Target on the back more than ever for OU softball

What in the world can OU softball do for an encore in 2024? Not to get into hyperbole, but seriously, how do you follow anything after 2023?

One of the many challenges for the Sooners as the season gets going Thursday morning in Mexico. With each year, each national championship, that target gets bigger and bigger.

It’s never been bigger than it is right now as the three-time defending national champions. Repeat is out the window, three-peat has come and gone. Four? In this day and age, this era of parity and the transfer portal?

“We just want to keep running forward and keep raising the OU flag and keep being the team everybody is trying to get,” said head coach Patty Gasso on Monday. “They’ve embraced that. That’s a tough place to be. We were always the team that even though we were not underdogs, I could talk them into the fact. Now I can’t do that anymore.

“They understand where they stand. But they are ready to fire back, fire first is the attitude. They’re ready. This is going to be a tough one. It’s going to be a really tough season for us. I feel that coming, so I’m able to see what kind of women rise from the ashes here. That’s going to be the most important thing.”

The college softball world was ready for the come down. A 61-1 record that included the title and an ongoing 53-game winning streak is how 2023 concluded. But then came the news of star pitcher Jordy Bahl transferring, going back home to Nebraska.

So vital to OU going undefeated in the Women’s College World Series, finally, some relief. And then all Gasso and OU did was land former Oklahoma State star pitcher Kelly Maxwell from the portal.

The train keeps going down the tracks, sorry not sorry.

Unanimous No. 1 in all the preseason polls. One elite player after another making players to watch lists. Four in a row isn’t the goal, but it sure as heck could be the outcome.

“I don’t really have expectations,” senior Jayda Coleman said. “Not saying, ‘Oh, we need to win a national championship’ or ‘Oh, we need to win this certain amount of games.’ I feel like for me the expectation is that we just continue to play above the standard and play Oklahoma softball.

“For me, I just wanna have a joyful season, and I feel like we don’t really need to change anything that we’re doing. Just continue to teach to the younger group, and just kind of let them know the knowledge that we know, and just pass it down.”

Passing it down is something Coleman has absolutely done. She’s among the Core 5 or whatever nickname you want to give them, as they gun for another national championship.

It’s what Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen, Rylie Boone, Nicole May and Coleman know – one ring after another.

The final season in the Big 12. The opening of brand-new Love’s Field (March 1). Who knows what number that winning streak is going to get to? Each win will see that record grow and grow.

Pressure, expectations, but special. Incredibly special.

“The expectation – winning four in a row is unheard of,” Gasso said. “Unheard of. You can’t even wrap your mind around it. Even winning three. For them, they want to be a team that did something that maybe nobody in maybe my lifetime will ever do on a softball field again.

“That is something special. They like to be able to chase those moments. We have to do it without thinking of outcome and results. We have to do it in a free manner, which is when they’re at their best.”

Every team is different, even if some of the nucleus returns. You don’t have that heart and soul of a Grace Lyons. It’s a different type of collective leadership.

You might not have that one dominant, star pitcher. Instead, it’ll be Gasso more than willing to use all six arms at different points to keep them fresh and have them all with confidence.

The culture, the standard is there at OU. It’s about putting the pieces in the place at the right time. Nobody does it better than Gasso.

“Half our team are returners and the other half are newcomers so it’s trying to really blend them and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that,” Gasso said. “I’ve just got to get the nerves calm, got to get them to have fun. Got to get leaders to lead and that’s the upperclassmen. I’ve got to count on them.

“I’ve got to get a team that’s playing as a team and not as individuals and when the lineup is written out that they’re not having tantrums and pouting over that. That they’re just adults, that they’re women, playing like women, acting like women. And if we can do that, we’re going to win a lot of games. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”

Well, it’s here. Let the fun begin.