Earlier in the season the Oklahoma Sooners just looked off. It was hard to pinpoint what exactly the issue was but they just didn’t look as crisp as we had grown accustomed to seeing.
Whether that was in the field, pitching or even at the plate the team just hadn’t locked in yet. Nothing was a greater example of that than their loss to Louisiana snapping their 71-game winning streak. It wasn’t just that they lost, but there were several uncharacteristic errors in the field and on the base paths that led to the loss.
One of the players it was most noticeable with was [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag]. Coleman has been one of the best players on the team since she first came to Norman back in 2021. She’s been instrumental in them winning three straight national championships.
Her defense is elite and has been good this year as well but something has seemed off with her offense until lately. Coleman talked about what was happening earlier in the season.
“It’s really hard to get into your groove when you’re playing five different teams I feel like,” Coleman said. “So, those first three tournaments are always kind of brutal. But honestly probably around when we lost our first game, probably that next practice you can see a kind of energy switch towards our team and we usually have that every year. There’s a point in the season where we are like ‘Okay, now we know how it’s supposed to feel. This is what it’s supposed to feel like every day at practice and when we come to the games, it should show up.’ So, I would say somewhere around our first loss.”
Coleman is batting .529 since the loss to Louisiana. She’s also hit one home run and has six RBIs in that stretch. It’s been clear since the loss that Coleman and the Sooners are settling into a groove.
Which is a scary sign for the rest of the college softball world.
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