OU softball turning point occurred following Alabama series loss

It has been just over a month since OU and Alabama softball met for a three-game set in Tuscaloosa.

The Crimson Tide got the best of the Sooners in two of those games. Now the scene shifts to Norman and Love’s Field. The stakes are much higher in an NCAA Super Regional, and we’ll see what tradition-rich program is headed back to Oklahoma City.

That three-game set, though, stands out. It felt like a turning point, on the good side, for the Sooners. Not the actual series, but the way OU responded from that point forward.

OU was 10-5 in SEC play after Bama and ran off seven straight wins to clinch the outright regular season championship.

The bump didn’t really lead to Patrick Murphy’s club finding their groove. Alabama was rather uneven before OU and stayed that way after. Some good wins but no statement-making series victories.

That continued in the Tuscaloosa Regional. Alabama was just good enough to beat Virginia Tech 4-3 and 3-2 to advance. OU, on the other hand, run-ruled all three of its games and won by a combined 31-3.

OU has been the better, more consistent team all season. It will take a special effort from Bama to make it interesting between two of the best programs, best fanbases in the country.

What Patty Gasso said…

“Yea, um, we got outplayed. We got out hit. I thought Sam pitched pretty well. She pitched well enough to win. I give absolute all credit to Alabama. I do. Their fans and that noise was real and it was something that I blame myself on because I, this team is so new, right? They don’t know much about the history of our program.

“I know we have a history with Alabama. I’ve been living through it for a long time and it’s normally at the World Series when everything, like it’s your season’s going to continue or your season’s going to end. So we have that and I don’t think we recognize that people look forward to us coming to their field and saying, ‘yeah, oh, I can’t wait to see Oklahoma, this is going to be a great matchup.’

“And, and we’re just kind of unassuming, right? And just kind of, okay. Then the crowd, they were loud. It was the loudest place we’ve been to. Um, Hall of Fame, you could feel it, but it’s different when you know it’s for you and it’s quite different when you know it’s against you. And some of that played into, I believe, some of our mindsets and that’s the advantage of having a home field advantage.

“And Pat Murphy has done a very good job of building up a good fan base and they’re very passionate. I think probably in all of their sports, but I think it, it kind of messed with our heads a little bit. We just could not get our swings off. We felt like we were, um, looking at too many strikes, hesitant. There was just not a free flowing. At times we were, but not enough, not enough to win.”

Series recap

OU 5, Alabama 1

You might remember this as the Maya Bland game. The Tide led 1-0 going to the seventh inning when OU exploded for five runs. The key hit? Bland with a two-run homer to give OU the 2-1 lead. The Sooners carried the day from that point forward. Sam Landry pitched all seven innings and allowed just three hits with six strikeouts.

Alabama 6, OU 1

Bama was angry after letting Game 1 go. The Tide scored in four straight innings. OU was incredibly close to being blanked before Sydney Barker hit a solo home run in the seventh inning.

Alabama 2, OU 1 (8)

Audrey Vandagriff with the walk-off home run in the eighth. A pitchers’ duel between Catelyn Riley and Sam Landry. Each went the distance. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas crushed a solo home run but that was it for the offense.