Sooner Softball: Big 12 Tourney Champs w 6-1 victory over Texas!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners arrived at the Hall of Fame Stadium in OKC on Saturday and accomplished one more of the goals for the 2023 season as they left with a 6-1 victory over Texas and the Big 12 Tourney Championship on their t-shirts and the win in their back pockets. It was a comfortable win for the Sooners in every way. Oklahoma out pitched, out defensed, out hit and out ran the Longhorns all day for the win.

One again the Sooners pulled off the Double Championship of the regular season and the tourney. To show the dominance of the Sooners in the Big 12 this season, the Sooners outscored their opponents 139-18 in the 20 games they played against the conference while going 20-0. The Sooners tossed 11 shoutouts and had 6 run-rule wins in the conference in 2023.

The Sooners sent Nicole May to the circle to start the game for Oklahoma. May gave up a looping single to Scott of Texas in the first inning but tallied a K and two infield pop foul outs to cruise through the 1st inning. The Sooners started slowly on offense as Coleman walked to open the inning but managed no hits in the inning against the freshman Gutierrez for Texas.

May got the first out of the 2nd on a ground out to Jennings before she walked Cimusz. A popup to Lyons accounted for the second out before Maloney singled into the hole between SS and 3B with two outs. When Popelka tapped a grounder back to May, May made the play and the 2nd inning was over. OU got on the board with a Haley Lee HR to almost straight away CF to lead off the 2nd inning for OU. Kinzie Hansen added a line drive double just inside the left field line with two outs for OU's second hit.

May had a strong 3rd inning with a 1, 2, 3 inning on two fly outs to CF and a bunt that May fielded easily. Oklahoma went quietly in the bottom of the 3rd on only 6 pitches from Gutierrez.

May got another pop fly out to 3B in foul territory to open the top of the 4th. I think May missed on a pitch to Viviana Martinez as she left the ball on the inside half of the plate with Hansen sitting outside. Martinez hit the ball deep into RF for a HR to tie the score at 1-1. May finished the 4th with her second strikeout and a groundout to 1B. In the bottom of the fourth, the Sooner offense showed up. With one out, Lee singled down the left field line. Stepping into the box, Alyssa Brito had the chance to keep the inning going. Brito hit a line drive double into the RC gap that pushed Lee to score from first base on the play. As Lee rounded third base you could see her shift gears to score on Saturday after being thrown out at the plate on Friday. Lee was safe as the throw was a bit high with Brito moving to 3rd base on the throw. A pitch or two later, Brito scored on a wild pitch/passed ball that Atwood tried to scoop up with h=just her glove instead of blocking the ball. That speed of getting to 3B on the previous play was important for OU. Gutierrez then walked Allynah Torres. OU choose to use Jordy Bahl as a pinch-runner for Torres. On what I think was a hit & run play, Hansen swung through an inside pitch as Bahl took off for second base. As Atwood's throw to second bounced in front of 2B, Bahl slide into Martinez's foot and then into the bag as the ball bounced out of Martinez's glove to reach second base safely. After Hansen grounded out to 3B, Rylie Boone picked up a big 2-out hit on a single up the middle to plate Bahl easily as she quickly scored on the late throw from centerfield. Bahl's speed was a key for the run to score. After the Boone single, Texas replaced Gutierrez in the circle with Czech. Czech ended the bottom of the 4th by retired Coleman. OU scored 3 runs though to now lead 4-1 over Texas.

With Bahl in the game for Torres, OU moved her to the circle to pitch. From what I can decipher, (thank god for spell check) It looks like Hodge replaced May as the defensive specialist or flex player as Bahl stayed in the batting lineup for Torres hitting in the 7th spot. Maloney opened the inning against Bahl with a slap single between SS and 3B. Bahl struck out Popelka before getting Goode to popup to 3B for the second out. With a 3-2 count on Scott, Maloney was called out for leaving the base early on what would have been a walk to Scott. The replay showed that Maloney was a full step off the bad before Bahl released the pitch. There is no reason whatsoever for that to happen on a 3-2 count with 2 outs. Those little things matter. The Sooners went down in 1, 2, 3 fashion against Czech in the bottom of the 5th.

In the top of the sixth, Bahl sandwiched two strikeouts around a single by Dayton. When Martinez hit into a fielder's choice at second base, the Sooners took their 4-1 lead into the bottom of the 6th. Lee walked to open the inning for Oklahoma. OU then used Hodge, the designated player or flex player who was in RF in the top of the inning to run for Lee. That is an example of the total use of players and the rules to the best use. After a strikeout, Bahl looped a single over the the SS to move the fast running Hodge to 3rd on the play. As the Texas CF tossed the ball into second base, the ball was overthrown with Hodge scoring from 3rd and Bahl advancing all the way to 3rd base with no on around the 1B area of the field for Texas. One again, little things. When Hansen followed with a ground out to the left of Scott at 3B, Bahl held her ground off of 3B. Scott looked at Bahl and then threw to first with Bahl taking off on the throw. Bahl easily slid into home plate head first to score ahead of the throw from first. I did notice that Bahl was wearing a sliding glove on her pitching hand. I am glad to see that. With the score now 6-1, Grace Green was called on to pinch hit for Boone. Green delivered a single to RC before Coleman hit into fielder's choice to end the inning.

Bahl and the Sooners took the field for the top of the 6th with the 6-1 lead and Hodge once again in RF as the RF moving from the DP. After a 3-2 walk to Cimusz, Bahl erased the baserunner with a ground ball to SS that Lyons and Jennings turning a nice double play as the throw to Sanders just beat Quiroga to the bag at first base. On the 8th pitch of the at bat, Bahl got ground ball hit to Brito at 3B for the out on a nice play to end the game.

The Sooner pichers, May and Bahl, allowed only 4 singles and 2 walks outside of the HR by Texas. They were in complete control. Only one time (2nd inning) did Texas have a runner in scoring position (at 2B) in the game. The Sooners tossed 76 strikes of 120 pitches in the game.

The Sooner offense was 7 for 25 with 3 walks and only 2 Ks. They left 4 of 10 base runners on base to keep that number under 50%. OU had 2 doubles and 1 HR on the day as well.

It was a complete victory for the Sooners which left no doubt as to the best team in the Big 12 in 2023.

Congrats to the Sooners and to their dual Big 12 Championships.

Here is the staff wrtiers article about the game that was seen by 4684 fans. I can't wait to have 4000 fans at a game next season in Norman. It will be amazing to be there.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/5/13 ... ment-title

Lee collected Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament while six Sooners earned All-Tournament accolades (Lee, Bahl, Brito, Coleman, Jennings, Lyons).

Boomer Sooner!

[71Sooner]

In her post game comments, Coach Gasso gave praise the 5,6,7,8,and 9 hitters. I had noticed earlier in the box score that the top 4 hitters contributed only 1 walk to the offense. Another example of how dominant this team is.

[TN Sooner]

On post-game, Plank had the stat - on Friday, 1 thru 4 in the lineup were 6-8 (plus walks) and accounted for most of the runs. On Saturday, same 4 were 0-12.

That’s how championship teams roll.

[OUBeliever56A]

On post-game, Plank had the stat - on Friday, 1 thru 4 in the lineup were 6-8 (plus walks) and accounted for most of the runs. On Saturday, same 4 were 0-12.

That’s how championship teams roll.

I am not sure that is how they are supposed to roll, but it is how a potential championship team keeps it rolling when they need to.

Boomer Sooner!