Ken Pierce

Missed 2 Katy runs in the top of the sixth but back in time to see EK polish off a six-inning complete game 12-1 victory. I didn’t have a scorebook with me, but I think she wound up giving up five or maybe six hits, all of them singles except a double down the third-base line, walked a think two and plonked on batter square in the noggin. I have the impression that she wasn’t hitting her spots to her own satisfaction, but she still kept things well under control, obviously. One thing I did notice is that the umpire was camped over the catcher’s left shoulder and (a) the right-field edge of the plate seemed to be, um, imprecise; but (b) four times out of five he would call the pitch to his side a strike even it was a bit river. So I don’t know how much of this was on purpose, but after the first inning EK just pretty much camped on that left-side edge and got a bunch of strike calls, including the called strike three that ended it. Haley got a homer and a triple in her first two at-bats, and looked sharp at short. This is a Katy team that can play. Looking forward to seeing them again next Tuesday.

4th inning EK leads off with a triple that misses a homer by maybe three inches, clanking off the metal bar at the top of the wall. Her courtesy pinch-runner scored, and EK retires the side 1-2-3 in the bottom half

Settling in to watch @eksoftball2026 and @Haley_Schmitt29 and the rest of Katy HS softball take on Jordan. First chance to wear the new @23Zache Sooner jersey that just arrived — I presume Riley gets some NIL money from it. Go Tigers y’all…

First inning EK is left on first after a two-out line drive that she hit to the wall so hard she didn’t have time to take second and had to settle for a single. Bottom of first EK starts in the circle: K, BB, infield single, single through the 3-4 hole where the 2B kinda froze on it a bit to score the runner from second, K, K.

@alexstorako Congratulations!

HAIL TO THE VICTORS

HANNAH COOR. INSANELY ON TARGET THROW FOR THE DOUBLE PLAY. 🎯 #NCAASoftball x 🎥 B1G+ / @HuskerSoftball

I shared this before, but I love this story about my wife: She became a Christian in college, but didn’t know much about church. So at her first Easter service, when people would say the traditional greeting of “He is risen!” she’d respond with an enthusiastic “Heck yeah, baby!”

@Haley_Schmitt29 You earned it. See you on Tuesday!

@RedneckPeril Thanks for the shoutout! Hope you get to catch another game soon! Go Tigers!

Good game tonight by @eksoftball2026 — that “F8” was a screamer. I would ask EK to tell Haley Schmitt that she threw a heckuva game, except that (a) Haley has no idea who I am and (b) she knows already. Kid would throw a changeup every now and then, not because she needed to, but just for fun and practice — five innings, fifteen Ks, one ball hit into play for a single, one hit batter. I asked Grok where Schmitt was committed to, only to be informed that the kid is only a freshman — so I immediately asked where she plays travel ball, because that kid does NOT play like a froshie. And now I have two very good reasons to watch KHS. I am told by the fan beside me that next Tuesday we will go up against a team that actually played Katy close earlier this year; so I am looking forward to that one. (chuckling) My guess is that other travel ball families like the Hutchenses already know Haley’s name… Go Tigers! @Tyler_McComas @RedheadedSooner @Nattys4Patty @jhutch3105

UCLA is similar to us, and has literally played 5 fewer games. They are at 195.2, so we have played slightly more than 32 “full games” while they have played almost 28. If they had as many games as we, at the pace they have been hitting, they would have about 118 homers — still behind us by a considerable amount, but not nearly as far as they appear to be right now.

@RedneckPeril Basically we've played 10 fewer games than everyone else. Thats my initial read on that.

OU softball power update: 144 homers in 41 games, or 3.51 homers per game. I also find it useful to account for run-ruled games by calculating homers per full games, that is, home runs per 21 outs. OU is scoring 15.57 runs every seven innings and hitting 4.62 home runs. UCLA, which is also having an awesome offensive year, is scoring 13.94 runs every seven innings and hitting 2.97 homers. The greatest offense in history before this year was the 2021 Sooners, who averaged 13.52 runs every seven innings and hit 3.42 homers per seven innings -- so we may be getting to see the two greatest offenses in history IN THE SAME YEAR. The Sooners are hitting 2.3 homers per game, and scoring 8.9 runs, just against the SEC. If they maintain those rates over the next 15 games (including against non-SEC midweeks Oklahoma State and Arkansas Pine Bluff) they will reach the end of the REGULAR season with 177 homers (current record for entire season including postseason is 161) and 610 runs (current record 638), still with the entire postseason to go. It is starting to look more and more possible for them get to 200 homers if they reach the WCWS -- if the season goes 68 games and they continue at their SEC pace, they would get to 207 or so. This is still not likely to happen -- but it is slowly getting more and more into the realm of possibility. After Saturday's three-homer game against Kentucky, 2026 OU is still in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time list of homer-hitting NCAA softball teams, three homers behind fifth-place 2025 Ohio State. 1. 2021 OU: 161 2. 2024 Miami (OH): 160 3. 2010 Hawaii: 158 4. 2022 OU: 155 5: 2025 Ohio State: 147 ******* 6. 2026 OU: 144 ******* 7. 2009 Arizona: 134 8. 2001 Arizona: 126 9. 2011 Florida: 124 10. 2024 OU 122 ... UCLA is now tied for 29th at 107 going into tonight's game. They are becoming less and less of a threat to challenge OU for the home run record, but their big chance comes now. With OU done for this weekend and going up against current #1 Texas for three games next weekend, while UCLA gets six games against Indiana, Cal State Fullerton, and the woeful Fighting Illini over that same period, UCLA needs to do a lot of gap-closing over the next nine days. @Tyler_McComas @RedheadedSooner @Nattys4Patty @OUontheAir @OU_Softball

@RedheadedSooner 217

@RedneckPeril How many actual innings have they played? Do you have that total handy?

Update on the pursuit of individual home run records by Kendall Wells, with required rates of homers/game over the remaining games to reach the various records. NEW TODAY: WE NOW HAVE TO START TRACKING HER CHANCES AT 45 AND 50, AS SHE IS NOW LITERALLY ON A PACE TO HIT 50. As always, assuming approximately a 68-game season. So far she has hit 30 homers in 41 games, which is .73 homers/game, or a homer every 1.367 games. Against the SEC only, she has hit 9 homers in 12 games, which is .75 homers/game, or a homer every 1.333 games. Rather than projecting the rest of the year at her current overall pace, from now I'll be using either her current SEC home run pace or her overall pace, whichever is lower, which at the moment is the season pace of .73. At her season pace she will be at 40 by the end of the regular season, which would break the all-time record of 37 and make her the first player ever to hit 40 in a single season -- and she would still have the entire post-season to play. The freshman record of 30 (Alo/Chamberlain) is now Alo/Chamberlain/Wells, and will belong to Wells alone in short order unless she gets hurt. To catch Alo's Sooner record of 34, Kendall needs to hit a home run about every 6.8 games, which is 20% of her current pace. At this point, this one is hers unless she gets hurt or has a Bri-Ellis-level postseason collapse. To catch Laura Espinoza's 37, she needs to hit a home run about every 3.9 games, which is 35% of her current pace. Gotta figure she is now more likely than not to get there. To reach 40, she needs to hit a home run about every 2.7 games, which is 51% of her current pace. To reach Karli Spaid's rate of a homer every 1.611 games (that is, assuming a 68-game season, to hit 43 homers), she needs to hit a home run every 2.1 games, which is 66% of her current pace. (2024 Spaid hit 36 homers in 58 games; 1995 Espinoza hit 37 homers but it took her 72 games to do it.) And I guess we should start tracking her chances at 45 and 50. To get to 45: homer every 1.8 games, or 76% of current pace. And to get to 50: Insanely, she is now actually on a pace to hit 50. Surely, surely she is not going to keep going at this pace against the three Top Ten teams she will face over the rest of this month. But...I mean...it is no longer an utterly absurd target. To get to 50, she needs to hit a homer every 1.4 games the rest of the year, and that is 101% of her current pace, and her current pace puts her at closer to 50 than 49. In honor of K-Dub's entry into the NCAA record books, K-Dub gets this post to herself today, without any Megan Grant update. @OU_Softball @Tyler_McComas @RedheadedSooner @Nattys4Patty

Traces of Texas reader Stan Watty kindly sent this in and I rarely "LOL" when I get something in my messages but I did this time. This is pretty much the unvarnished truth, isn't it? Thank you, Stan!

@Tyler_McComas Hear, hear!

What an absolute gem today from Sydney Berzon. Four innings, NO HITS, and all 12 outs were recorded on the infield. Easily her best outing at OU. She was in command all day long.

If only we could have Nicole May on the radio broadcast every game. She was awesome. @OUontheAir

And sure enough there is the UIBB.