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Patty Gasso says OU freshman pitcher 'went back home'

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•05/06/25•

BPrzybylo

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(Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

You never know what’s going to happen with a reclassification, and this one might not work out for OU softball. We shall see.

For every Jeremiah Fears, who was sensational for OU basketball, there is a Davon Mitchell, who never fit in and hit the portal after one season with football.

Head coach Patty Gasso never intended to use pitcher Sophia Bordi during the 2025 season. However, the goal was for Bordi to learn and absorb everything and get a leg up on the rest of the competition for fall ball and beyond.

Turns out, though, that did not happen.

“Well, she’s not here on campus,” said Gasso when asked by SoonerScoop on Tuesday. “She went back home. And that’s something that I don’t have the privilege to talk about. It’s more of a personal situation. So she did not finish the season out with us.”

It remains to be seen where things go from here. But in the preseason press conference, Gasso laid out the plans of what OU was attempting to do with Bordi.

“And so she’s just trying to learn the system. The goal was to get her to be able to throw some BP against us, to get in with Coach Rocha. Listen, learn, get strong in the weight room,” Gasso said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that we’re looking for, is that she gains strength. If we had an emergency, break the glass, bring in Sophia. That’s the only way we would ever do it.  I do want to maintain her redshirt unless we absolutely need her. But I think it’s great. I’m really excited about what her (progress). She’s going to be so ahead of her normal class that’s coming in next year. Think she could lead them, guide them with her experience as well.”

This didn’t sound like something that would go sideways, especially when Gasso dove in more about the situation in February.

“She had already — we didn’t even talk about this. She did graduate, actually, in, I think, June already. A year in advance. I didn’t even know it. I’m not normally looking for that. She told me that she was gonna go in the spring and live in California and train with her travel ball team and get a job. And I’m like, ‘What if we could get you in here?’ 

“I talked to her mother, who was just an elite — I think she might’ve been an Olympian, but she was an All-American at Texas (as a) swimmer. She knows about college athletics. And I said, we could do this. Ann they were all in. It made more sense for each party. And what she’s gonna develop, she’s gonna have such a major head start and I foresee her being one of our elite pitchers in the future.”

OU begins its run in the SEC Tournament at 10 a.m. Thursday, against either LSU or Mississippi State. The Sooners are the No. 1 seed and won the regular season championship.

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