Well, to be completely frank, I’m not sure the Texas Tech softball team had much business winning that game against the Ole Miss Rebels. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very, very glad that the Red Raiders managed to come out on top, but this strikes me as something that Ole Miss fans will likely be upset about for quite some time.
Looking through the stat sheet, Ole Miss managed to out-hit Texas Tech 14-10. The Rebels even hit more home runs than the Red Raiders did (3-2). On top of that, Ole Miss didn’t commit a single error. And still, the Red Raiders were able to win.
Looking through most of the traditional stats categories from Saturday’s shocking Texas Tech win and really it feels like this is something you’d see with Ole Miss as the winner. But there’s a few stats that stand out in some pretty interesting ways.
Texas Tech was out-hit and out-homered but the Red Raiders still managed to win. Here’s an interesting number that adds context.
Like the fact that Texas Tech was able to draw nine walks while Ole Miss only got one.
While that didn’t exactly give Texas Tech a ton of success through much of the game, it’s clear that the Red Raiders were able to see more pitches from Emilee Boyer than they likely would have otherwise. She was dominant on the surface (just a couple of hits through six innings of work), but her pitch count did climb towards the end as she issued seven walks in 6.2 innings.
And one of those walks in the seventh (Desirae Spearman) ended up helping Texas Tech tie the game as it put Lauren Allred in position to hit a grand slam. That forced Ole Miss to finally change pitchers to Kyra Aycock (though that change was probably way too late).
Add in the walks that Kaitlyn Terry and Jackie Lis saw to start the eighth inning and that forced the Rebels to turn to yet another pitcher (but that didn’t matter all that much). A couple of timely hits in the 8th inning and the Red Raiders won.
In total, Ole Miss pitchers threw 180 pitches. There was a 24-pitch differential between Texas Tech and the Rebels. It wasn’t a great outing for Texas Tech’s pitching staff, but it is worth wondering if the Red Raiders being more efficient does help them out in the long run. Especially since Ole Miss now has to play another game today and then has to beat Texas Tech twice to move on to a Super Regional.
Other than walks and pitch count, what other numbers are interesting here?
It’s a little bizarre that Ole Miss managed to hit three home runs while Texas Tech had just two. It’s a little odd that the Rebels outhit the Red Raiders. When you look at how these two teams fared on the season, you’d think some of those numbers would be the other way around. But nope!
Also interestingly enough, neither of these teams committed any errors. That eight-run scoring burst from Texas Tech with two outs in the 7th inning? None of that was because of an error. Also, the Rebels and Red Raiders each left eight runners on base.
So, Ole Miss won in the hit column, committed zero errors, and hit more home runs than the Red Raiders. But Texas Tech was able to win. I’m not complaining. That’s a fantastic thing.
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