Then there were two. The majority of the 2016 WCWS is behind us and tonight the championship series will begin between No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 4 Auburn. There has been no shortage of excitement thus far. From the walk-off home run by Oklahoma in the first round, to the close play at home in the eighth inning to give Auburn the win in the semifinals, we have seen it all. It is now time to break down the championship series.
Auburn has showed a tremendous amount of grit winning their last two games in the last inning to make it here. They opened the 2016 WCWS with a convincing 10-3 win over No. 12 UCLA. They then came back and put up three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning against No. 16 Georgia to walk-off with a 4-3 win. They made things interesting again against No. 8 Florida State when they secured the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning on a close play at the plate. Timely hitting has been key for the Tigers throughout the tournament. Three players for the tigers jump out at you so far. The first is Jade Rose who is having a great tournament and comes into the championship series with a slash of .400/.600/.800 (BA/OBP/SLG). Rose has been clutch for Auburn and has five RBI, a home run and a double. Right behind her is Emily Carosone .400/.600/.500 with four RBI and a double. Finally as expected is Kasey Cooper who comes in with a .364/.636/.727 line, four RBI, one double and a home run. These three have accounted for 65 percent of the scoring production for the Tigers. Another plus for Auburn is that they have only struck out seven times all tournament. In the circle Auburn has used three pitchers in Kaylee Carlson, Makayla Martin and Rachael Walters. They have combined to be rather effective with Carlson throwing the most innings (10) giving up four earned runs with seven strikeouts and picking up two wins. Walters picked up a win against Georgia going five innings giving up just one earned run.
Oklahoma has been fun to watch. If Auburn is gritty we would say that the Sooner’s are scrappy. They are aggressive and find ways to get on base and score with a mix of power and speed. They are not putting up the numbers as a whole that Auburn is, but one person has been red hot in Shay Knighten. Knighten is seeing the ball well with a .500/.500/1.000 line, two home runs and seven RBI. She could not have been more clutch than she was in game one against No. 6 Alabama when, for the second time this season, she hit a walk-off home run to defeat the Crimson Tide. Here is an interesting statistic for you, Caleigh Clifton is hitting just .125 in the WCWS, but she has a .750 OBP. See what we mean by finding ways to get on? They have three players with a .750 or higher on-base percentage; Clifton, Kady Self (.750) and Nicole Pendley (.857). Pendley also has a 1.000 SLG with only two hits, a home run and a triple. Paige Parker has thrown ever inning (22) of the WCWS for Oklahoma. She has been effective to this point giving up eight earned runs with 19 strikeouts to just seven walks.
The Series
This is an interesting match up that also comes with a bunch of question marks. The first is; can Paige Parker keep things rolling or does fatigue set in at some point? She will be facing a dangerous line-up that is very good at capitalizing on mistakes. She has been solid and looked sharp last night. One key for her will be reducing the pitch count especially early in the game. She has a good defense behind her and she will need to trust them. Second; will the bottom third of Auburn’s line-up come alive? Hitters seven through nine combined to go just 4-27 in the WCWS so far. Will the top half of Oklahoma’s order come alive (with the exception of Knighten). Batters one, two and four combined to go 5-28. those are just a few questions to keep an eye on. Auburn struggled with the aggressiveness of Florida State in the semifinal. Oklahoma plays the game in a similar fashion which should put pressure on Auburn. This series really comes down to Parker vs. the Auburn hitters. We do think that Oklahoma will get their runs, but Auburn can change a game in a hurry. All in all we would be surprised if any of the games are low scoring. Both teams are offensive minded and even though Parker may limit the Tigers in total number of hits she may still give up runs. Expect to see Oklahoma be aggressive both at the plate and on the bases. This leaves us with what should be a very entertaining series. We are leaning Oklahoma in three games.
