FSU softball has to avoid mistakes against No. 1 Oklahoma

FSU softball (21-5) made mistakes in their series loss against No. 3 Oklahoma State over the weekend.

They’ll have to avoid those for any shot at defeating the high-powered No.1 Oklahoma Sooners Tuesday night in Norman.

FSU pitchers issued too many walks, and FSU stranded too many runners on base and committed too many errors.

The Sooners have been the team to beat in recent years and can embarrass teams that make those types of mistakes. The Sooners hit .389 as a team with an on-base percentage of .483. Oklahoma batters have hit 36 home runs, while only striking out 10.4 percent of their at-bats. It’s an offense that’s incredibly difficult to contain, and their pitchers have a .092 ERA.

Opposing batters are hitting .158 while striking out 172 hitters in 129 innings. Defensively, they are elite, only making five errors all season with a .990 fielding percentage. In other words, they don’t beat themselves and can score runs in bunches.

FSU’s offense seems to struggle to consistently generate offense against elite teams. They only had six hits combined in the last two games against Oklahoma State.

Devyn Flaherty, Kate Dack, Michaela Edenfield, Kalei Harding, and Mack Leonard went 1-13, with seven runners left on base in the rubber match. While they got on base with several walks, they couldn’t capitalize on several scoring opportunities.

FSU pitchers allowed too many walks and too many hits in pitcher counts. For whatever reason, Kathyrn Sandercock can’t seem to put hitters away when she’s ahead in the count. She’s never been a pitcher that strikes out a ton of hitters, but that percentage is lower this year than last year.

Makenna Reid is FSU’s other best option, and I’m wondering how much we’ll see of her Tuesday night. Allison Royalty doesn’t throw strikes consistently enough, and the other options likely get shelled against a team like Oklahoma. However, Ali DuBois held Oklahoma State scoreless through three innings Sunday.

FSU softball can win the game, but their margins for error are super slim. We’ll see if they can raise their level of play and rise to the occasion Tuesday night. The game will begin at 7 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN+.