Wheelin And Dealin In Norman

By Taylor Thomas

Kierston Deal. That’s It. That’s the article. While the name may honestly be enough to recap the entire weekend sweep of Houston, we must however touch on a lot more as we always do, but the performance of the standout sophomore is exactly where we must start the conversation in this one as OU took Game 1 8-0, then followed it up with a 10-2 victory and finished the sweep off with a 5-0 victory on Sunday. After firing the first no-hitter of her career inside Hall Of Fame Stadium last Tuesday night against Tulsa, Deal picked up right where she left off in her Game 2 start on Saturday and delivered another dominant performance in the circle for Patty Gasso as she looks to increase her role on this pitching staff. Overall, the Sooners outscored the Houston Cougars 23-2 taking the three game sweep with relative ease. Now, Oklahoma will turn its attention to their final road trip of the regular season this weekend as they travel to Orlando, Florida to take on UCF. 

The series got underway on a beautiful night under the light’s at Love’s Field as Kelly Maxwell got the Game 1 start. Oklahoma got the scoring started early in the first inning as Alynah Torres blasted a 3-run home run to left field to fire up the crowd and give OU a 3-0 lead. Maxwell yet again was in complete control in the circle as she struck out five in her five innings of scoreless work as she improved to 14-1 this season. Oklahoma would manufacture some offense from there across the game as Cydney Sanders added an RBI on both a groundout and a walk as the offense did not perform like we are so accustomed to. With the run-rule in jeopardy in the bottom of the sixth, the Sooners were able to pass the bat and load the bases for Jayda Coleman who delivered a base knock to the wall that gave OU a 8-0 victory.

In Game 2, the Sooners gave Nicole May the ball and she delivered another incredible performance, going 4.1 innings in the circle with four strikeouts as the OU offense once again got started early, scoring four runs in the first inning that was highlighted by a 2-RBI single from Kinzie Hansen and a RBI double by Kasadi Pickering. In the third, the freshman phenom drove a ball down the right field line for an RBI triple that started a six run bottom of the third that saw OU take a commanding 10-0 lead and firmly put them again in run-rule territory. Behind the surge from the offense early on in the game, May settled in and was once again efficient in her outing, with the lone blemish coming from a one out home run that gave Houston their only two runs of the entire weekend as Paytn Monticelli entered to record the final two outs of the game and finished off the Sooners second run-rule in as many days. 

Now comes the highlight of the article, and that is sophomore left-hander Kierston Deal. After coming off of the no-hitter against Tulsa, Deal decided she wanted to continue that trend, and continue it is exactly what she did. Deal gave up one of her two hits with two outs in the fifth inning, ending her hitless innings streak at 10.2 innings pitched that obviously started back against the Golden Hurricane at Hall Of Fame Stadium. While Deal had the circle under lock and key all day long, the surprise of the day and overall in the last two weeks was the OU offense. Missed opportunities have lingered throughout the lineup in what can be considered a rough patch overall for the team, despite continuing to win games. It was very easy to tell in Patty Gasso’s postgame interview with Chris Plank, as she stated that “we have been unacceptable on offense, and I know I will push every button in order to find that answer as to what has been missing at the plate.” Oklahoma got some big RBI base hits from an Alyssa Brito 2-RBI triple in the first inning and an Ella Parker RBI double that somehow did not clear the center field wall. Give credit to Houston reliever Shelby Smith, as she bounced back from a rough outing the night before and only allowed one earned run in the final 5.1 innings of the game as Oklahoma was not able to capitalize, leaving ten runners on base again in the 5-0 victory. Deal once again was the story of the day as she struck out 10 in the complete game shutout only surrendering the two late hits and walking just one batter. With the final two conference weekends coming up in UCF and then Bedlam, the Big 12 Standings should be fun to watch as we enter the final stretch of the Sooners final season in the Big 12 Conference.