Kinzie Hansen calls Oklahoma's early hitting success 'extremely contagious'

The Oklahoma Sooners got the bats going in their win over the Texas Longhorns in the first game of the Women’s College World Series Final. That’s something that star catcher Kinzie Hansen attributes to being contagious.

It started early in the win, with the Sooners grabbing a pair of runs in the first inning when Tiare Jennings opened up the scoring with a two-run home run. From there, the Sooners ran out and were able to put up eight runs in the win.

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“It’s extremely contagious,” Kinzie Hansen said.” We obviously didn’t hit our best the last couple days, I would say, against Florida. Tiare came out, she threw the first punch of the game. She hit that bomb. We were super stoked for her.”

Oklahoma went on to score three more runs in the third and one run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings respectively. Kinzie Hansen was no small part of that, either, hitting a two-run home run of her own in the third inning to help pull away.

Of course, it’s not a surprise that Hansen would make a big offensive play. It’s what she’s been doing for four seasons now and all throughout the 2024 season. She has a .409 batting average for the season with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs. She has an OBP of .438 and a slugging percentage of .759. Still, despite those massive numbers, they’re still not the best she’s put together in a single season.

“We just kept passing the bat. We are constantly giving each other confidence and encouragement throughout every sim pitch, inning. That’s what takes all the pressure off of us, is just the confidence in one another, being able to trust each other. Not one pitcher or one player is going to get the job done for us today, tomorrow, or any moment going forward,” Hansen said.

“It’s just been super fun. We’ve been working really, really hard these past few weeks before coming. We knew this moment was going to come. We’ve prepared for it, and it’s definitely showing.”

At one point in the Women’s College World Series, Oklahoma only scored one run in the win over UCLA and followed that up with a loss to Florida where the Sooners only scored three times. Now, after scoring 14 runs in their last two games, the Sooners are one win away from a fourth straight national championship.