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Best of Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso: Big 12 tournament week

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•05/11/23•

BPrzybylo

Patty Gasso
Brian Bahr / Contributor PhotoG/Getty

Oklahoma softball has reached the next step in the season with the Big 12 tournament this weekend in Oklahoma City.

USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium can be a second home for the Sooners. Head coach Patty Gasso had a 25-minute press conference Wednesday evening breaking everything down.

No. 1 Oklahoma (49-1 overall, 18-0 Big 12) has a bye for the first day of the tournament and is riding a 41-game winning streak into Friday’s game vs. the Iowa State-Baylor winner.

Here is the best of the best from that session:

Is there a health update for Kinzie Hansen? Will she be available this weekend?

We’re just really taking it slow there. Trying to give her rest and certainly don’t want to use her unnecessarily or even in practice. Don’t want to hurt anything more. It feels good. She took swings today. It’s a good start.

How huge was last Saturday’s Bedlam performance for Oklahoma freshman pitcher Kierston Deal?

I think that was a game-changer for us. To see her go in, she doesn’t get a lot of opportunities, but we all remember the first game she threw a few innings. It was deer in the headlights. She was very awkward and uncomfortable on the mound. You could see that. To see how far she’s come is what everybody was really – she captured our hearts. Watching her settle in, have command. Watching her pointing around the infield like she’s done it a million times. To get us out of that big inning was a big celebration. I think that really got things started for us.

At 49-1 overall, where can you still be better?

There’s always something. I think short game needs to be better. I don’t use it a lot, but when I do, it’s important. I don’t know if anybody paid attention, but the celebration when Grace Lyons got a bunt, (she) laid it down and beat it out, I thought, they weren’t quite ready for it. Those type of elements, the angle down, hit-and-runs, those things, we can execute them. We had a few stolen bases on run-and-hits. I don’t want to be a team that’s just long ball, long ball, because we can’t live off of that. Especially in Oklahoma, the wind moves. Your gameplanning can be changed completely due to the wind and weather.
All phases are really good. I think just confidence — this team, these players are really hard on themselves. They need to give themselves a little more grace and understanding that you’re not going to get a hit every at-bat but their expectations are through the roof.

This is what you’ve been talking about all season, this time of year. Feel like the team is ready?

I’ll tell you this — they live for what’s coming. They get through 50 games and lose one, and it’s just, ‘Alright.’ But they live for what’s coming, and they’ll tell you that in August. They’ve had to wait a long time to get here, and their energy will be ready. I mean, they’re amped. They love this time of the season.

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