Softball Hits Road for Big 12 Weekend

March 28, 2001

#6 Oklahoma (27-5, 2-0 Big 12) at #17 Nebraska (26-9, 2-0 Big 12)

#6 Oklahoma (27-5, 2-0 Big 12) at Iowa State (9-14, 0-0 Big 12)

GAME INFO...
at Nebraska
DATE: Friday, Mar. 30
FIELD: Husker Softball Complex (Lincoln, Neb.)
TIMES: 5/7 p.m.
WEATHER: hi - 56, lo - 37, showers

at Iowa State
DATE: Saturday, Mar. 31 - Sunday, Apr. 1
FIELD: Southwest Athletic Complex (Ames, Iowa)
TIMES: Saturday - 3 p.m., Sunday - Noon
WEATHER:
Sat. - hi - 49, lo - 31, rain
Sun. - hi - 50, lo - 34, scattered showers

OU HITS ROAD FOR BIG 12 WEEKEND
This weekend pits sixth-ranked Oklahoma against No. 17 Nebraska and unranked Iowa State. With identical 2-0 marks in the conference, the Sooners and Huskers share the lead in the Big 12 race.

The Sooners will travel to Lincoln, Neb., for a Friday doubleheader that begins at 5 p.m. Afterwards, they will head over to Ames, Iowa, where they will take on the Cyclones in single games on Saturday (3 p.m.) and Sunday (noon).

SCOUTING NEBRASKA
Coached by Rhonda Revelle (ninth season), the Huskers are 26-9 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12 following a two-game sweep at Kansas last weekend... Since a 12-9 start, Nebraska has won 14-consecutive games... NU hits .266 as a team and is led by senior Jamie Fuente, who has a .340 batting average... The pitching staff has a 1.25 ERA while holding opponents to a .158 batting average... Junior RHP Leigh Ann Walker has spent the most time on the mound, logging 98.1 innings where she is 10-4 with a 1.07 ERA... Defensively, the Huskers are fielding at the .974 clip.

THE NEBRASKA SERIES
Nebraska leads the all-time series by a 30-25 margin since the first meeting in 1977... OU won the last meeting 6-5 in eight innings at the NFCA Leadoff Classic and has won five of the last seven outings... The Huskers' last win was in the 2000 Big 12 Championships game, OU's last loss before winning its last eight games of the season to claim the national championship... Under head coach Patty Gasso, the Sooners are 13-7 versus the Huskers.

LAST TIME vs. NEBRASKA
The Oklahoma softball team got a clutch hit from senior Lisa Carey in the top of the eighth and held on to defeat Nebraska 6-5 in the Silver Medal Bracket of the NFCA Leadoff Classic on Feb. 24.

Carey, who went 3-for-3 with four RBIs, got things started in the first with a two-run homer out to left field. She had an RBI-double in the third that gave OU a 3-0 lead. Her final hit--another double in the top of the seventh--was the game winner as it sailed down the right field line and scored Christy Ring, who was placed on second according to international tie-breaking rules.

In its final at-bat, Nebraska's first two batters up popped up to second base and grounded out to shortstop. That brought up left fielder Nicole Trimboli, who connected with a ball to deep left. But Ring robbed Trimboli of a homerun with a spectacular catch at the wall to end the game for the win.

OU had built a 5-1 lead before Nebraska scored four runs on five hits in the fifth to tie the game. It went into extra innings and that's when Carey hit the game-winner--a double down the right field line to drive in Ring.

Junior Jennifer Stewart started the game and went 5 1/3 innings where she surrendered five runs on nine hits. Freshman Adrianne Ratliff relieved Stewart in the sixth and held the Huskers to just two hits.

SCOUTING IOWA STATE
The Cyclones have four hitters averaging over .300 and have a .247 team batting average... Sophomore outfielder/pitcher Erica Martinez leads the team in five offensive categories, including batting average (.343), runs (10), hits (24), home runs (four) and RBIs (14)... In the circle, three pitchers have tossed for a 2.73 team ERA that includes 129 strikeouts and a .263 batting average... Sophomore RHP Jen Bice has logged the most innings (77.2) where she is 4-6 with a 2.25 ERA... ISU is fielding .955 and has 31 stolen bases in 38 attempts.

THE IOWA STATE SERIES
The Sooners hold a 39-24 advantage in the 23-year old series... ISU dominated the series early but since 1990, OU is 27-6 and has won 15 of the last 16... Head coach Patty Gasso has amassed a 14-1 mark against the Cyclones with her only loss coming in a 1-0 game during the 1996 season... Since then, OU has rolled to seven-consecutive wins.

MOTHER NATURE WREAKS HAVOC ON OU'S SCHEDULE
Chalk another up for Mother Nature. For the seventh and eighth times this year, OU had softball games cancelled because of inclimate weather. Tuesday's doubleheader against Missouri was just the latest casualty for the Sooners.

Other cancelled games include the semi-finals of the UTA/Isuzu Classic and two games of the OU/adidas Classic. The Sooners' game against Southern Miss in the Silver bracket of the NFCA Leadoff Classic was cut short just as OU had scored its first run and momentum was possibly shifting. And most recently, Sunday's competition of the Worth Invitational which would have pitted OU against Southwest Missouri State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christie.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS...AGAIN
There have been three changes made since the 2001 schedule was announced. A game from both the Texas and Baylor series in Norman and the game at Tulsa are the ones affected by recent changes.

The OU-Texas game on April 7 has been moved up to 1 p.m. for FOX television, who will show the game on a tape-delay basis.

In order to give OU fans every opportunity to experience all Sooner athletics, the Baylor game originally scheduled for Saturday, Apr. 21 at 2 p.m. has been moved up to noon so that fans can also attend football's Red-White Game at 2 p.m. The OU baseball game also pushed its game time back to 6 p.m.

The OU-Tulsa game that was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Apr. 24 has been pushed back one day. To help out the Golden Hurricane, the Sooners agreed to move the game to Wednesday, Apr. 25 at 5 p.m. It will be played at the Donna J. Hardesty Sports Complex on the Tulsa University campus.

GUNNING OUT OF THE GATES
OU wasted no time breaking out of its hitting slump that dragged its numbers down during its recent trip to California. In the opening weekend of Big 12 action, the Sooners hit .377 against Texas A&M while scoring 13 runs.

Senior Ashli Barrett and Lisa Carey dominated at the plate. While Barrett was hitting .667 (4-for-6) with two homers, two runs and three RBIs, Carey went 3-for-6 (.500) with a run, double and RBI.

The pitching did its part, too, as junior Jennifer Stewart went 2-0 with a 0.54 ERA against the Aggies. She struck out one batter (10) for every hit allowed and gave up no extra-base hits.

The Sooners were also 6-of-7 on stolen bases and fielded a perfect 1.000 in 54 chances.

BARRETT NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF WEEK
For the second time this year, senior Ashli Barrett was named the Big 12 Player of the Week it was announced by league officials on Tuesday.

Barrett hit 2-for-3 in each of the Sooners' three games last week for a .667 batting average. The catcher collected 15 bases and had a 1.667 slugging percentage over the week. She was also flawless behind the plate, fielding 1.000 with 13 putouts and two assists.

Against Texas A&M, Barrett had two home runs and three RBIs in the 5-1 victory. It was just the 15th time in OU history that a Sooner has hit two round trippers in a game. She extended her season-high hitting streak to four games after another two hits in the 8-0 win against the 20th-ranked Aggies.

MAGIC NUMBER IS STILL TWO
Some tremendous pitching has gone through Oklahoma, especially during Patty Gasso's reign as head coach. So it may come as a surprise that Jennifer Stewart needs only three more wins to break the school's all-time career record. Stewart recorded 22 wins as a freshman, 34 as a sophomore and already has 18 this year. She has 74 career wins in her first 2 1/2 years and trails only Jill Most, who recorded 76 victories from 1994-97.

WINNING THE CLOSE ONE
If there's one thing OU has done well this year, it's been winning the close games. The Sooners currently have a 6-2 record in games decided by one run and are a pefect 5-0 when it comes down to two runs. The only setbacks have come at the hands of Southern Mississippi (2-1) and DePaul (3-2).

A BIT OF A SLUMP
If there's one freshman that was needed immediately, it was Adrianne Ratliff. The Claremore, Okla., native joined junior Jennifer Stewart as the only pitchers on the roster. She knew she would be sharing pitching duties with Stewart throughout the season and she showed she was up for the challenge. In her first 12 appearances, Ratliff tossed 52 innings and had a 1.88 earned run average to go with her 7-2 record.

But in her last five appearances, it's been a struggle in the circle. In those 17 1/3 innings, Ratliff has been the pitcher of record in three of those contests (2-1) and has a 4.85 ERA. The most damage has been in the first inning of the last two outings where she was limited in the starts against New Mexico State (0.2 IP) and San Diego State (3.1 IP). Opponents have scored seven unanswered runs and forced the Sooners to try to come from behind.

MERCY ME!
Through the first 25 games this year, nine of OU's wins have been shortened to less than seven innings due to the mercy rule (eight-run lead after five innings). The victims so far include Kentucky, Tulsa, Wichita State, Indiana State, Creighton, Western Michigan, North Carolina, Utah State and No. 20 Texas A&M.

HOT BATS, COLD BATS
Last year the Sooners were quick to come out and dominate their opponents, putting up a lot of runs quickly. But this year, the bats have been slow to warm and the scoring coming in spurts.

In the first inning, OU has scored 25 runs, but has allowed opponents to score 16 for a +9 differential. The second has been better where the Sooners have put 38 runs on the scoreboard while holding opponents to just five (+33).

The same inconsistencies are echoed in the third and fourth innings, where OU has outscored opponents just 19-13 in the third (+6), but hold a 34-run advantage in the fourth (39-5).

Overall, the Sooners have outscored their opponents by more than 100 runs (184 to 64) on the year.

ROUND-TRIP INDICATOR
The long ball has always been a powerful weapon for the Sooners. After all, the 2000 team broke the school record with 85 home runs last year.

So far in 2001, the round-tripper hasn't been so much an indicator of a Sooner win as much as if they will lose. In games where OU has hit at least one homer, the team has a 15-1 record. But in games where no Sooners go yard, they have suffered four of their five losses and are 13-4.

STREAKIN'
Five Sooners currently carry multiple-game hitting streaks into this weekend's action. Senior Ashli Barrett currently leads the team with a four-game streak that dates back to the DePaul loss. Senior Lisa Carey is right behind with a three-game mark, while Kelli Braitsch, Andrea Davis and Erin Evans all got hits in each of the Texas A&M games.

ON DECK
All that needs to be said is it's Bedlam Week. Oklahoma State comes to Norman for a game on Wednesday, Apr. 4. The two teams will square off at 6:30 p.m. at the OU Softball Complex. It's also Foam Bat Night at the stadium and the first 1,000 fans through the gate will receive a foam bat.

The game will be televised on the Sooner Sports Network and can be seen locally on channel KSBI (ch. 9 on the Cox system). The game can also be seen throughout the state, including WB 19 in Tulsa, KOMI in Woodward and KSWO in Lawton. KREF 1400 AM and www.soonersports.com will also be carrying the game live.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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