Patty Gasso reveals best moment of season from Jordy Bahl

Oklahoma sophomore pitcher Jordy Bahl has followed up a dominant freshman campaign in 2022 with an excellent 2023 regular season. Her head coach, Patty Gasso, noted that Bahl is playing freer as she gets further away from an injury that cost her most of the 2022 postseason.

And reflecting back on the 2022 postseason and Bahl’s injury, Gasso thinks an outing at the tail end of the postseason was key for the pitcher. Getting to pitch in the College World Series helped Bahl get right mentally going into the offseason, Gasso thinks.

“She’s got a different kind of freedom. I think the injury was really devastating for her. Her whole life, she’s been waiting for that big moment and she wasn’t present. Not really — it hurt her,” Gasso said recently. “She felt that because of that, she hurt the team and we wanted to show her it’s out of your control and just kind of play free and try to do it for her. And I think one of the best moments of the season, to me, was seeing her — although she was maybe 40 percent — pitching in the national championship game.”

Bahl was dominant in the circle as a freshman. She posted a 22-1 record, a 1.09 ERA — sixth best in the country — and was the national freshman of the year. She led the Sooners in innings pitched as they rolled to a No. 1 national seed.

But a forearm injury that cropped up around the conference tournament sidelined Bahl. It was affecting the pitcher to the point that “there was a time when she couldn’t lift her arm,” Gasso said then.

Bahl missed most of the postseason but after the Sooners topped rival Texas in game one of the national championship series, Gasso turned to Bahl for the start. Even pitching at half strength, as Gasso noted, Bahl got the win after four innings of work and two earned runs surrendered as the Sooners won the national championship.

“And that was one, to reward her if she wanted it. And two, give her the experience of being on the mound was important,” Gasso said.

Now the Sooners are back in the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 overall seed and chasing a three-peat — something that hasn’t happened since the end of the 1980s. Bahl has been similarly effective, albeit chewing through less innings.

She made 30 appearances and has a 15-1 record from the circle and a 1.15 ERA. Bahl has also expanded her game in the batters box, hitting .406 in 32 at bats, a stark increase from her .125 average in eight at bats as a freshman.

With Bahl healthy and free, the Sooners have yet another top-shelf player to chase a bit of NCAA softball history this postseason.

“So, now I just feel like she’s over that. She’s free, and she’s enjoying it and she’s helping us in other ways. She was running bases in the Big 12 championship game, really well. Had a hit, had a hit and run on, she executed it really well. So she’s just, a lot more mature and a lot more relaxed,” Gasso said.