OU softball pitching depth will tell story of next month

It can happen, but it is rare to start learning new stuff about your team this time of year, and that applies to OU softball just as much as any other team.

And when you start dissecting the Sooners, it is about their pitching. You feel rather confident in what Audrey Lowry is bringing from the No. 1 spot. And Miali Guachino has been a pleasant surprise when it comes to being a No. 2.

The difference in being a Regional or Super Regional team and playing for a Women’s College World Series championship is going to be after that.

What Sydney Berzon, with all that experience, and Allyssa Parker, a freshman, are able to accomplish is going to let you know if OU is hoisting up another trophy the first week of June.

You saw that in the final game of the regular season. Head coach Patty Gasso went with Berzon in the circle to start. All Berzon did was deliver her best outing of the season.

Five innings, two hits, no walks, no runs, five strikeouts. Four of those? Caught ‘em looking.

That paved the way to Parker, who was solid in the sixth. But then gave up four runs in the seventh before Lowry entered and secured the 6-4 victory at Texas A&M.

“You’ve got to give opportunity,” Gasso said. “Allyssa Parker is sitting in the bullpen waiting to be a closer and never needing closing and we are needing to get her in games, we need to get her swing in games, we need to figure out where that is.

“She’s been working at third, she’s been working at first but she’s been working mostly in the bullpen. That’s the hard part of it but she is really starting to trend well with Coach Rocha so we’re feeling good. We’re feeling good.”

That was the Berzon that you have to believe OU fans thought would be here all season. All that experience, success at LSU, Berzon was supposed to be the next to make that leap.

It has not always worked out that way. But if Berzon brings it in the next month? Then that is all anybody is going to remember.

“Coach Rocha has been feeling it and you could feel a different sense from Berzon when she came out on to the mound, and it was like, I am going to be staying here for a while,” Gasso said. “You just felt that really solid, great moving pitches, fooled their hitters a bit. Got some strikeouts, got some easy outs that we could handle. It was the best outing she’s had.”

Then you switch it over to Parker. The challenge has not gotten any easier. Should she hit, pitch, how do you balance it? Same questions we had in March, still having them in May.

Even if Gasso and staff are still trying to figure it out, Parker continues to be nails whenever she gets a chance.

“Definitely composure. She’s got a great competitiveness about her,” Gasso said. “Early strikes. Changeups for strikes. We’ve got to really kind of pinpoint those… any ball that she’s throwing hard has to be hitting a corner otherwise it’s going to be hit hard. But when she can mix in throwing 70 mph with a 50 mph changeup, it’s unfair. But she’s got to be able to use both the right way and really feed off each other.”

And this is where Berzon can come in. Where all that experience in Baton Rouge can come to great use. It is time for the championship season. If Parker needs help, Berzon can be there for the assist.

“I think on the pitching side she’s really matured on the mental side of things,” Berzon said. “Being able to put her routine, her ritual into every single outing and I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve noticed is just seeing her out there calm and attacking the zone.” 

OU, the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, takes on Georgia in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. (approximately) on Thursday in Lexington, Ky. The Bulldogs took down LSU 7-3 on Wednesday night. OU swept UGA in Norman less than two weeks ago.