball late in the season, which is exactly what you want. I feel pretty confident that the team that takes the field this evening will look different from the one that's taking the field come tournament time. And UCLA will probably be in a similar boat.

I can't argue it is just one game but we're not that many years removed from having to play Bama at their place in the Super Regionals because we lost some of these early games out west. Granted, the Big 12 wasn't as strong then as it is now but somehow Pac 12 softball loses seem to really hurt your RPI rating. The PAC 12 is to softball what the SEC is to football in that regard. When they lose they improve their RPI rating and when you lose to them you drop like a rock. We did win it all that year so maybe a loss isn't that big a deal.

[OU_Tom]

You guys are probably right but if OU run rules them then i will buy tickets for WCWS

So one area where there is generally an enormous difference between early games and late in the year is the rookies. It will be interesting to see if any of them break out other the Bahl.

I remembering going to the Houston tournment back when Nicole Mendes was freshman. She was really in over head in the games in Houston. She was swinging at pitches that were 10 feet up in the air. And then by the end of the year, she had become a starter/WCWS star.

[TN Sooner]

Great win by the Sooners. Pitching was phenomenal. Hitting was mostly timely, especially from the bottom half of the order. There’s a thread on SoonerScoop from Friday complaining about the back half of the order, arguing for whole-scale benching. I suspect there’s a thread this morning wanting to bench Jennings Alo and Hansen.

Let’s talk about conferences. During one of the Friday games, one of the commentators noted “OU has a much easier strength of schedule than UCLA because of the PAC 12”. I took offense to that and still think it isn’t that big a difference, but certainly depth of the PAC 12 is stronger. But - at the top - Big 12 is plenty strong, and I would argue - our top 2 is better than PAC 12 top 2 most of the last few years. If OSU wasn’t “our little sister” they’d be viewed as elite level the last couple of years and are a solid top 5 this year.

Poster above noted PAC 12 is the “SEC of softball”. With all due respect, I don’t think that is true anymore, certainly not the last 10 years. While ou has 4 titles in that span, the SEC has 4 and the PAC 12 only 2. Further, PAC 12 only had 1 other team in the Champ Series final during that span, while SEC had 5 championship runner-ups. I don’t see that changing any time soon - all SEC teams made the World Series field last year and one of the worst regular season SEC (GA - 7-17 in conference) teams made it to OKC (and had a big regular season out-of-conference win, if I remember correctly…).

Certainly, when we join the SEC, the SEC becomes the ‘SEC” of softball, at least until someone knocks us off that pedestal.

[OU_Tom]

I think that the RPI math has changed due to Texas and OSU becoming better teams. There was a time not all that long ago when the Big 12 was a weak conference. Texas under Connie Clark wasn't a competitive team for years. Mike White/Kenny have turned Texas and OSU into top 5/top 10 teams. That is all OU needs. A few years ago OU needed to be really careful; if they lost a few games against ranked teams that could mean that we would lose out on hosting the super. I don't think that is the case today; we will host a super.

Fans are biased towards to their teams. The Pac-12 and the SEC are deeper conferences than the Big 12. Big 12 only has 3 top tier teams while those other conferences have more than 3 top tier teams each. I only care about 1 team, OU, and that team is better than any other team out there right now.

[OU_Tom]

Great win by the Sooners. Pitching was phenomenal. Hitting was mostly timely, especially from the bottom half of the order.

Great post. The team played great

I think that the 2 of us are saying exactly the same thing about the conferences/RPI/SOS

Boomer

[OU_Tom]

But are Bahl, May, and Trautwein talented enough and ready to take us to OKC

I got my answer.

In all seriousness, can I still get tickets for OKC? I would like to buy a set

[BixSooner]

That was a nice win for the Sooners.

A couple of comments about UCLA, the third pitcher they threw out there was legit. Back to back strikeouts against Alo and Hansen will get your attention.
UCLA had a bad day in the field, I believe 4 errors. One would assume that will be chalked up as a fluke for them. We'll see. We'll also see how legit they are as the season progresses as Jordy made them look below average at the plate.

When you go back and watch highlights from the early part of last year, the defensive lineup, for OU, was a work in progress. No telling from game to game who was going to be in the outfield and at first. Things have been pretty consistent so far this year, with Donihoo, Jayda, and Boone in the outfield. Throw in Snow at first (when Hansen is catching), and the infield appears to be locked in also. Will be interesting to see what kind of tweaks, defensively, Patty makes as the season rolls along.