OU softball rounding into form, heads to Alabama

It takes a lot to get OU softball head coach Patty Gasso fired up. She has seen just about any and everything there is in the game. And with the Sooners, specifically.

So when she came in after Bedlam and the 11-3 victory against Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City, you could see the joy on her face and in her words.

A lot of those players hadn’t stepped foot at Devon Park. They needed that environment. And trailing 3-0 was one heck of a way to introduce them to what that life can be like.

OU responded, obviously, getting a two-run home run from Kasidi Pickering and a game-changing three-run shot from Maya Bland in the bottom of the fourth.

Emotional, record-setting (9,259 fans) night. But the job isn’t done. The week doesn’t just finish with a win against Oklahoma State.

Now the Sooners go to Alabama. The Crimson Tide haven’t been as strong this season, but still, you’re going to Tuscaloosa for the three-game set (3 p.m. Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday, 6 p.m. Monday).

And if you think OU might be a little drained from Bedlam? Well, Gasso answered that emphatically after the game.

“No. I’m so fired up about this because I think that’s what we needed,” Gasso told SoonerScoop. “This team has got really incredible culture around it. Good culture means you’re rooting for each other. This is the best time I’ve seen them have in a game. And they were determined. And the experience is just phenomenal. The experience is more than anything we could imagine.

“Because I see us going in and saying, let’s go. I think this is the best game comeback and just overall game that we played once we started settling down. So I think everybody feels really good about what we did. And I think we’ll have that. We’re going to bring that. We need to.”

OU getting healthy

The second-ranked Sooners are rounding into form and getting healthy at the right time. No more questions surrounding sophomore star Ella Parker or freshman pitcher Audrey Lowry.

Parker is slowly (and loudly) reintroducing herself to the softball world. Lowry, meanwhile, got those innings in last week and showed she’s good to go.

“Huge,” Gasso told SoonerScoop about Lowry. “We weren’t sure when this was going to heal and we really did a good and patient job of keeping her in a corner and letting this heal. There were many times certainly when we would want to bring her in but she wasn’t ready and it wouldn’t make sense.

“She feels really good. She’s throwing well. We need that extra arm right now just for, just for comfort levels and having more options of lefty-righty and so forth. So it’s huge. We really, really need this from her.”

A change in shoes and a change in fortunes for Parker. Going back to the grand slam last Friday, she has looked different. The rest doing her good. Learning how to deal with the pain.

She was a big part of the Bedlam rout, driving in a couple of runs and hitting the ball hard. 

“I don’t know that any of us know what exactly she’s going through. I mean she holds it back,” Gasso said. “She doesn’t show it and it definitely mess with your psyche and I think it was for a little bit. But things are changing. I can feel that in her and her confidence and her swings are strong and I’m so happy for her because she’s been really battling this and I think she might be coming out of this now.”