By Taylor Thomas
Oklahoma Softball was back in action this past Tuesday night as the Sooners finished out their road trip by taking down a talented Wichita State Shockers team in Wichita by the score of 7-0. There were some collective sighs of relief after the performance from the fanbase, as the Sooners were in unfamiliar territory having just lost a series on the road to the newly No.1 ranked Texas Longhorns. With the victory now in the books, the Sooners will now turn their attention to an important three-game series inside Love’s Field as a hungry group of BYU Cougars make their first and only trip to Norman as a member of the Big 12 Conference looking to spoil the return home for OU.
After not making an appearance in Austin, sophomore left-hander Kierston Deal got the start in the circle and delivered another dominant performance as she fired a 1 hit shutout over her 5.1 innings in the circle while striking out 9. After not playing to their standards on offense this past weekend, the Sooners wanted to come out on fire and that's exactly what the lineup did, scoring three runs in the top of the 1st on doubles by Alyssa Brito and Kinzie Hansen that gave OU a 3-0 lead. Oklahoma picked up where they left off in the second inning as they put up a four spot with the big hit once again coming from a Kinzie Hansen RBI double and finished the day going 2-2 with 3 RBI as she continued to work her way back from a knee injury. While the Sooners rolled from there to the 7-0 victory, the comments postgame from Patty Gasso would tell a different story as she voiced that the team seemed to coast a little bit after taking that quick lead. With those comments there, it is easy to see why Coach Gasso continues to be one of the greatest leaders of our lifetime as she and her team are always finding things to improve on.
Enter the BYU Cougars into Norman, Oklahoma this weekend for another Big 12 Conference series. In its first season in the Big 12, BYU has played some very solid softball over the course of the season and will bring an overall record of 21-17 into the contest as they are coming off of getting swept last time out in Orlando, Florida to UCF. It is hard to look at the overall record and overlook this team, as their key victory this season came a few weeks back at home as they took down the No. 3 Oklahoma State Cowgirls 11-8 and played them well all series long. On the offensive side of things is where the Cougars really shine as they hold a team average of .331, good for third in the conference behind only OU and Texas and have three separate members of the lineup with a .410+ average in Aliana Agbayani, Huntyr Ava, and Violet Zavodnik. Agbayani currently leads the team with a .425 average and is the table setter on offense with an OPS mark at an astounding 1.110. Right behind her in the lineup is Ava who leads the team with 8 doubles and 49 RBI and sits second on the team with 7 longballs and looks to be the driving force for this potent lineup. In the circle is where the Sooners can take advantage, as BYU only has three arms having seen a significant amount of time so far in Chloe Temples, Kate Dahle and Gianna Mares. Temples currently leads the staff with a 4.49 ERA in 73.1 innings, however all three struggle with command having combined to have given up 125 free passes between the three. Obviously with that number, JT Gasso and the Sooner lineup will look to be very selective over the course of the series.
Once again, rebounding from that tough series loss is going to be key for Oklahoma as they continue on in conference play still holding onto the first place spot in the Big 12 Standings. The message this weekend against BYU is simple; handle your business, and get back to the team of old that we saw just a few weeks ago. The series will get underway one day earlier than what were are accustomed to, as the first pitch for Game 1 is scheduled for 6pm CT tonight, April 11th with Game 2 beginning twenty-four hours later at 6pm CT Friday night before wrapping up the weekend on Saturday, April 13th at 1pm CT with all being broadcasted on ESPN+.
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