Oklahoma – Another Trip to the College World Series?
Last year Oklahoma and Oklahoma State both qualified for the NCAA Women’s College World Series. Neither, however, won a game. This season Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are at different ends of the softball spectrum.
While OU is enjoying one of its best seasons in recent years, OSU has been struggling on offense and is only two games above .500 in the won-loss column (17-15). The Sooners meanwhile, led by freshman Lauren Chamberlain and the battery combo of pitcher Keilani Ricketts and catcher Jessica Shults, have compiled an impressive 30-4 record, including sweeping Kansas (23-10 2-7 Big 12) in three games. OU won the first two games by 8-0 run-rule victories before winning the third game on Sunday, March 31st by a score of 6-2. In that game OU fell behind early 2-0 in the second inning before bouncing back with six runs in the bottom half of the inning.
“This is a team that wants to win. They want to win a Big 12 championship and a national championship. Our expectation is greatness every time we step on to the field and we hold ourselves to a high standard,” said OU Head Coach Patty Gasso. “A team is good when it’s not at its best and still finds a way to win against a good team like Kansas. Today was huge for us to know how to respond to being down as it will happen again and we need to know how to come back.”
Before the Kansas series the Sooners talked as a team and found their “missing ingredient” according to Gasso. “Our energy and passion needs to be shown more and we worked on that in practice. This isn’t a quiet team by any stretch but we worked on coming back with a stick-to-it somebody attitude.”
The Sooners certainly did that against the Jayhawks outscoring them 22-2 in the weekend series. The Jayhawks’ two runs were the most scored since Iowa scored two in OU’s 4-2 win on March 4 and the first earned runs scored by a Big 12 opponent this year. Kansas out-hit OU 9-8 in the closing game on Sunday with Ricketts going the distance in collecting her 17th win of the season against four losses. She fanned six and walked none.
Chamberlain, who plays first base, is one of the talented freshmen for the Sooners and scored once and drove in two runs in the six-run second. The two runs came on her 17th homer of the season, moving her into a tie for sixth in the OU record books for most homers in a season. She is only three behind the single season record of 20 held by Lisa Carey (2000) and Lynette Velazquez (1999) and figures to become the single season record-holder later this season.
Chamberlain is not just a home run hitter either. She has a .381 batting average and has driven in a team-high 49 runs and compiled a slugging percentage of .979. Ahead of her is Ricketts, one of the best double threats in college softball. She is hitting .386 with nine homers and 22 RBIs. Schultz, however, is the team leader with a .427 average with nine homers and 30 RBI.
These three have helped OU compile an impressive .334 batting average, which is only behind Texas (.368) in the conference. Ricketts and junior Michelle Gascoigne are one of the top one-two pitching tandems in the nation, having won 29 games and lost four. Gascoigne is undefeated in 12 games averaging 10.76 strikeouts per seven innings while Ricketts is averaging 11.13 strikeouts per seven innings. OU’s 0.73 ERA leads the nation with the pitching staff having allowed only 22 earned runs. Ricketts has an ERA of 1.10 with Gascoigne stands at 0.84.
This edition of the Sooners figured to be one of Gasso’s best teams and so far it has been, but the season won’t be complete without another trip to the College World Series and winning some games in the event. Even better would be to win the school’s second national title, but that won’t be easy considering the number of outstanding teams in college softball this season. Only eight teams will qualify for the World Series and Gasso just hopes her Sooners are among those eight.
