Allsooners
  • 10 months ago
AllSooners Softball Show, Ep. 4
Transcript
00:00 Weekend one in the books. Next up for the number one ranked Oklahoma Sooners is a
00:07 five-game swing in Lake Charles, Louisiana at the McNeese State Cowgirl
00:13 Challenge. Two games against McNeese State, two games against Central Arkansas, one
00:17 contest against Lamar. We're gonna preview all of that here as well as
00:21 everything that Patty Gasso as well as freshman Cassidy Pickering and senior
00:26 pitcher Kelly Maxwell. Everything they had to say this week is right here. You're
00:31 watching the All Sooners softball show. Stick with us. We preview everything
00:36 coming up for the second weekend of the college softball season.
00:42 Welcome back in everyone. Ryan Chapman here with your All Sooners softball show.
00:54 And don't forget AllSooners.com, your spot for all of the OU softball content
01:00 wire to wire all year long. We've got every minute a video from the Sooners,
01:05 tons and tons of stories, live threads, game recaps. All of that is at
01:10 AllSooners.com. It's also your home for the All Sooners softball show which
01:14 publishes every Tuesday and every Thursday. Today is Thursday which means
01:18 we look ahead to the Cowgirl Challenge. McNeese State hosting Oklahoma, Central
01:23 Arkansas and Lamar for a multi-team event. Fresh off Oklahoma's 4-0 run
01:29 through the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge. Weekend one of that at least.
01:33 And you've got Washington who moved up to number five in the coaches poll. That
01:37 is who Oklahoma dispatched on Friday night. Duke who moved up to number ten.
01:40 Oklahoma got a win over that in route to their 4-0 perfect weekend. But Patty
01:46 Gasso, these Oklahoma Sooners, they have very high standards and on Tuesday night
01:50 Patty Gasso said simply this. She asked the team how they thought they played
01:54 and this is how they graded themselves. I asked the team today to rank our
02:01 performance one to ten. I had a lot of fours, I had a lot of fives and I had a
02:08 few sixes. And we just beat two top ten teams with that level of performance.
02:14 It's something to look at and go hey okay. They were not happy but they
02:21 competed and that's what's important to me. So it's a good start, absolutely a
02:27 good start. And to me I would say we were probably at a five plus. So we had a
02:35 really good practice today because they want to get better each weekend. So I was
02:40 pleased with it even when we weren't. We don't want to be at our best yet,
02:44 definitely not. So it was good wins, it was a good weekend. Plenty of room to
02:49 grow as Oklahoma knows and covering this team the past couple years that's a
02:53 pretty common theme. Patty Gasso has come to us a few times here after the
02:57 first couple of weekends. The Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic especially
03:01 asking her team hey how do you think you did things like that. And early in the
03:06 year it's pretty common to hear fours, fives, maybe some sixes out of ten that
03:09 stuff. Oklahoma knows it's a big long March, it's a big grind and one of those
03:14 things that you don't want to be playing your best softball in February. That's
03:17 not how you end up hoisting that trophy at the end of the Lawrence College World
03:21 Series. There's plenty of room for improvement. There were ten runners left
03:24 on base each in that Duke game and that Washington game. Not the end-all be-all,
03:28 not not oh my gosh you should want to be worried about the offense, nothing crazy
03:31 like that. But just things to dial in. Patty Gasso talked about over swinging,
03:35 try to hit home runs instead of just locking in, doing your job. A couple of
03:39 defensive things to work out, how to avoid obstruction calls that aren't
03:43 obstruction calls but still you have to deal with the umpires all the same and
03:46 wanting to batten all of that up, batten down the hatches. But one performer who
03:51 looked on her game, absolutely on her game, was senior transfer pitcher Kelly
03:56 Maxwell. She came in for Oklahoma State and she herself admitted maybe a smidge
04:00 of nerves early in that Duke game her first appearance but she said by the
04:04 time she got into that Washington game she felt like herself. She felt like the
04:08 old Kelly Maxwell but the old Kelly Maxwell is not really the old Kelly
04:11 Maxwell is it? Patty Gasso talked about the work that Jennifer Rocha, the
04:16 associate head coach and pitching coach, has done with Maxwell all offseason long
04:20 trying to dial in on her game, find those improvements and get her firing on all
04:25 cylinders as the season kicks off or it did kick off this past weekend. I think
04:31 Jen and Kelly kind of started from ground zero and Kelly hadn't really
04:38 looked at numbers, didn't look at a lot of video, so there was a lot of exploring,
04:42 a lot of learning. I think Kelly has learned a lot from Jen Rocha and it's
04:48 really starting to stick and it's really starting to show in her pitches. So she
04:54 was really sharp and she was very, I just felt her very confident and I can't say
05:02 that she's been extremely overconfident while she's been here because she has to
05:07 keep facing that lineup so I think they were all relieved to see somebody else.
05:12 Jennifer Rocha did an excellent job two seasons ago with Hope Troutwine coming
05:17 in from North Texas really elevating her game. Alex Starocco for her it was a
05:22 little bit different process. She was playing at Michigan, playing Big Ten
05:25 softball, experiencing the big stage, just taking a load off and also cutting down
05:30 that inning count as well as saying hey you can be more aggressive you've got
05:34 Patty Gasso's defense behind you and Kelly Maxwell talked about something
05:37 that she just has not ever gotten to do before. What exactly Jen Rocha and her
05:42 worked with all offseason long is a big change to her diet of preparation heading
05:47 into not just a season but a weekend's worth of games.
05:51 It was very different I would say from where I came from. I've never really watched much film and never really took the time to study other hitters and so having this new
06:01 knowledge is really elevated my game and I think it's gonna help me in the long run.
06:05 I think you could attack the hitter more, just trust your pitches, spinning them
06:11 through zone rather than always trying to nibble at the corners or trying to go
06:15 for the strikeout just let your defense work behind you.
06:19 Should be fascinating to see how Kelly Maxwell continues to develop as the
06:24 season goes on as she gets more confident and not just those film
06:28 reviews, film study sessions, preparing for opposing lineups but understanding
06:32 and fully having the faith of that defense behind her she can really really
06:36 attack. I am excited to see what Kelly Maxwell looks certainly come Big 12 play
06:41 but come postseason. It should be a different level than what we've maybe
06:45 seen out of her which is already a two-time All-American, outstanding
06:49 excellent college softball pitcher. Excited to see what the future holds but
06:53 another player flipping over not just in the circle but in the field, Cassidy
06:57 Pickering. What she did in the batter's box it's something that a ton of Oklahoma
07:01 fans juiced by. Obviously anytime you record your first career at bat into
07:05 Grand Slam there are gonna be really high expectations but it's not quite been a
07:09 surprise to Patty Gassa who's seen some things behind the scenes from Cassidy
07:13 Pickering including some leadership qualities that Oklahoma fans are gonna
07:17 be excited about in years to come. She is a really mature hitter for her age and I
07:22 can hear her talk of practice and she's talking with the seniors and she's
07:26 talking their language so it's pretty cool to hear that. The ability to ask
07:31 upperclassmen and listen to upperclassmen versus I'm afraid I don't
07:37 want to I don't want to show I don't know I mean she's really honest she will
07:42 be our future captain it's very clear to me and I've even said it to her she's
07:46 like yeah yeah I know. I'm like okay let's do that then. So it's just a different style that's unlike
07:53 freshmen she's not scared of anything and that shows. Impressive right? Stepping on in to the
08:02 number one team in the country not phased by at all soaking all the
08:06 information listening and also showing off those leadership qualities but
08:10 that's nothing new to Cassidy Pickering just because it's Oklahoma it doesn't
08:14 mean it's a new role one she's not accustomed to as a leader on all the
08:18 teams she's played on growing up. I kind of started through like the recruiting
08:22 process and here always felt like home I always felt welcome but the seniors have
08:27 proven a point that like we're not freshmen we're a part of this team any
08:31 question you have ask if you need to talk you can speak up and talk. My select
08:34 team I played on for eight years and I was the captain of that team so just being able to
08:38 take control and like just talk everyone through it and keep everyone composed was something I felt confident doing.
08:43 The real work this weekend will begin as Oklahoma looks to improve from those
08:48 fours, fives, sixes that they graded themselves trying to hone in on
08:52 everything make those improvements at the Cal Girl Challenge in Lake Charles
08:57 against Central Arkansas against McNeese State against Lamar before Oklahoma
09:01 ships out to the Maryknoter Collegiate Classic to close out February. Pat
09:05 I guess will give a little bit of preview of what you're gonna see including
09:08 Jot and everyone's memory about that incredible Seattle regional and how
09:12 McNeese State had Washington on the ropes almost eliminating them out of the NCAA
09:17 tournament totally before Washington obviously ended their season at the
09:20 Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City last June. Some good teams I mean
09:25 Central Arkansas was a tournament team last year Lamar is a program on the rise
09:35 McNeese if you all remember had one of the most exciting super regionals they
09:40 were almost at the World Series. They looking at their numbers they have over
09:46 148 stolen bases last year which is unheard of so it's gonna be fast and
09:52 curious it's gonna be a lot of short game slapping runners in motion our
09:56 defense is gonna have to be on point so they had a good weekend this last
10:01 weekend I think they lost to Cal Berkeley on their first game but they're
10:06 a very solid team. ESPN+ is gonna be the name of the game this weekend not a
10:13 flow softball operation one more of those for Oklahoma as they head out to
10:17 the Maryknoter but all five of these games two on Friday two on Saturday one
10:21 on Sunday will be broadcast on ESPN+ or obviously you can listen to all of
10:26 Chris Plank's call of that on the radio 1077 the franchise or the franchise
10:30 who just grab the app flip between the two but as always allsooners.com will
10:35 have everything you need I've got a huge story on Kelly Maxwell and everything
10:39 that she's been going through that is up at allsooners.com just hit the softball
10:43 tab and scroll it is there as well as Friday two game stories game recaps what
10:49 happened same deal on Saturday as well as one on Sunday don't think there's
10:53 gonna be a live blog this weekend as ESPN+ pretty well equipped but we
10:56 should be fired up those live blogs once again as we head back over to flow
11:02 softball as a softball watching community a couple of weekends from now
11:05 but if you're watching this on YouTube help me out drop a comment first off if
11:09 you liked the video give us a thumbs up make sure you're subscribed to John
11:12 Hoover media but drop a comment what do you want to see this weekend obviously
11:17 Oklahoma wants to go 5-0 but but what area do you want to see the
11:20 improvement or just someone like a Cassie Pickering like a Kelly Maxwell to
11:24 continue their excellent play what are you most looking forward to is Oklahoma
11:27 again a pair of games against Central Arkansas a pair of games against
11:30 McNeese State and that one contest against Lamar but stick with us remember
11:35 allsooners softball show every Tuesday every Thursday currently we have a
11:39 special guest booked to recap this weekend on Tuesday she's very familiar
11:45 to Oklahoma fans has a couple of rings floating around as well as some really
11:49 awesome other experiences won't spoil that surprise but we've worked a lot
11:53 with her she should be joining us next Tuesday to recap everything we saw
11:58 across the country and at the cowgirl challenge out in Lake Charles but for
12:02 everybody at allsooners.com John Hoover, Randall Sweet, Ross Lovelace, Bryce
12:06 McInnes, I'm Ryan Chapman remember allsooners.com stories videos photos
12:12 whatever you want it's the place to be but for the allsooners softball show
12:16 we'll talk to you next Tuesday