Sooners battle through emotional day, sweep both opponents at Love's Field
NORMAN — Friday was a historic, monumental day for the Sooners' softball program. In front of nearly 4,500 fans, the Sooners played their first games at Love's Field.
But Patty Gasso knew it was going to be an incredibly emotional day. On Thursday, all of the emotions came out as the team glanced through their new stadium in preparation for this weekend's OU Tournament.
Those emotions continued through the dedication ceremony on Friday morning, which included public remarks from Gasso and team co-captains Kinzie Hansen and Tiare Jennings.
"I was looking up at the lights on the stadium and it was just a wow moment," Gasso said. "And I took that moment to make that happen, I started to feel a little bit during all the pageantry of the morning, I started to feel it coming. I didn’t sleep well last night because I was like ‘OK, you’ve just got to hold this together.’ But when I start thinking is when things start to come back. And when I talk about Reaves (Park) and when I talk about Marita Hynes (Field), there’s so many people you don’t want to leave out."
But once the Sooners took the field, it was time to get into a different mindset. However, it took some time, and Miami Ohio took advantage.
The RedHawks looked to spoil opening day at Love's Field, as they opened the first inning with back-to-back home runs to take a 3-0 lead. The Sooners scored a run in the first and added another one in the fourth to slowly chip away at the lead.
It was OU assistant coach JT Gasso that helped settle the team after a tough start."
“I would say around the fourth inning we kind of got in the huddle and we were like, “Guys, this is our home advantage.’ JT said... 'Be you.' Like, let’s be us. Be you. Be who you are. This is the same game that we’ve been playing whether it’s at Reaves or Marita or at Love’s Field. It’s all the same game. Once we kind of came back to ourselves we were just fine.”
The Sooners trailed until the sixth inning, when home runs from Jayda Coleman and Kasidi Pickering helped give the Sooners a 7-3 lead.
Just when it looked like the Sooners could cost to an easy first victory, the RedHawks pushed back with three consecutive home runs to tie the game in the seventh inning. But that set the stage for the first memorable moment, as Kinzie Hansen bombed a two-run walk-off home run to seal the 9-7 win.
And, just like her walk-off home run in last year's super regionals against Clemson, the home run came with two outs on the board.
"I don’t know why I always gotta be in two strikes," Hansen joked. "So that kind of was frustrating. But our pitchers — they never do that. They never give up home runs like that. They never give up runs and walks and things like that. So for me going into my last at bat, I was thinking about Nicole (May) and (Karlie) Keeney and SJ (Geurin) and how they were kind of going through the trenches a little bit.
"That was a great hitting team Miami. They take some great hacks. So credit to them for sure. But going up I was just thinking about Karlie and thinking she came in to close the game so I’m going to have her back right here and I’m going to do my job and get it done.”
The Sooners looked a lot more like themselves in the second game against Liberty. With Kelly Maxwell taking control in the circle, the Sooners' offense got going early. An Alynah Torres double in the fifth inning scored Riley Ludlam and Ella Parker, giving the Sooners an 8-0 win.
"It wasn’t really the field. It was the fans that threw us for a loop," Gasso said. "It was very loud. You could just feel the energy. And I feel I speak for our team, I felt that we were very tight in the first game. It took us a while to get going. The Lord made that game to be the way it was to break in the stadium. It was a thrilled. Fans were in it. There was a lot of hitting, a lot of dramatics. We were much more ourselves in the second game, but it took us a little time to get this figured out. It was a little overwhelming, really.
"We definitely felt like we were the visiting team for a second," Torres added. "We had to throw the balls against the wall and the nets and kind of feel it out, which is really not a home team thing. Once we got comfortable, as you can see, we were just fine."
Now with the opening-day emotions gone, the top-ranked Sooners can breathe a sigh of relief. They've now improved to 16-0 on the season and have won 69 straight games dating back to last season, and they have three more games this weekend to continue adjusting to their new home.
There's still some improvements needed to complete the stadium. But now the Sooners can just be excited.
"There's a few of those things that we found out today," Gasso said. "But it's beautiful. It's wonderful for fans. It's wonderful for a team to get that kind of energy off of the fans. They were very, very fun tonight."