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Oklahoma softball: Sooners face WCWS challenge of different sort vs. Tennessee

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Rylie Boone (0) and Avery Hodge (82) celebrate after the two scored runs in the fifth inning during a softball game between University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Stanford in the Women's College World Series at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Thursday, June 1, 2023. Oklahoma won 2-0.
Oklahoma's Rylie Boone (0) and Avery Hodge (82) celebrate after the two scored runs in the fifth inning during a softball game between University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Stanford in the Women's College World Series at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Thursday, June 1, 2023. Oklahoma won 2-0. /
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The No. 1-seeded Oklahoma softball team faced one of the best pitchers in the nation against Stanford and prevailed. Can they do it again against an elite Tennessee pitching staff that features a good-hitting lineup to match?

That’s the challenge facing the Sooners (57-1) as they go up against the No. 4-seeded Volunteers (50-8) on Saturday afternoon in a winners’ bracket contest on Day 3 of the Women’s College World Series.

Tennessee poses a different type of challenge to the top-seeded Sooners, who for three seasons now are used to having a giant target on their back and used to getting every opponent’s best shot. For the next week, that best shot is coming from some of the best teams in NCAA Division I softball.

The Volunteers, like Oklahoma, score a lot of runs. In fact, the Vols rank second to Oklahoma nationally, averaging 7.16 runs per game to the Sooners’ 8.28.

While OU leads the nation with 112 home runs as a team on the season, Tennessee has the country’s most prolific home-run hitter in senior outfielder Kiki Milloy, who has 25 taters this season.

The Volunteers don’t just beat teams by outscoring them, though. They have an outstanding pitching staff as well that ranks No, 4 in the country, just behind Stanford, and three back of nation-best Oklahoma.

The pitching matchup in Saturday’s game between OU and Tennessee will probably feature the pitchers ranked No. 2 and 3 in the country, based on ERA, in Nicole May of the Sooners (0.82) and Ashley Rogers of Tennessee (0.83), respectively.

It all shapes up as another stiff challenge for Oklahoma in the Sooners’ journey to what they hope will end in a third consecutive trip to the WCWS championship series and a third consecutive national championship.

Here is a statistical comparison of the two teams with national rankings in parentheses:

OU                         Tennessee

Scoring                                             8.28 (1)                     7.16 (2)

Batting average                             .370 (1)                    .302 (43)

Home runs                                      112 (1)                      78 (8)

On-base percentage                   .460 (1)                     .426 (2)

Slugging percentage                   .676 (1)                     .530 (12)

ERA                                                 .98 (1)                       1.55 (4)

Fielding percentage                   .988 (1)                     .973 (32)

Although both teams are used to getting runners on base, moving them over and getting them in. I see the OU-Tennessee matchup as a game with plenty of base runners, but the pitching will limit the normal run production and make this a tightly contested game. The difference could well turn out to be plays made or not made in the field.

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