Miali Guachino Coming on Strong for Oklahoma as it Prepares to Enter Critical Stretch

NORMAN — On the fourth pitch of Friday’s game, Miali Guachino surrendered a home run to right.

Guachino took a deep breath, flushed the homer out of her system and went to work.

Oklahoma ultimately grabbed the lead in the bottom half of the inning and went on to a 9-1 win over Kentucky in five innings Friday to clinch the series.

Guachino’s performance might not’ve been pivotal in what turned out to be a run rule, but it was important.

The sophomore transfer from Ole Miss continued her recent surge, retiring the next nine hitters she faced, striking out three and moving to 11-0 with four innings of work.

“She’ll get some strikeouts for sure but what I love more than anything else on this stat line is no walks,” Sooners coach Patty Gasso said. “Because walks really turn into runs. If you keep them off base and let the defense play, you’re going to win a lot of games.”

Guachino kept the Wildcats off balance, initiating plenty of soft contact.

After Carly Sleeman’s leadoff homer, Kentucky didn’t get another ball out of the infield until the second out of the third.

“I was feeling great, honestly,” Guachino said. “Just trying to come in and get outs for the team so they can do what they do, hit and score a lot of runs. Just changing speeds was working today, keeping them off balance so they didn’t know what was coming next, attacking the zone early, getting them to have the weak popups.”

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The reset breath has become a regular in Guachino’s toolbox.

“Just forgetting about the last pitch and not getting caught up in what happened before, the breath really helps me just letting it all out basically, I do it every time, every pitch — or before every inning just to reset basically.”

After a bit of rough start to SEC play, where she allowed five runs in four innings against Auburn, Guachino has settled into somewhat of a groove.

She pitched four innings against Ole Miss to earn the win, finished off the Sooners’ series-opening win over LSU and then came back to throw a complete game in the finale, allowing four runs but striking out 11 with just three walks and seven hits.

That performance, even though the numbers were dominant, was an important one for Guachino as the Sooners continue to solidify their pitching staff after a rough start.

“I think it’s great, especially coming up on these games where we’re facing top-10 opponents,” Guachino said. “Knowing that, run rules are good, but we’re probably going to go seven innings with them, especially with their pitching. Just knowing that I can do that, especially in this part of the season and with the weather that was there, it was just good to get that in.”

With series coming up against No. 1 Texas, No. 9 Arkansas, No. 15 Georgia and No. 16 Texas A&M, Guachino figures to continue to be a central figure in determining just how successful the Sooners can be.

Oklahoma Sooners, Miali Guachino — Oklahoma pitcher Miali Guachino talks with pitching coach Jennifer Rocha between innings against Kentucky at Love's Field. | Ryan Chapman / Sooners on SI