The OCU softball team wrapped their Sooner Athletic Conference home schedule up in historic fashion. Coach Phil McSpadden’s team went undefeated (22-0) inside Ann Lacy Stadium for the first time since 2017. Peculiarly enough, the last time the Stars went undefeated at home, they went on to win the NAIA national championship. The Stars are currently 44-2 on the season with a 31-1 record in SAC play.
Offensive numbers produced by the dominant Stars squad have been gaudy all season, the pitching in combination with the team’s defense has gone hand-in-hand with the offensive statistical onslaught.
This year’s OCU softball team has shut out opponents twenty-one times, only allowing one run nine times. The Stars also swept a two-game series against a Top-10 ranked NCAA Division II foe in Rogers State, adding impressive notches to the resume of the Stars’ body of work this season.
How dominant have the Stars been this season? McSpadden’s players have run-ruled (when a team leads their opponent by 8 or more runs after the 5th inning) twenty-eight times this season. Another impressive fact–the OCU softball team only had one opponent avoid being run-ruled once from March 19th to April 13th and had two different streaks of 6+ run rules achieved in that span.
With only one loss in conference play, the Stars have notched their consecutive win streak up to twenty-five games.
How does a team become this dominant while generating video game-like numbers while maintaining nearly perfect balance as a roster on offense and defense simultaneously?
Some ingredients to the recipe for success include coaching, preparation, mindset or drive, talent, trust, and closeness as a team. It also doesn’t hurt to have the all-time winningest coach at any level of softball leading the way.
McSpadden’s players enjoy coming to practice each day knowing they get to learn from the best of the best in the game. The Stars’ head coach motivates his roster to be the best that they can be by pushing them and challenging them to make strides toward excellence. Coach McSpadden and his Assistant Coach Bobbi Bridges instill a sense of trust throughout the team, allowing their players to fully believe in their abilities on and off the softball diamond.
When speaking to The Campus recently, junior outfielder Tiffany Paul shared her sentiment towards Coach McSpadden in addition to her teammates, He fights for us every day even if it is not softball-related. My plan in life is to be a teacher but also coach softball, and if I become half the coach that he is I will be happy. I look up to this man and I will forever look up to him.”
Paul added, “This team is SPECIAL. We are not only a team but a huge family, we all work and play for each other. Playing with them is easy because they are all my best friends and amazing people.”
Special is putting it lightly in terms of the team’s offensive output, elite might be a more appropriate word to use when describing the OCU softball team’s offense. This roster has eight batters owning a batting average of .400 or higher with three players having amassed 50 or more Runs Batted In this season and four Stars have an On-Base% (OB%) of .500 or better. OCU softball also has three players who have generated 10 or more home runs this season; Kamryn Garvie (13), Emerson Heron (12), and Baileigh Loux (10). No other team in the SAC has even one player who has hit double-digit long balls.
As a team, the OCU offense is the only team in the SAC with a batting average (BA) of .400 or higher. The Stars are also the only offense in the conference that has generated 400+ runs with the next closest team being the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma with 282 runs scored. McSpadden’s team is also the only squad to compile 500 or more hits as a roster, the next closest offense only has 384 hits.
The Stars’ offense leads the SAC in all offensive categories except two, which are triples and stolen bases.
Graduate student, outfielder, and catcher Loux is the only player in the SAC to own a BA .500 or higher. OCU has 4 of the Top-5 players in the SAC individual BA statistical leaderboard. The Stars have a player who leads all major offensive categories except in stolen bases and triples hit.
Loux accredited a large amount of her offensive output to the fact that her teammates in front of her tend to get on base so frequently. Therefore, she can focus on scoring those base-runners through situational hitting. Loux’s league-leading BA highlights that she is a clutch hitter with runners on base and she’s a tough out to record for opposing pitching.
“I won’t let a pitcher beat me with the same approach twice. I am not aiming for the fences (they just so happen to be there), but I strive to win every pitch,” Loux stated.
The pitching staff of the stars and the defense who fields balls in play behind those pitchers play a pivotal role in shutting opposing teams’ offenses down. The Stars have two 20-win starters leading the way in Emerson Heron (20-0) and Shelbey Cornelson (20-2). The two starting pitchers for the Stars are first and second in the SAC for wins respectively. Heron and Cornelson are also two of the Top-3 pitchers in the SAC for Earned Run Average (ERA) and opponent BA. The Stars’ duo fall in the Top-5 of SAC pitchers for Strikeouts, combining for 240 punchouts. The OCU pitching staff has also allowed the least amount of walks (BB) in the conference, further adding to the pitching dominance of the pitchers.
If the opposing team hits the ball, the league’s best defense in Fielding Percentage (FLD%) awaits those in-play balls. The Stars defense owns a .976 team FLD%.
Cornelson disclosed that the biggest challenge with being a pitcher is staying focused and relaxed when facing talented hitters. Having a strong defense backing her up makes that challenge less stressful. The Stars’ pitcher added, “It is extremely important to trust the defense! I remind them constantly that I trust them, and it has really shown in our defensive stats!”
The OCU softball team has only four games remaining on their regular season schedule with a trip to Waxahachie, TX on the horizon as they face Southwestern Assembly of God University in a four-game series. The Stars will play two sets of doubleheaders, one on Friday and the other on Saturday.
After their series with the Lions of SAGU, Coach McSpadden’s team will host the SAC conference tournament which takes place May 3-5, and then will head off to the NAIA Softball World Series which begins on May 23.
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