The 2008 team was mentioned above, with the dominating Mel Gibson pitching a lot that year. That year was the only time I have been to a World Series. I went to all of the Aggie games as well as those of Louisiana. She threw 302.1 innings that year whilst Rhiannon Kliesing threw 110.1.
Kliesing did come in for Gibson in the loss to Florida, about the 4th or 5th inning, in the WCWS. Other than that Mel Gibson pitched every inning in OKC that year. Unfortunately, ASU shut us out both games in the championship series to take the title. The last game, where they scored a bunch of runs at the end of the game, was truly heartbreaking, to put it mildly.
We also relied heavily on Mel Dumezich, Samantha Show and a couple of others over the years (until Lefty last year) but I think Gibson and Dumezich were the last two really, really dominating pitchers we have had, with waaaay more strikeouts than walks. I have been hoping for years that we would get one like that again. As I have said before, don't get me wrong - Lefty is great, for sure. One of our best pitchers all time. But usually gives up a lot of walks. About a 2-1 strikeout/walk ratio. Gibson was about 5-1. Some of the really awesome pitchers the past 10 years or so (other teams) have been in the 8-1 range and above. Teams with pitchers like that are in OKC regularly. But it's the ones with outstanding hitting to go with that pitching who win it all consistently.
Lessentine 'could be' one of those with a great ratio but we have not seen her enough to know. After she gets some SEC experience and pitches against some great hitting teams in the future we will find out. I think freshman Taylor Brown (redshirted) is possibly one of them. Maybe our next Mel Gibson. We will have to wait and see on her, too. We HAVE signed some pitchers over the years that were outstanding in HS, really awesome numbers, but bombed in college. Always the possibility.
I recall thinking many times over the Summer and Fall that we would not have to rely on Lefty so much this year with such a large staff. We did not have to in non-conference. If our hitting becomes more consistent we might not have to in the near future. But the coaching staff will use who they have to to win games. If that means pitching Lefty a lot so be it.