What went wrong for OU in Bedlam softball opener? Start with Sooners' silent bats
NORMAN — Kinzie Hansen snapped off her batting gloves and elbow pads and flipped them to the side of the field with some frustration.
Then she followed with her batting helmet.
The second-ranked Sooners managed just three hits, falling to No. 4 Oklahoma State 6-3 on Friday at Love’s Field.
Until the sixth inning, OU had managed just one hit — Kasidi Pickering’s RBI infield single in the second inning.
By the time the Sooners recorded another hit, the Cowgirls led 6-2.
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“We’re grounding out, we’re popping up, and everybody wants that timely hit,” OU coach Patty Gasso said. “OSU got ’em, definitely. We were just not squaring the ball up like we’re used to, and give credit to their pitching staff. At the same time, we need to have more competitive at-bats. We need to swing early. We need to swing hard. We need to think of, ‘I’m not gonna get denied and pass the bat to the next person on deck.’
“We had glimpses of that, but it’s gotta happen throughout the game. We just weren’t doing that the way we know how.”
OU’s other two hits came in the sixth — Alynah Torres’ one-out double and then Jayda Coleman’s infield single that helped another run score.
The Sooners have had their two lowest hit outputs over the last three games. They had two hits in Saturday’s win at UCF.
It was OSU’s first win in Norman since 1997.
“Tip the cap to them but failure isn’t real as long as you learn from it, so I think that going forward this isn’t a mentality issue,” Hansen said. “This is all about executing our game plan that we’ve been working so hard on this week. I’m really excited to come out tomorrow and we’ll be just fine.”
The series continues with the second game scheduled for noon Saturday.
Here are three other quick takeaways from the loss:
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Kelly Maxwell struggles
OU starting pitcher Kelly Maxwell didn’t exactly have a storybook matchup with her former team Friday.
In the first inning, Karli Godwin ripped a double that appeared to drive in Tallen Edwards.
But upon review — initiated by OU coach Patty Gasso — Edwards was called out at the plate.
Godwin then belted a two-run homer in the third off Maxwell before Micaela Wark blasted a solo homer off Maxwell in the fourth.
Maxwell finished allowing three earned runs, two walks and three strikeouts in four innings.
“I look at it a little bit differently,” Gasso said. “I am extremely proud of Kelly because it’s a very tough situation. Even if you’re playing at home, it’s a tough situation for her. So I was proud of her competing. But there’s too many walks, there’s hit batters, and then it’s a three-run bomb or whatever it is. I thought Kelly came out and was a little bit nervous, and then she started to settle in a bit, but this is a day that she was knowing was coming, and if you’ve ever been in a situation like that, your heart beats a little bit differently that day.”
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Breaking down the Big 12 softball race
With the Sooners’ loss and Texas’ win at Texas Tech, OU drops into a tie with the Longhorns for first place in the Big 12.
The pair are a game ahead of Oklahoma State.
Texas holds the tiebreaker over the Sooners and OSU would hold the tiebreaker over OU as well with one more win.
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Sooners keep drawing walks
While OU didn’t manage much in the way of hits, the Sooners had plenty of runners on base off Cowgirls’ starter Kyra Aycock.
Aycock walked six in three innings, including four in the first inning when OU plated a run without the benefit of a hit.
The Sooners ultimately drew eight walks, including two each by Jayda Coleman, Alyssa Brito and Cydney Sanders. OU now has 273 walks this season, the fourth-most in program history. The Sooners need 16 more walks to tie the 2014 team for third in program history.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU softball falls in Bedlam opener vs OSU as Sooners' bat go silent
