Patty Gasso raves about Jordy Bahl's confidence during NCAA Tournament game vs Missouri

In just two years at Oklahoma, Jordy Bahl has lived up to the billing. She was an All-American as a freshman and the NFCA National Freshman of the Year in 2022, and she’s carried that success over to 2023.

She also brings a level of confidence to the circle, one that has a ripple effect on the rest of the roster. Patty Gasso didn’t take any of the credit for developing that mentality, though.

“She came here like that,” Gasso said on the ESPN+ broadcast during Saturday’s game against Missouri. “It’s not like she developed it when she got here. Just really, an absolute competitor and today, really, complete control, a lot of good mixing of pitches. Just very confident, and she kind of bleeds that into our team.”

Bahl has put together an impressive sophomore season for Oklahoma as the Sooners put together a loaded pitching staff. She entered play Saturday with a 15-1 record and a 1.15 ERA to go with 10 complete games, five saves and a team-high 143 strikeouts. She got the start in the circle Saturday in the second game of the Norman Regional and continued her impressive stretch with 5.0 innings of one-hit ball against Mizzou en route to yet another run-rule win.

Patty Gasso discusses lineup changes made against Missouri

Oklahoma came out with a new look in its lineup Saturday, notably with Kinzie Hansen jumping up to the cleanup spot. That decision worked out well as she hit a two-run home run to put the Sooners up 5-0 in the top of the third inning.

There were a few factors that went into that move, according to Gasso, but it mostly came down to who Missouri was going to throw in the game. That’s when it came down to the numbers and anticipating who could do the best against Laurin Krings.

“Matchups and the pitcher that we believe we’re going to face, who has better numbers off of,” Gasso said of what goes into lineup changes. “It’s more of just seeing what fits our hitters to who’s on the mound, so we have a few different lineups and we’re ready to use whatever we need.”

Oklahoma entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed in the nation amid a red-hot 2023 season. The Sooners have only lost one game this year entering the double-elimination regional round, and they’ve already gotten to work in their two-time title defense. Oklahoma started the tournament Friday night with a resounding, run-rule victory over Hofstra to set up the game against Missouri.