Kierston Deal with another gem, OU softball rolls to three-game sweep of Houston
All the elements were there for OU softball to have a big weekend. But just because it feels like it should happen, doesn’t mean it will.
In this case, though, it did. That was the type of weekend OU thought it could have and the weekend it did, at least for the most part. The Sooners wrapped up an impressive three-game sweep of visiting Houston with a 5-0 victory Sunday afternoon at Love’s Field.
Sophomore Kierston Deal was magnificent once again. Coming off a six-inning no-hitter Tuesday, Deal went the full seven innings this time. She allowed just two hits, one walk and struck out 10. Deal is now 10-1 this season.
“I think today, it was just kind of going after the hitters,” Deal said. “I think working ahead, getting first-pitch strikes and just trusting my defense. Felt like going into Tuesday’s game, I might as well just carry on with throwing pitches and letting my defense work for me.”
Houston’s bats were supposed to give the Sooners trouble. Instead, the Cougars scored just two runs in the entire series.
The OU offense still stubbed its toes a few times, but Alyssa Brito came through with a big two-run triple to get things going in the first. Freshman Ella Parker added an RBI double in the fifth. Brito and Parker were the lone players to have two hits.
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But a weird close. After a solid first two games, OU left 10 runners on base. It has been a recurring problem in the last month.
For as good and great as this team can be, it’s something that is sticking out.
“I don’t think it’s for lack of effort,” head coach Patty Gasso said. “I think it’s sometimes, not the lack, — the wanting it too much. Wanting it too much, trying too hard, swinging at pitches out of the zone that don’t allows us to hit them hard because we’re wanting to be that guy. And we’re hitting balls hard. Plays are getting made. I think the history of our program, or at least in the last five years, is just bomb, bomb, bomb, like four bombs a game, 15-0 (wins) or what have you, and trying to match that. A good example is Jocelyn Alo. I tell this (story). Jocelyn Alo, her freshman year hit 30 home runs, and she goes home and her dad says, ‘Now you’ve gotta hit 40.’ Then she comes back and says, ‘I’ve gotta hit 40.’
“That is what I feel a little bit. It’s not for lack of trying. It’s just lack of being disciplined and saying what’s needed in this moment, right here and now. I think some of us are trying too hard, then I’ve got some freshman that are like, ‘Just give me the bat.’ Maybe they don’t enough yet and the beauty of that is they’re just trying to make it easy, and they’re really having good freshmen.”
Up next
No. 2 OU (42-4 overall, 18-3 Big 12) hits the road for the last time this season. Every other game should occur in the state of Oklahoma. The Sooners are at Central Florida for a three-game set next weekend.
