Oklahoma wins their WarmUp Game 11-0 over Hofstra to open NCAA's

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OUBeliever56A
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Oklahoma wins their WarmUp Game 11-0 over Hofstra to open NCAA's

Post by OUBeliever56A »

With no disrespect to Hofstra at all, Oklahoma played their 'warm-up' game on Friday 11-0 in 4 1/2 innings. The Sooners scored in all four innings that they batted with a big 4th inning as they scored 6 runs against what was the 3rd, 4th and 5th pitchers for Hofstra. I will say this for Hofstra, their parents and fanse did show up and made the long trip from Long Island in NY to watch their team. Two of them told me how nice Marita Hynes field was and was puzzled about the building of the new Love's Field. A new perspective is sometimes a strange thing, I guess.

While the Sooner offense was hitting on most cylinders on Friday afternoon, Nicole May was like a super-fueled dragster waiting for the staging lights to 'drop'. May opened the first inning with the foot feet all the way to the floorboard when the bottom light turned green with three straight Ks on swinging strikeouts. May then cruised down the straightaway as she steered three ground balls to Jennings at 2B for 3 outs. On the the second ground ball of the inning (I think I remember correctly), Jennings and Sanders worked well together to field the ball between the two players to make the play look easy.

In the 3rd inning, May worked the left side of the infield as she gave up her only hit of the day to the 7th hitter for Hofster. The hit was a double down the LF line that got over Boone's head certainly surprising me. May promptly pushed the foot feet a bit harder and struck out the next hitter looking. After a lazy fly ball back to Boone for the 2nd out, Brito made a nice play to her right to backhand a high bouncing grounder to throw to 1B for an out.

May picked up outs in the 4th on another fly ball to Boone, another swinging K and a ground ball to Jennings. May's sprint down the 1/4 mile straight was complete for the day with her engine running very well. Alex Storako with several Sooner non-starters in the game, cruised through the ride back to the pit area in the 'help-car' with her own 1, 2, 3 inning. Storako got a swinging strikeout to start her playoffs in 2023, a popup to Brito at 3B and then was backed up with a nice running catch by Grace Green in RC-ish on a line drive by the Hofstra final Hofstra hitter.

The offense for OU was provided by several players on Friday. Kinzie Hansen might have had the best day for the Sooner hitters as she was 3 for 3 with a double and two singles and 4 RBIs. Each of her hits were hit hard. Grace Lyons and Jayda Coleman each hit HRs in the thier lone hit of the day for 2 RBIs each. Lee and Brito also had two hits with each picking up an RBI. OU's other run was unearned with no RBI in the 4th inning. Jennings, Torres and Nugent also picked up hits for OU. Sanders, Lee and Torres also picked up walks. In a couple of fun plays, Lee beat out both of her hits on a ground balls deep to 2B and deep to SS that seemed to make Lee very happy showing her 'blazing speed' on two infield singles.

[Late addition to the post:] The HR by Jayda Coleman was her 15th of the season for a bit of a milestone for her. Grace Lyons' HR was her 8th of the season.

I thought Storako would get th estart for OU, but it sounds like that May got the start 'because she deserved it' according to Coach Gasso. I can not argue against that one bit. And May rewarded the selection. OU played 14 of 15 position players in the game providing the first playoff action for some Sooners. All-in-all, it was a good solid win to open the NCAA Tourney in 2023.

In the following game, Missouri won over California 5-1. Frankly, I was surprised at how poor of a team that California seemed to be. How that team could have defeated UCLA and actually run-ruled UCLA 8-0 is very surprising. Missouri is a solid team in many ways. Their first four hitters, Laird, Honnold, Daly and Crenshaw are good hitters. It is important to keep Laird off of the bases with Honnold and Day coming up next. OU last defeated Missouri in 2021 in the Hall of Fame Tourney in OKC in one close game and one run-rule game. Their best pitcher, Krings, pitched last night. I think today against Oklahoma, Missouri could send Cierra Harrison to the circle to start the game.

For Oklahoma, I think Jorday Bahl will get the start. It will be Bahl's first outing against the Tigers. May has not pitched against Missouri either as Juarez and Saile pitched CGs in 2021. I could not find a game between Michigan and Missouri in Storako's career either.

Good luck today to the Sooners against Missouri. The Sooners are now 52-1, winners of 44 in a row. The shutout, run-rule victory over Hofstra was the Sooners 25th run-rule and 31st shutout this season.

Here is the staff wrtiers article about the win over Hofstra.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/5/19 ... -regionals

Boomer Sooner!
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