Clay Horning
Who wouldn’t have wanted to be Susan Ogden?
Any gamer would relish the chance to face down an opposing pitcher with the winning run on base in the bottom of the seventh inning. But Ogden had it even better.
Seventh inning, bases loaded, only one out.
How about that?
“I was waiting on one pitch,” she said.
Fastball, inner half, apparently.
Ogden launched a shot deep to left-center field for what will undoubtedly go down as the longest single of her career. Any other time of the game it might have plated three. Instead, only Savannah Long counted as the Sooners emerged 3-2 victors over Kansas on opening night in the Big 12 Conference.
It wasn’t everything OU was looking for. A 3-2 loser to Missouri State only Wednesday, the Sooners will continue their search for louder bats. Still, Sooner coach Patty Gasso saw progress and, most importantly, a victory.
“We really had a productive week,” she said. “It was our challenge to put it out there.”
On the list of things OU did right, pushing a run across in the first inning had to be way up there. So too was managing eight hits (four more than Wednesday) against maybe the Big 12’s most underrated pitcher in Kansas’ Valerie George, who entered carrying a microscopic 0.69 earned run average, the winner of 11 of 12 decisions.
Gasso still wants to be more dominant at the plate, yet remains enthused the Sooners can put together a winning effort when battling’s required.
“I don’t expect them all (to be easy),” she said. “But the good thing is we started out that way and got it done.”
They almost got it done without needing Ogden’s last-inning delivery.
Up 2-1 since the fourth inning, the Sooners were looking like they’d get the bottom of the seventh off. Instead, though Iver McDonald was able to catch up to Amanda Jobe’s deep fly to center field, she was charged with a two-base error when the ball bounced off the heel of her glove. A sacrifice bunt put Jobe on third base and, after an intentional walk to Val Chapple, Brittany Hile’s sac fly tied the game.
Long started things in the bottom half with a one-out single. An error by Kansas shortstop Stevie Chrisosto put Long at second base and Traci Dickenson at first. George plunked Samantha Ricketts, loading the bases for Ogden.
Though Sooner starter D.J. Mathis (17-3) walked four and hit three, she still earned a complete-game victory, tossing a three-hitter.
If not for the seventh inning, Ricketts would have owned the game-winning hit, a solo home run in the fourth inning.
“We got the win,” Mathis said. “That’s the most important thing.”
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
