Lopez makes first NCAA tournament appearance Haff falters against Sooners in circle
NORMAN — After staying in the dugout for Oklahoma’s first three games, sophomore pitcher Mariah Lopez made her NCAA Tournament debut on Friday.
Lopez came on to relieve Paige Lowary in the seventh, giving up one run on two hits in the outing.
“I thought she had good composure,” coach Patty Gasso said. “I thought she did a good job working ahead in the count. We needed to get her on the mound for potentially opportunities tomorrow. Paige threw 70 pitches overall, so it was a good time to get her out in the dugout so that she is available for tomorrow as well. It just made a lot of sense and holding on to Paige Parker the way that we did makes a lot of sense as well, to me.”
Does the timing of her postseason appearance indicate that her role might be shifting from starter to reliever?
Not necessarily. “More just wanting to get Mariah in this environment in this setting,” Gasso said. “So that when or if we use her tomorrow, it’s not new. Also, if we don’t take care of business, we could have a long day tomorrow. That means everybody has to be ready. It was just preparing for whatever comes our way.”
Oklahoma isn’t the only team at the Norman Super Regional with a freshman phenom on its roster.
Like OU’s Jocelyn Alo, Arkansas pitcher Mary Haff is also a finalist for the NFCA Freshman of Year award.
The pitcher got the start in Friday’s game, but struggled against OU’s lineup.
She pitched just two innings, giving up four runs on five hits and walking one.
“She’s a very, very good freshman and rightly so, being up for a prestigious award because she’s done a very good job throughout the season,” Gasso said.
“It’s tough for a freshman to come in this environment and handle it. I thought she threw well. I thought she started to maybe get a little bit wild, which is probably uncharacteristic, but it’s not unheard of for opponents to come in and do that or us to go somewhere where there’s big crowds and do that.”
Haff was replaced by Autumn Storms in the third after giving up back-to-back solo home runs to Alo and junior Shay Knighten.
“I expect that we’re going to see her again tomorrow,” Gasso said. “She’s a big part of why they’re here right now. The good thing is we got to see a lot of their pitching staff. I think that might help us going forward.”
Mendes finds her groove
After her teammates chased Haff off the mound early in the third, sophomore Nicole Mendes shook up reliever Storms with a triple off the left-field wall.
“I actually thought it was going to be a double,” said Mendes, who leads the team with five triples this year. “And then I just saw that she kind of came off the wall slow, and I thought I could beat her to third base.”
Mendes struggled at the plate in the final weeks of the regular season, even briefly coming out of the starting lineup. But she’s hit two triples in the postseason and scored six runs in the NCAA Tournament — including three Friday.
“I’ve been working a lot with JT (Gasso) and all my other teammates and just trusting what I have and letting myself play freely,” she said.
Quick hits
Gasso picked up her 1,200 win at Oklahoma, becoming just the eighth softball coach to earn 1,200 wins in Division I. … OU football coach Lincoln Riley and his family attended the game. The Rileys sat in the outfield under a tent in the area usually labeled “Party Patty-O.”