Tag: S.J. Guerin

3 Stars from Oklahoma’s 5-0 weekend in the Cowgirl Challenge

The Oklahoma Sooners continued their record-winning streak in the Cowgirl Challenge and here are this weekend’s three stars.

The Oklahoma Sooners just completed a 5-0 weekend in Lake Charles, La. at the Cowgirl Challenge hosted by McNeese State.

Though the schedule may not have been as daunting as the week before, McNeese State and Central Arkansas were NCAA tournament teams in 2023 that represented themselves well in the regional. McNeese State nearly pulled off the upset to advance to the Super Regionals.

Against a couple of rising programs, the Sooners outscored the opposition 36-1 in the five games, earning a trio of run rules.

The pitching staff threw four shutouts as Patty Gasso and Jennifer Rocha went deep into their arsenal, utilizing six different pitchers during the weekend.

After another tremendous weekend in which the Sooners extended their winning streak to 62 games, and haven’t lost now in more than a year, here are the three stars and a few honorable mentions from the weekend.

Oklahoma State pitcher Kelly Maxwell to join the Oklahoma Sooners per report

According to a report from Extra Inning Softball, the Oklahoma Sooners are adding Oklahoma State ace Kelly Maxwell via the transfer portal.

Patty Gasso and the Oklahoma Sooners made another splash in the transfer portal, according to a report Thursday morning.

Extra Inning Softball’s Brentt Eads is reporting that Oklahoma State ace pitcher [autotag]Kelly Maxwell[/autotag] is heading to Oklahoma via the transfer portal.

In the wake of Jordy Bahl’s departure to Nebraska, the Sooners have been active in the portal, adding pitchers [autotag]Peytn Monticelli[/autotag] and [autotag]Karlie Keeney[/autotag]. In Maxwell, the Sooners get another experienced arm that has been one of the best in college softball over the last several years.

Maxwell has been named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week six times in her career. Along with Bahl, Maxwell was named Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2022.

She holds a career record of 58-20 and an ERA of 1.58.

Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso hinted at the addition of Maxwell on Wednesday night.

“This was not an easy decision but one that I felt was best, for my own personal happiness,” Maxwell wrote last month about her decision to transfer “Thank you for being there and supporting me as I made some of the best memories of my life.”

She joins a pitching staff that includes [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag], [autotag]Kierston Deal[/autotag], [autotag]S.J. Guerin[/autotag], Monticelli, and Keeney to fortify the Sooners in the circle as they attempt to defend their national championship three-peat.

Here’s a look at the best pictures of Kelly Maxwell’s time with the Oklahoma State Cowgirls

Oklahoma Sooners add Liberty transfer pitcher Karlie Keeney

The Oklahoma Sooners added another arm to their pitching arsenal earning a commitment from Liberty transfer Karlie Keeney.

The Oklahoma Sooners added another arm to their pitching staff via the transfer portal. Though some other names have received a lot of buzz, [autotag]Patty Gasso[/autotag] and [autotag]Jennifer Rocha[/autotag] are bringing in Liberty transfer pitcher Karlie Keeney. Keeney announced her commitment to Oklahoma via Instagram.

As a junior in 2023, Keeney was an iron woman for the Flames, appearing in 48 games and throwing 261.2 innings. She was 27-12 with a 2.03 ERA and an opponents batting average of .229. Keeney threw 27 complete games, including five shutouts last season to help lead Liberty to the NCAA tournament.

Beyond the stat line, the name might be familiar. In Oklahoma’s second game of the 2023 season, Keeney shut out the Sooners for seven innings before allowing the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth inning when Jordy Bahl scored from second on an error.

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On the season, Liberty ranked 105th in fielding percentage, committing 66 errors. For reference, the Oklahoma Sooners led the nation in fielding percentage, committing 19 errors on the year.

Keeney’s other most memorable start on the year came in the NCAA tournament, where again she was put to work. After losing to San Diego State (a game Keeney didn’t start), the Flames drew the unfortunate task of facing the UCLA Bruins in the losers’ bracket. Keeney was up to the task.

After allowing a solo home run to open the game to Megan Grant, Keeney settled in to shut the Bruins down. She scattered six more hits and allowed one walk the rest of the way to eliminate the No. 2 nationally seeded Bruins from the NCAA tournament.

She kept Liberty’s season alive with another one-run performance over seven innings against Grand Canyon before the Flames were eliminated by San Diego State in the final of the Los Angeles Regional.

So against Oklahoma and UCLA, the two teams that were ranked one and two for a vast majority of the 2023 season, Keeney allowed two runs, one earned, in 14 innings of work.

Keeney ranked No. 50 in D1Softball’s top 100, and here’s what they had to say.

Keeney was a true workhorse for Liberty. Her 261.2 innings pitched was the second-most in the entire nation. That translated into 27 wins last season, including victories against Alabama, Clemson and UCLA. Keeney’s heavy screwball and curveball approach led to a 52 percent groundball rate. Keeney is currently searching for her home for her last season via the transfer portal. – Brady Vernon, D1Softball

Keeney is an experienced starter that will benefit from not having to throw so many innings in Oklahoma’s rotation. [autotag]Patty Gasso[/autotag] has worked to create a pitching system that minimizes the workload on her starters to keep them fresh later into the season and prepared for the NCAA tournament.

Oklahoma has a pitching rotation that can go four deep with [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag], [autotag]Kierston Deal[/autotag], [autotag]Peytn Monticelli[/autotag] and Karlie Keeney. Oklahoma also has [autotag]S.J. Guerin[/autotag] who can operate in the relief role Deal did in 2023.

Though the Sooners add an experienced arm in Keeney, it shouldn’t necessarily take them out of the mix for pitchers [autotag]Alana Vawter[/autotag] or [autotag]Kelly Maxwell[/autotag]. While Monticelli, Deal and Guerin all have really good upside, the experience and success that Vawter and Maxwell bring to the table is some of the best in the country.

But, if the Sooners don’t look to add another arm to their pitching staff, they’ll be in great shape to defend their national title in 2024.

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Nicole May has the production and the talent to be Oklahoma’s next ace

Nicole May showed throughout much of the 2023 season that she’s got the talent to be the Oklahoma Sooners next ace in the circle.

The news of Jordy Bahl’s transfer portal decision, which led her to Nebraska and back to her home state, was a shocking one. It took the softball world by surprise.

In the aftermath, it left many wondering what Oklahoma would do in the circle without the NCAA tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Surely, [autotag]Patty Gasso[/autotag] and Jennifer Rocha will attack the transfer portal, but their answer for a frontline starter is already in-house.

For most of the 2023 season, it was [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] and not [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] that was leading the Oklahoma Sooners in ERA. May finished with an ERA of 0.91 and Bahl, after a fantastic run in the NCAA tournament, finished with an ERA of 0.90.

In each of her three seasons in Norman, May has improved her stat line and been a big part of Oklahoma’s national championship runs. As a true freshman in 2021, May was 15-2 and allowed an ERA of 2.37 in 85.2 innings. In 2022, she was 15-1 and allowed an ERA of 1.31 in 91.2 innings pitched.

In 2023, May was 18-0 in 107.2 innings pitched and allowed opponents to hit just .161. She recorded 130 strikeouts to just 29 walks on the season to help the Sooners defend their national title. Early in the season when Bahl was going through her struggles, it was May and Alex Storako that stemmed the tide for the Sooners’ pitching staff.

May didn’t allow an earned run in her first 42 innings pitched across nine appearances. That included outings against NCAA tournament teams Liberty, Washington, Texas A&M, and Utah.

She wasn’t as dominant the rest of the year, but still had a complete game shutout against Baylor, allowed just one earned run in a win against Texas, and allowed just two runs in a win against Oklahoma State.

Against Stanford, May battled back from allowing a two-run home run in the first inning to retire 12 in a row from the second inning until she allowed a hit in the sixth. Though she allowed a lead, she hung in there long enough to get the Sooners to Bahl, who they needed as the game went to extra innings. May was dominant from the second through the fifth and probably could have gotten the Sooners through seven innings if necessary.

You can’t simply replace a pitcher that was as good as Jordy Bahl was in her time with the Sooners. But Nicole May has shown that she has what it takes to be at the front of the line for the Sooners in the circle. She’s won big games and has gotten better as she’s gone. She’s shown a resiliency that has been critical to Oklahoma’s success.

The Sooners will likely add a pitcher to go along with May, sophomore [autotag]Kierston Deal[/autotag], and redshirt freshman [autotag]S.J. Guerin[/autotag]. But no matter what they do, Oklahoma will be in great hands with Nicole May leading the way.