FAYETTEVILLE — Nearly five months to the day after Oklahoma eliminated Arkansas in super regional play in Norman, Okla., the Razorbacks again squared off with the Sooners to cap their fall exhibition schedule on Sunday.
Longtime Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso's club picked up where it left off in May in Game 1 of the doubleheader, tagging Arkansas pitchers Autumn Storms and Lauren Graves for 21 hits in a 19-2 win. Two Oklahoma players - Caleigh Clifton and third baseman Sydney Romero - finished 5-for-5 in the rout, and three players hit home runs.
Following the first game of the day, Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel gathered her team in shallow left field and delivered an animated message. In the 25-30 minute break between games, she said, her players' mindset changed and the Razorbacks played Oklahoma to a 2-2 tie to close the day behind seven solid innings from star pitcher Mary Haff, a finalist for National Freshman of the Year after winning 29 games last spring.
"There's not much we did right in the first game. I'm not going to be shy about saying that, and they played really well and exposed us in some ways," Deifel said. "But more than anything I liked our response. I think it shows a lot of character in this team. I think that's what is going to lead to success in the spring, so we've got to work through some kinks. We wanted a challenge. That's why we played OU. They showed spots we really need to work on and in the end I thought we had some resilience and some fight today.
"It's the fall and we're working through some things, and mostly what we're working through is finding out what this group is, what the identity of this group is."
As Arkansas did throughout the course of the day Sunday, Deifel watched her team grow this fall. The Razorbacks finished their fall schedule 4-1-2 with wins over Tulsa, Crowder and two against Butler Community College. They also tied a 10-inning game against Missouri State on Oct. 18.
"I know that we still have a lot of figuring out who we are and how this team is going to compete," Deifel said. "I don't know if we have all of those answers, but we still have a lot of time before the spring. The character I saw today, the heart we showed and the response really showed we have a really good foundation to work on this spring."
Sophomore center fielder Hannah McEwen plated a pair of runs on Sunday, including an RBI single in Arkansas' two-run third inning in Game 2 against Oklahoma's Parker Conrad. Five of the Razorbacks' six hits came in that third inning.
On the mound, Haff was sharp and did not allow a run until the final two innings when Romero and Eliyah Flores hit solo home runs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, to tie the game. Haff struck out five Sooners batters and retired 12 straight prior to Romero's home run.
"I thought Mary pitched her butt off. She pitched really well," Deifel said. "When you're a rise-ball pitcher sometimes you're going to give up that longball. Credit to Romero. ... Anytime we gave them an extra strike to work with they took advantage of it."
All in all, Deifel is excited about the direction of her fourth team at Arkansas. She believes her 2019 club will be the strongest, most-talented she's had since arriving in Fayetteville from Maryland. Between now and February, she said fine-tuning an aggressive, competitive and confident mindset will be the main focus.
"We have a lot of positions that are still up for grabs and we have a lot of internal competition, which is really pushing each other," she added. "This is a really talented group, and I think it's about finding how we mesh and fight as a unit and where we're going to get our energy. We're finding out who we are."