Battle Series #2 - Wednesday @ 6:30: 7 Things to be Looking For

[OUBeliever56A]

Here are 7 things I wil be looking for in the Battle Series #2 Game on Wednesday night at 6:30 PM.

1) Do we see Isabella Smith pitch, Hannah Coor bat and Corri Hicks play at all?

As has been reported Smith did not pitch lst Wednesday and there was a report that she was walking with a bit of a limp. I will be watching to see if she particiapates in the pre-game pitching drills beofre the game, which she did not do last week. Coor did play the field, but she did not bat. Hopefully she hits tonight. Hicks was still wearing a boot on her right foot but she did play catch before the game but did no drills or play. Hopefully, she is able to do more this week.

2) Do the teams stay the same? Last week these were the teams:

Team Boomer (White): Emerling, Sanders, Barker, Agbayani, McKay, Dayton, Milloy, Deal and Monticelli
Team Sooner (Crimson): Zache, Parker, Garcia, NellyMac, Bland, Pickering, Helton, Landry Lowery (Coor played defense wearing crimson.)

I am guessing that the pitchers will switch teams this week to pitch to new batters.

3) Who hits the 3rd HR of the Fall?

Last week, NellyMac hit a line drive HR to LC and Sanders hit a moonshot that cleared the fince in CF, just barely. Who hits #3? It is time for Parker and Pickering to join the HR club for the fall. Maybe a new freshman joins the club this week. (NellyMac is a redshirt freshman. She could hit another also.)

4) Does a Sooner pitcher pitch a shutout in the circle this week?

Last week the closest a Sooner got was Paytn Monticelli who pitched 3.1 innings and allowed just 1 run that was unearend. Each of the Sooner pitchers threw at least 2 innings of scoreless softball out of their 3+ innings they pitched.

4A) Here is sub-item under this topic. - NO more 4-pitch walks would be nice.

5) Do any Sooners play another position in BS Game #2?

As we know, vesatility on defense is a staple of the Sooners, especially for young players. Her is a list of potential new positions for some players that we might see this week.

E Parker - Do we see her in the OF as well as at 1B?
S Barker - Do we see her at SS this week in addition to 2B? (Does she still have a sore arm potentially this week?)
G Garcia - Soes she play 2B in addition to SS this week?
K McKay - Do we see her play 1B or maybe 2B in addition to 3B this week?
R Zache - Do we see her play 2B or maybe 3B this week in addition to C?
T Milloy - She played an inning at 2B last week, does she play more in the infield last week in addition to the OF?
I Emerling - Do we see her play 1B or 3B this week in addition to C?

6) In my review of last week, I realized that 11 of the 14 position players picked up hits (20 total hits) in game #1. Hopefully the 3 remaining position players for the Sooners pick up their first hits this week.

Helton, Zache and Barker were hitless last week. All three did reach base on errors however. Barker also had a sac bunt in the game last week. If Coor and Milloy hit, maybe they pick up a hit as well.

7) My biggest question- Does the OU defense look better in game #2?

While there were some good defensive plays like these:

• NellyMac's good catch of a quick line drive bunt.

• Milloy's strong throw to Emerling to throw out a runner at the plate.

• Helton's strong throw to 3B to throw out a runner at 3B.

• Garcia's nice play on a chopper to SS to throw out a runner as she charged the ball.

• Pickering's almost catch to rob Sanders of her game-tying HR.

There were some 'not-so-good plays.

• NellyMac missd on two tougher plays when a sharp ground ball to a bit of bad hop and she could not catch the ball cleanly and then as she moved well to her left to field a ball, the ball come out of her glove before the throw.

• Agbayani had two plays that she did not catch the ball cleanly on at SS.

• Deal failed to field a chopper hit back to her that was above her head.

• Bland's mis-timed/judged dive for a flare hit to RF that rurned a single into a triple.

• Three (3) balls hit shallow to LF, LC and RC that maybe were catchable but the Sooner OF were not really close to catching. (Yes, maybe we have been spoiled on this type of hit.)

• Some thought that Pickering's double might have been caught in LC that was between Coor and Dalton.

Most Oklahoma softball fans know that the Sooner defense is a staple of the team's success. One of the things that is difficult ot log is the plays made that do not get identified by stats. Like those little flares to LC/RC that are caught more times than not. Like those doubles in LC/RC that never hit the warning track. Like the sharp hit ground ball that are caught instead of not caught. The OU defense was not what it needed to be last weeked. Hopefully this week, it will improve.

That is all I have to watch besides just enjoying watching the team play.

Do you have any other things important to you to watch?

Boomer Sooner!

[VNSooner]

Will this game be shown on ESPN+?

[OUBeliever56A]

The answer is YES,

But you have to have a subscription to the SEC Network either through a streaming service or the SEC Channel on your cable package to be able to access the game on ESPN+.

[TN Sooner]

For anyone that wants to see the battle series and doesn’t have access to SEC+, it does appear that a lot of Sooner content finds its way to YouTube within a few hours of the event - confirmed examples include the Battle Series and the Monday night shows from Rudy’s. Both Battle Series are on YouTube right now (I found just by searching “battle series”). They even edit out the commercials.

Now the bad news - the YouTube version is degraded video. I started watching Battle Series 2 this morning on YouTube but quickly reverted to on-demand sec+ on espn+ because the YouTube video quality wasn’t great.