Sooners off to slow start
Defending national champion Oklahoma has started the season with a 2-2 record, but the Sooners have not lost any faith in themselves or in their goals.
To stay focused following a disappointing seasonopening tournament, the Oklahoma softball team borrowed the mantra of a rather notable Sooner alum. Trust the process. That phrase, of course, was made famous by former Philadelphia 76ers General Manager and President Sam Hinkie, who graduated from Oklahoma long before he took the reins of the 76ers.
After starting the season 2-2, the No. 6-ranked Sooners aren’t losing any faith in themselves or in their goals for the remainder of the season.
Instead, the team is clinging to the threeword phrase as it enters the Rawlings Classic Tournament in Houston.
“I think with every tournament, we have a certain expectation and would’ve liked to see us come out of there 4-0 or 3-1, so to come out 2-2, we were a little disappointed. But coming out of there, we walked away with knowledge and some things we needed to adjust,” associate head coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “I thought these last two days we’ve had really good practices from the things that we’ve learned from the past weekend. We can tell that they’re ready to go this weekend.
“There’s a couple physical things that we needed to do at the plate or when we were on the mound or on defense, but I think that the main thing is just trusting our process more than anything, just relaxing and trusting our process. I think we ended up putting too much pressure on ourselves.”
That pressure likely stemmed from team’s first preseason No. 1 ranking in program history, earned partially from last season’s national championship. The Sooners returned the bulk of that squad, including ace Paige Parker, and added former Missouri standout pitcher Paige Lowary to its rotation.
Even with seven returning starters, the Sooners struggled in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. With the 3-2 loss to No. 2 Auburn in the seasonopening game, a rematch of the 2016 national championship, and the shutout pitched by thenNo. 13 Washington, the trip to Mexico didn’t go exactly as the Sooners had hoped.
With the two defeats — including the first shutout since the 2016 opener — OU dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 in the ESPN. com/USA Softball poll.
But it’s not panic time in Norman, nowhere near that. Instead, the Sooners are trusting in the process laid out by Hinkie and head coach Patty Gasso, in her 23rd year at the helm of the program.
“There’s not a right way or a wrong way to start, it’s just trusting the process,” junior shortstop said Kelsey Arnold, reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. “You’ve got to go through it every year.”