On a team that’s as stacked as No. 1 Oklahoma, it’s hard to predict who will be the difference maker in a game or a series.
Eight Sooners were named to an All-Big 12 team, four received conference awards and two were named finalists for national honors. Over the course of the season, the Sooners have claimed 16 weekly honors from the Big 12, a conference record. Now, after having won 39 straight and earning an automatic bid in the NCAA Softball Tournament, the Sooners are set to face UMBC Friday, May 17 in the Norman Regional.
Yet on a team filled with the best in college softball, it is two players who sit in the back of the lineup who will play some of the biggest roles in deciding the fate of the Sooners’ season.
Enter sophomore catcher Lynnsie Elam and junior utility player Nicole Mendes.
“I think she is a big staple for us right now."
Going into the Norman Regional, the Sooners’ pitching staff leads Division I softball in ERA (1.17), shutouts (22) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.88), all marks of a starting rotation that has been absolutely dominant. Junior pitchers Mariah Lopez and Giselle Juarez have led the charge.
But Elam has been an integral part of the staff’s success as the player behind the plate.
Elam spent her freshman year behind former Sooners Lea Wodach and Hannah Sparks, making just one start over the course of her first season in Norman while notching four hits and batting .267. During her second season, Elam has started all but two games and has been an asset offensively and defensively, as she’s batting .312 and has a perfect fielding percentage.
"No one talks too much about Lynnsie Elam, but to me she is the most-improved player on this team," head coach Patty Gasso said. "Not only offensively, but what she’s been doing with our pitchers and her framing and her blocking ... I think she is a big staple for us right now."
The Chickasha, Oklahoma native has shown growth as the season’s progressed, a growth that’s been reflected in the performance of the team’s pitchers. Juarez averages over 10 strikeouts a game on the season and has thrown two perfect games. Lopez has seven shutouts on the season. The Sooners are ranked No. 1 in the Big 12 in team pitching.
Elam has been on the receiving end of this pitching all season.
“(Elam’s) confidence has grown a ton,” said associate head coach and pitching coach Jennifer Rocha. “Her communication that she has with the pitchers, it’s at an elite level right now ... She handles each pitcher as they need to be handled during the game, and it’s nice when you can see a catcher develop that relationship with her pitcher in the bullpen and then be able to carry that into the game.”
“That’s a pretty impressive athlete right there.”
Few players are able to excel at the college level, and even fewer are able to succeed in contributing from more than one position.
But for junior Nicole Mendes, excelling in multiple spots is just a normal day of practice.
Over the course of the season, Mendes has started 39 games in the outfield and had 102 at-bats, but when she’s not been busy fielding fly balls or getting on base, she’s been pitching. She’s stepped into the circle to pitch in eight different games.
“That’s a pretty impressive athlete right there,” Gasso said about Mendes. “The fact that she can come in from the outfield, step on the mound and get it done — she’s just a competitor.”
Mendes has pitched 8.1 innings in relief, where she has struck out 11 batters and has a batting average against of just .242. Mendes hasn’t been perfect, as she’s allowed two runs and eight hits, but Gasso said it’s her ability to step into the circle at any moment that makes her a threat to opposing batters.
“Nobody’s looking at Nicole Mendes as an option, and she’s a great option,” Gasso said. “Especially when you have her facing maybe the second round of their lineup, and a lot of them are lefties. They’re not prepared for it.”
Against Northwestern on March 10, Mendes did it all. She hit a single, scored a run, fielded a fly ball in center field and struck out two batters over the span of three innings, a sequence that reflects her variety of talents and potential.
“The hardest thing for her to do is balance everything that she does,” Rocha said. “It takes a special person to hit, pitch, play defense and do them all effectively, and she works hard at it.”
At the plate, Mendes is batting .363 and has a slug percentage of .578. According to her, having the experience of being a pitcher serves as an advantage when she stands in the batter’s box.
“It definitely helps me up at the plate,” Mendes said. “I feel like I kind of have a pitcher’s mindset whenever I’m hitting, and I feel like that gives me an edge on what pitches are coming.”
As Mendes continues to grow and embrace her roles on the mound and in the field, her teammates are confident that she can handle her load wherever she's placed.
“It’s just cool seeing her from freshman year to now, just the development,” senior Falepolima Aviu said. “Stepping up in big-time moments, making great plays, and then being able to go from the outfield to the pitching circle and getting her job done in there. Just knowing that she’s a hard enough worker that she’s going to get her job done wherever she’s at on the field.”
Not done yet.
As the Sooners continue to rewrite the record books and march toward a potential run in the Women's College World Series, they'll need Mendes and Elam to maintain the high level of play they've delivered all season, especially during the NCAA Tournament this weekend.
The Sooners will begin NCAA Tournament play Friday at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, May 17 at Marita Hynes Field with a match against UMBC. In the same regional, Notre Dame and Wisconsin go head-to-head at 7 p.m.
