Kinzie Hansen is ready, OU is ready, time for the Red River Rivalry

Oh no, not again, not one more time for OU senior Kinzie Hansen. She thought it. Maybe head coach Patty Gasso did, too. Fans certainly did.

The last thing anybody wanted to hear about Hansen was there was some sort of knee injury. Everybody remembers the 2022 version of Hansen. The one who wanted to still be great, but she just didn’t have it in her.

So when you hear the words tweak with knee, you hope for the best but know it might not always work out.

Even Hansen can admit it.

“When it did happen, I was a little bit scared,” Hansen said. “It is my last year. So initially, the fear was the first response. But I’m a lot more mature than I was back then. So it was a lot easier for me to just take it as it comes, you know, going day by day, we’re just stacking good days trying to be back 100% as quickly as I can, but also allowing it to heal so that I’m ready for this coming weekend and in the future.”

This weekend? Oh yea, it’s Texas weekend. It’s the final Red River Rivalry in the Big 12. It’s No. 1 OU vs. No. 4 UT. Two of the top five in the country.

Yea, you work your way to get back. Hansen and Gasso targeted this series for when Hansen could return to action for OU. They did it in a smart way. Even if Hansen was super frustrated being on the bench the last two weeks, never did anything to put this weekend in jeopardy. 

“I mean this is the Red River Rivalry. I was going to be ready regardless of whether I was healthy or not. So I think that just the challenge for us, every year, it doesn’t matter who’s ranked what,” Hansen said. “It’s always a great game. It doesn’t matter, ever.

“I’m just really excited for the energy and the atmosphere because we will see them down the road as well. They are a top-ranked team. They’re either going to be at the World Series or we’ll see them down the road in postseason so just really excited to see what this weekend looks like.”

It was just one inning, but Hansen was back behind the plate last weekend for OU’s win at Kansas. It’s clearly not a massive deal, but that might have let everybody know don’t worry about this weekend.

“Catching for me is like riding a bike,” Hansen said. “It was just really good to get suited back up there and get comfortable again. I felt like I was getting some oil in my joints that inning. It was nice to be moving around again. Definitely been working hard the last couple of weeks.”

Ludlam’s OU emergence

If there was one silver lining about Hansen’s injury, it is clearly that you know what you have with Riley Ludlam.

She’s not just a depth piece. Ludlam can be a factor. She can be a player when it matters most. And is even finding her voice.

“Just a very much a team player. Very excited to get the opportunity,” Gasso said. “The feeling I get from her is, ‘I’m not going to let this team down,’ and she had some very timely at bats. She handled her position in the lineup pretty well, turned a lot of those into walks also. Just kept all the balls in front. Did a really nice job of keeping the ball in front there. I don’t remember a ball by her, past her.

“She’s a little bit shy. Catchers cannot be that. Kinzie Hanson, that’s the reason why she is a catcher. So she really started to be a little more vocal. We talked a lot about that if you’re the captain and leader of the infield, you must communicate, you must talk. And with the outfielders as well. They’ve got to hear your message, messaging through our infield. Like she says it, our infield says it to them. So she’s not a big vocal, but I said, ‘I want you to have another ego when you’re on this field and let it out. ‘ And she’s been doing that.”

Hansen and Ludlam have developed a great bond. You don’t know if that will always be the case when they’re both super seniors. But no in-fighting at all.

Ludlam has wanted to learn from Hansen, and Hansen has been ready to pour into Ludlam all the knowledge.

“The amount of questions that she asked me from when she got here to now, I couldn’t even tell you how many there was,” Hansen said. “She was just like a sponge. Everything that I had to teach her, she wanted to learn, and I think that coming from another fifth year to another fifth year, that mentality is very, very rare.

“And I think that it just goes to show how eager she was to learn and just to be in this program. I was really excited just to share with her everything that I knew and she’s worked very, very hard and definitely has shown the past few weeks.”

Final word

“I feel like they are starting to feel — the bigness of the season is showing up right now, and they get that. So they want to be at their best. All of them do. Jayda leads the way. She’s a leader-by-example at the plate. Tiare’s swinging really well. Brito always is swinging well. They were just very timely, very clutch, and that’s what you’re gonna have to have when you go to Texas. You’ve gotta have all parts of your game working.” – Gasso