Softball Heads To Houston For Weekend Series

The No. 5/6 Oklahoma softball team will play a rare three-game non-conference set at the University of Houston this weekend. The Sooners and Cougars will begin the series Friday at 7 p.m., with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. Oklahoma is 16-4-1 on the season while Houston is off to a program-best 17-6 start.

Houston is in the midst of seven game winning streak after beginning Conference USA action with three-game sweep of East Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday. Three of Houston's losses have come to Big 12 teams. The Cougars lost twice to Texas in the opening weekend of the season, while also dropping a pitcher's duel to Nebraska on Feb. 20. Baylor, which has the second best record in the Big 12, fell prey to the Cougars by a score of 2-1 on Feb. 14.

OU assistant coach Howard Dobson was an assistant at Houston before joining the Sooner staff for the 2003 season. When Dobson was in Houston, the Cougars were one of the best offensive teams in the country. This season the opposite is true of Houston, who is being carried by its veteran pitching staff. The Cougars staff has a 1.17 ERA on the year with senior Jenny Falco leading the team with a 5-0 record. Felllow senior Jenny Johnson has the lowest ERA on the squad at 0.46 and has compiled six saves this season.

THIS WEEK
AT HOUSTON
Friday, March 5 - 7 PM
Saturday, March 6 - 11 AM (DH)

VITAL STATS
Record - 16-4-1
Streaks - Won two
USA Today/NFCA Ranking - No. 5
ESPN.com/USA Softbal Ranking - No. 6
Home Record - 4-2
Road Record - 4-0
Neutral Site Record - 8-2-1

BATTERY CLAIMS BIG 12 HONORS
Oklahoma pitcher Nicole Denes and catcher Heather Scaglione claimed both Big 12 weekly honors for the week of Feb. 23-29. Denes was named pitcher of the week after going 4-2 and throwing 38.2 innings in the stacked NFCA Leadoff Classic. Denes' weekend was highlighted by her fourth shutout of the season, which came against No. 7 Michigan. Denes also recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts against then-No.10 Florida State.

Scaglione continued to be the catalyst for OU's offense. She hit .474 in six tournament game with one home run and six RBI. OU swept the Big 12 weekly awards for the first time since April 13, 1999.

NOTE OF THE WEEK
OU has been a very balanced squad so far this season. In fact their offensive and pitching numbers are better or on par with the last three seasons. As a team the Sooners are hitting .342 and averaging six runs per game. Both numbers are better than OU's averages in 2003 and 2002, while the 2001 version average 6.4 runs per game. As for the pitching staff, which has been without the services of All-American Kami Keiter all season, it has a combined ERA of 1.46. That number is just six hundredths of a point off OU's average last season, while it ranks about two tenths better than the 2001 average. Below is a comparison of the four seasons:

	2001	2002	2003	2004
ERA	1.57	1.28	1.40	1.46
Runs Per Game	6.4	5.3	4.6	6
Batting Avg.	.338	.288	.271	.342

NOT STRANDED ALONE
As a team OU has a remarkable on-base percentage of .423. Six starters are getting on base at least 40 percent of the time with cleanup hitter Heather Scaglione leading the pack at .487. While the Sooners are producing an average of six runs per game, which is up from 4.57 in 2002, there are plenty of opportunities the coaching staff would like taken advantage of. OU has already left 156 runners on base and is strandig an average of 7.4 runners per game. OU has left 9 or more runners on base on seven occasions.

FOX TROT
Coach Gasso expected a lot from freshman Jamie Fox when she gave her starting duties at third base. Fox has exceeded even those expectations. Over the last 15 games the freshman from Louisiana is hitting .479 with three home runs and 15 RBI. She is in the midst of an 11-game hitting streak, which ties the team season-high set by April Valdez earlier this season.

SETTING THE TABLE
A common theme this season has been speedsters Norrelle Dickson, April Valdez and Kristin Vesely causing havoc on the base paths. The speedy trio bats normally bats No. 1, No. 2 and No. 9 respectively and they all slap hit from the left side. Their job is to set the table for the sluggers. So far this season they have been exceptional. Their combined on-base percentage is .461 with Dickson leading the pack at .481.

THE NICEST SURPRISE
Oklahoma softball beat writer Guerin Emig (Norman Transcript) called junior April Valdez the "nicest surprise" performer for the Sooner squad in a article detailing OU's quick start (Feb. 21). He definitely has a point. Valdez, who hit .191 last season after transferring from DePaul, has been dominate in the batters box and in the pitching circle. The California native is hitting .383 with a .471 on-base percentage, both of which rank in the top-5 on the team. Valdez has already put together an 11-game hittng streak, which is the best of her career and the longest on the squad this season. The offensive highlight of the season was the grand slam she hit in a 10-0 run-rule defeat of North Carolina on Feb. 21. In the circle Valdez has filled a needed hole left by the early injury to Kami Keiter. On the season she is 2-0 with a 1.58 ERA, which ranks second on the team. Valdez, who was recruited as pitcher/utility player out of high school, picked up the first shutout, complete game and win of her OU career during the OU/Nike Classic.

FORGET THE WHIFF
Another sign of OU's offensive improvements this season is its reduction of strikeouts. OU has only struck out 71 times, with a single game-high of nine against then-No. 10 Florida State. The Sooner offense is only striking out 3.4 times per game and if you exclude the outing against FSU, OU is only whiffing 3.1 times per contest.

STOPPING CRIME
In 21 games this season only four runners have attempted to steal a base against junior catcher Heather Scaglione and she's gunned down all of them. Last year 38 runners tried to the steal on the Sooner signal caller and she tossed out 14 (38 percent). Coach Gasso has taken to calling her the best catcher in the country and it's clear that Scaglione's reputation is preceding her.

PROMOTING THEFT
While opponents aren't even attempting to run on OU catcher Heather Scaglione, the exact opposite is true of OU. The Sooners have swiped 38 bases on 43 attempts (88 percent) this season. Eleven Sooners have recorded a stolen base with Norrelle Dickson at the top of the pack with 10.

The Sooners work on the base paths is an added dimension from last season. In 2003 OU stole 56 bases on 88 attempts (64 percent). A safe estimate is that OU will play 40 more games, including the Big 12 Tournament, for a regular season total of 61. At their current rate OU is projected to steal 110 bases, which is two shy of the school record of 112 set in 2000.

KEITER UPDATE
All-American Kami Keiter has been sidelined all season due to a strain biceps in her pitching (left) arm. For the first time in a month, the junior hurler began throwing on the side last week. Barring any other setbacks, Keiter is expected to throw a few innings for OU in the next two weeks.

"This is a precautionary measure'", said OU head coach Patty Gasso. "We don't want Kami to pitch until she is 100 percent."

RECENT HISTORY
Oklahoma posted a 4-2 record in the stacked NFCA Leadoff Classic to take fifth place among the 24 teams. Junior Heather Scaglione was named to the all-tournament team after hitting .474 with six RBI, one home run and six runs. Sophomore Nicole Denes, freshman Jamie Fox and junior Christina Enea also turned in stellar performances.

OU opened pool play with a bang as they run-ruled UMass 9-0 on Feb. 27. Freshman Jamie Fox continued her torrid pace as she went 4-for-4 with 3 RBI. Fox hit safely in seven consecutive at-bats (over two games) and reached base in nine consecutive appearances (three games). Sophomore Nicole Denes picked up her ninth win in dominant fashion, allowing just one earned run.

The Sooners fell prey to another upstart mid-major as Central Michigan knocked off the No. 5 Sooners, 3-2. The Sooner bats couldn't produce a clutch hit as OU left 10 runners on base. Ten is an unlucky number for OU, which left 10 runners on base in each of its first three losses.

OU rebounded the following morning to defeat DePaul, 5-1. The junior trio of Christina Enea, April Valdez and Heather Scaglione all contributed one RBI, while Denes was again dominant allowing one run on six hits. OU finished pool play 2-1 and was seeded No. 7 heading into championship play.

Thanks to a 2-1 record and a plus-12 run differential, the Sooners landed in the gold bracket (top qualifiers) with a chance to claim the Leadoff Classic Championship. OU's title chances went out the window when OU lost its first gold bracket game in the bottom of the seventh to No. 10 Florida State. Denes struck out a career-high 11 but couldn't outduel winning pitching Jessica van der Linden, who also drove in all three of FSU's runs. Christina Enea posted both of OU's runs with a two-run double.

OU was rewarded for its loss with a 9 a.m. game against No. 7 Michigan the following day. The Sooners, in particular Nicole Denes and Mariee Mena, dominated from the get go. Denes tossed her fourth shutout of the season and was never really in trouble. Mena had three RBI, including the first home run of her Sooner career.

OU avenged its earlier loss to Central Michigan and staked claim to a fifth place tournament finish with an 8-2 win in its final game of the weekend. All-tourney catcher Heather Scaglione led OU with two RBI, while five other Sooners also contributed RBI. Denes worked six innings and allowed no earned runs for the fourth win of the tourney and 12th of the season.

Softball Heads To Houston For Weekend Series

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