Injuries, Inexperience
Slow Down Golden Grizzlies In 2004
After losing nine seniors off a team that had
claimed back-to-back Mid-Continent Conference titles and their
corresponding trips to the NCAA Tournament, the expectations for the
Oakland softball team for 2004 were understandably subdued. With a roster
filled with
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Nicole Marzano earned
All-Mid-Con honors for a third straight year for OU in 2004. |
players with little or no collegiate playing
experience, a third straight conference crown would be a challenge for the
Golden Grizzlies. But no one could have foreseen how hard the injury bug
would bite the team, but it did, and combined with the inexperience of the
squad, the end result was an 11-42 overall record and a 3-21,
seventh-place finish in the Mid-Con.
At the start of the
season OU knew it was walking a fine line, with essentially only two
pitchers to start the season with. But one of them was the 2003 Mid-Con
Pitcher of the Year, junior Nicole Marzano. She picked right up where she
left in off in 2003 in Oakland?s opener against Indiana State at the
UT-Martin tournament, throwing a brilliant one-hit, 10 strikeout gem
against the Sycamores. She also helped her own cause at the plate, hitting
a two-run home run as Oakland prevailed 5-0 to start the season with a
win.
From there Oakland played
well in the beginning part of the schedule. Playing mostly in tournament
settings in the first month of the season, the Golden Grizzlies found
themselves with a 6-8 record going into March, with four of their losses
coming by only one run.
After a two-week break at
the beginning of March, Oakland played three games at the Ohio State
tournament in very cold conditions. Despite the weather, the Golden
Grizzlies came up with a pair of wins, again behind the pitching of
Marzano. She threw pair of shutouts, blanking Loyola-Chicago and Northern
Illinois by identical 2-0 scores. Sophomore Camie Knorr drove in both runs
against the Ramblers and Marzano again helped herself, smacking her third
home run of the season against the Huskies. Going into the start of
Mid-Con play the Golden Grizzlies found themselves with an 8-9 record.
Traveling to Centenary
for the first Mid-Con series of the season against the conference
newcomers, Marzano did it again, throwing her third straight complete-game
shutout against the Ladies. She allowed only two hits over 10 innings,
striking out 11 as OU took advantage of a Centenary throwing error in the
10th inning to pull out a 2-0 win. Centenary, the eventual
Mid-Con Tournament champion, then bounced back to take the next three to
take the series.
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Sophomore Camie Knorr
led OU in RBIs, triples, home runs, runs, slugging and walks. |
Then the bottom fell out
on OU?s season. A rash of injuries began to take their toll as the Golden
Grizzlies lost a pitcher and half of their starting infield in short
order. More injuries also occurred, with the result that the team found
itself reduced to just 12 players in some games. Down to only four players
with significant playing time from the year before, OU?s offense struggled
to score runs and the team was shutout in eight of the next nine games
after the opening win at Centenary.
Oakland could not buy a
win after coming back from Louisiana and the Golden Grizzlies did not
taste victory again for over a month, dropping a record 31 straight games.
Going into the final weekend of the season at UMKC, OU finally snapped the
streak in the second game of the series, taking a 5-3 win. Knorr led the
way to the victory, slamming a two-run homer that provided the winning run
and picking up the win on the mound by allowing only one earned run and
five hits. Oakland won again the next day, taking a 3-1 win in eight
innings behind Marzano?s pitching and junior Christina Schulte?s two RBIs
before closing the season with a tough, 13-inning loss to the Kangaroos.
Marzano earned
All-Mid-Con honors for a third straight season after finishing among the
league leaders in strikeouts (125) and holding opposing hitters to just a
.210 batting average. Junior Toni Salo led OU in hitting with her .285
average in her first season and also led the squad in steals with 13 from
her leadoff position in the batting order. Knorr wound up playing at a
number of positions and led Oakland with 19 RBIs and 24 runs scored while
tying for the team lead with Marzano with three home runs.
