Riley Ludlam enjoying OU softball journey

You ask the rest of the country, and OU softball doesn’t need any luck. Isn’t it about time to spread it around the rest of the softball world?

But sometimes when you’re so good, the good luck comes your way. It sure does feel like head coach Patty Gasso has found another vital transfer in Riley Ludlam.

The Sooners knew they needed a catcher. But it’s not like Gasso and the staff knew about Ludlam at Furman. Far from it.

Spend a little time to research, though, and Gasso started to see it coming together.

“This is the 100% truth,” said Gasso earlier this week. “I had never heard that name before in my life. We started scanning and looking for catchers in the portal, and we saw her name. We tried to pull up video and (we’re) looking and looking. Pulled up her video, her offensive numbers were pretty good. She was a team captain.”

During Ludlam’s senior season last year, she hit .372 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs. She also had a .988 fielding percentage, showing she should fit in just fine with the three-time defending national champions.

Fit in fine, as long as she actually believed it was Gasso making the call. That certainly wasn’t the case, at least initially.

“It was a random Tuesday night like at 9:30. I got a phone call from a phone number I didn’t recognize,” Ludlam said. “Thank goodness I picked it up. I heard her speak. She was like, hello, I’m Patty Gasso and it was the absolute last thing I was expecting.

“I had a really great conversation with her. We talked a lot about softball and talked a lot about my life outside of softball. I really appreciated her getting to know me In that aspect. Then I was here on Friday, really quick turnaround. Really awesome that it all ended up happening that way.”

It did happen that fast, and Ludlam has found her niche. And what she has proven in the first two weeks of the season is that Gasso is going to be able to trust her.

Never was that more apparent than in the extra-inning win against Washington where Ludlam came up huge for the game-tying RBI. With a little help from JT Gasso along the way.

“We had a little meeting before where I could do some breathing and get my heartrate to slow down a bit,” Ludlam said. “Honestly, going up to the box, it was I have nothing to lose. I’m going to go up there and take hacks. After the second pitch I fouled off, I felt like I was seeing the ball well. I was just going all out.”

All out is a great way to describe it because that’s how Gasso explained what she wanted for Ludlam. Don’t hold anything back. Enjoy this final season and do whatever you can do.

“She wanted to turn me into the best player I can possibly be in my last year,” Ludlam said. “What a way to go out with this team. But knowing she was invested in me as a player like that. Her confidence in saying I want you to go all out when you get here and have no regrets about your career. Do the best you can and be the best player you can be.”

It really was Gasso calling, and the rest might be history. And a program, on a 62-game winning streak, that doesn’t need any luck might have lucked into one of the more under the radar transfer additions.

“Just the hardest-working, humble, hard-working,” Gasso said. “She gets big moments and she’s free as a bird. Not caught up. She just wants to hit the ball hard. She’s keeping it really simple and a great example to our team what it looks like. So it’s a really great success story because we didn’t have a lot of options or a lot of great information on her. Turned out, we hit the jackpot.”

Time for Mary Nutter

The OU draw for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in California, on paper, isn’t the toughest. But still, you tend to learn a lot about your team at this event.

Game 1: OU vs. No. 20/25 Mississippi State – 7:30 Friday
Game 2: OU vs. Wisconsin – 10 p.m. Friday
Game 3: OU vs. San Diego State – 2:30 Saturday
Game 4: OU vs. Seattle – 11 a.m. Sunday
Game 5: OU vs. Loyola Marymount – 1:30 p.m. Sunday

“It’s funny because I’m looking at their faces in the circle and I’m looking at them remembering when they had committed to us and they’re out there,” Gasso said. “And they’re watching the games and they’re like seniors but they look like little kids. Like, ‘Oh Coach Gasso I can’t wait to be here next year.’ And now here they are and they’re like, ‘Oh gosh, okay.’ It’s going to – it’s chaos out there. It is just people everywhere. We try to get — we bring administrators to move us around. We bring security to move us around because you have to walk through crowds to get there.

“So it’s going to be quite different for a lot of these athletes that were on the other side sitting it the stands watching. Now you’re in the middle and this is like their dream come true. Because it’s a California player’s dream. This is Mary Nutter. It’s the premier tournament. And as bad as the fields are they don’t care. They want to play in front of their family and their friends and that’s what they grew up on. So it’s a big deal to them.”

All games can be watched on FloSoftball.com.