Patty Gasso reflects on Oklahoma's growth from beginning of season to Women's College World Series

The Oklahoma softball team has reached the Women’s College World Series championship series as an absolutely remarkable run winds down. The Sooners have won an NCAA record 51 straight contests heading into the finale.

But it wasn’t always clear that Oklahoma was going to be this dominant.

In fact, coach Patty Gasso was asked what she remembered from just before the season started, with the team set to head to a tournament out in California.

“‘What’s wrong, you guys? What’s going on?'” Gasso said. “I think our first weekend there were just a lot of big eyes.”

If Oklahoma had big eyes to start, they’ve shrunk considerably over the course of the season. Now it appears the Sooners have laser-like focus on the task at hand: becoming just the second team in NCAA history to three-peat.

Again, though, it wasn’t always like that. Certainly not back on that first weekend.

“So we won. We played OK. But there was just — the groove was different because we had always been playing against each other, and now we’re all in one dugout, and it’s just different,” Gasso recalled. “Like I guess we should have practiced all being in one dugout and what it felt like.

“So it was not what I expected. I think they would tell you, if you look back, we got through some games, but we were not even close to being — we were close to being ready, but we weren’t, I would say our first weekend, completely ready.”

The Sooners have been dominant for the better part of three months now. And they’ve won in all manners, from blowouts and run rules to riveting last-strike rallies like against Clemson at the Women’s College World Series.

Through it all, Gasso has been urging her team to always remember the lessons along the way.

“We can look back and learn. We learned a lot of things,” Gasso said. “I had to learn a lot about them. They had to learn a lot about who’s playing next to them because, when we’re in those Battle Series or whenever I’m doing practice, a lot of times the full starting infield is not together. They’re split in half.”

Oklahoma is pretty close to a finished product at this point. The team has already forever etched its place in the record books.

The only question now is whether a national title will be the end result at the Women’s College World Series.

That was a goal when the year began, but it probably didn’t feel quite as achievable as it does right now, just two wins over Florida State away.

“I felt a little bit of, wow, this is newer,” Gasso said. “You feel a lot of newness on this team, but again, you just need time to allow these upperclassmen to lead them in a way they know this whole championship mindset process is supposed to look like.”

Sure seems like the Sooners have figured it out.