Gasso says SEC softball schedule will help Sooners
NORMAN — OU’s impending move to the SEC doesn’t affect football alone.
Sooners softball figures to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the switch, which will take place in the fall of 2024.
The Sooners will play in the Big 12 this season and next before making the switch.
OU coach Patty Gasso talked Wednesday about the effects of that move and more ahead of the Sooners’ weekend at the Getterman Classic in Waco, Texas.
The Sooners improved to 6-0 on the season Friday with a 10-0 win over Longwood. OU faces Stephen F. Austin at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Army at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Baylor at noon Sunday.
What was your reaction to the SEC timeline announcement, especially as it relates to scheduling? Patty Gasso: Scheduling has always
been difficult for us being in the Big 12, specifically as teams were dropping softball. … So it’s always having to go out and find heavy-hitting tournaments and bolstering our RPI. Then we get pretty good and people don’t want to play us. And it’s costing us a lot of money to create a lineup that is seen as a tough schedule, create a schedule that looks tough. That means we’re chartering flights or taking planes to LSU, to Mississippi State, to the east — Ohio, places like that — just to get good competition in some of these tournaments or single games. Going into the SEC, I can wipe my hands of that. I don’t have to beg. I don’t have to pay. I don’t have to do those things anymore. But I’m excited. The competition there is going to be tough. It’s going to be a grind. It’s day-in and day-out, all throughout. It is a very, very competitive softball conference. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my time in the Big 12, but I’m certainly ready to take that next step.
What were your thoughts on the first weekend, going 5-0 and outscoring your opponents 29-5?
We had a lot of nerves. I don’t know if it was just newcomers. It almost felt like throughout the lineup. I don’t know if it was expectations. We talked about it. It was taking the bats away from us. When you’re nervous, your head isn’t set right. You swing at things out of the zone. You are swinging at bad twostrike pitches. I thought nerves definitely were there. The fist two games on Thursday, we were not ourselves. We were not. And we were lucky to get out of there with two wins. The response on Friday was fantastic. I thought they played really well. The response on Saturday was fantastic, although our pitchers were tight. Nine walks, two hit batters and two errors and we still beat Washington. That’s a sign of a good team. We didn’t play clean. And Sunday’s effort was weak, and I was really not happy about that. I would rather feel the way I do right now than to walk out going, ‘Oh, that was great.’ Our expectations and our standards are quite high, and they know that. They know they were lucky to walk out of there with five wins. This weekend, we’re looking forward to getting things straightened out.
When do you expect catcher Kinzie Hansen back after she underwent surgery on her appendix recently?
She won’t be back this weekend. I will not have her in games yet. She’s not quite ready for that.
How did you think the catchers, Sophia Nugent and Haley Lee, performed last weekend without Hansen?
I thought our catchers were outstanding, both of them. Sophia really hasn’t gotten a lot of time. Now as a sophomore, stepping in right away, handled herself really well, handled the pitchers really well. It’s funny because Haley Lee is such a chill, kind of freeliving type of athlete. Sometimes I get aggravated because at practice it’s not 100%. It’s just enough to get it done. But to see her in a game, though, it looked completely different. She was hustling. I was like, ‘Wow, I haven’t seen you look like that before.’ I thought she was poised as well. I think they both handled the pitchers (well).