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OU Softball: Oklahoma Issued Challenge to Pitching Staff in Preparations for Missouri

The Sooners are 6-0 in SEC play, but Jennifer Rocha's pitching staff has allowed 30 runs in conference play.

Ryan Chapman

Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry
Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry / John Hoover / Sooners on SI

The focus of Oklahoma’s midweek tune up, an 8-0 romp over East Texas A&M at Love’s Field, was to get OU’s pitching staff back on track before taking on Missouri. 

Patty Gasso’s Sooners are still unbeaten at 27-0 and are the top-ranked team in the land, but they’ve mostly had to out-hit opponents in SEC play. 

OU has allowed 30 runs in six games, and has a staff ERA of 4.00 since opening the league slate. 

The Sooners have allowed 19 walks and hit five batters, allowing opponents too many free baserunners. 

“The pitching staff had a conversation with Coach (Jennifer) Rocha and she challenged them,” Gasso said after the win over East Texas A&M on Wednesday. “… I thought out pitching staff did a great job of responding… They answered the call for sure, so that was wonderful.”

OU used three pitchers — Isabella Smith, Kierston Deal and Paytn Monticelli — and the trio combined to throw a no-hitter and only allowed one walk in five innings. 

Missouri (17-13 overall, 0-3 SEC) ranks outside the top 50 in the country in batting average and scoring, but the Tigers are 23rd in home runs per game (1.30), which is something the Sooners are hoping to limit. 

“The biggest thing that we can change about the way that we’re playing is the amount of walks that are happening,” Monticelli said Wednesday. “The biggest thing we talk about is we can’t defend home runs and we can’t defend walks as a defense. So it’s just about giving them a chance to field the ball. So what if they hit the ball to (shortstop Gabbie Garcia) or (second baseman Ailana Agbayani) or anybody else on the field, because we’re going to make those plays.”

One aspect that will help is getting the full pitching staff healthy again. 

Sam Landry missed the SEC opening series against South Carolina, but came back to star in Fayetteville against Arkansas. 

As Landry got back in the lineup, freshman lefty Audrey Lowry was held out last weekend with a muscle injury, per Gasso, but it’s not going to be a long term absence. 

“We’re just kind of taking it slow with her and making sure she’s healthy,” Gasso said. “We’re getting there. You might see her this weekend.”

Though the Sooners and the Tigers haven’t shared a conference for more than a decade, it’s still a more familiar matchup than either of OU’s previous SEC matchups against South Carolina or Arkansas. 

“They’re always tough,” Gasso said. “We’ve had them in postseason and so forth. They’re very well coached, very well coached.”

And OU still has the top scoring offense in the country to hold them over, but the Sooners won’t take anyone lightly when the series gets going in Columbia, MO, at 5 p.m. on Friday on SEC Network+.

“It’s a good matchup coming for sure,” Gasso said. “I don’t think you can look at anybody’s records and go, ‘Oh well this is’… it’s not.”

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is managing editor at Sooners On SI and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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