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Patty Gasso rose from her seat at OU softball’s media day and seemed like a coach breaking the huddle as a substitute of claiming goodbye to reporters.
“Here we go,” she stated.
She pounded the desk.
“Here we go, here we go.”
Such pleasure within the faculty softball world is comprehensible — opening day is right here.
Major-college applications can open their seasons on Thursday, and with sufficient streaming subscriptions, you may watch video games from lunchtime till bedtime. About the one bummer is that neither Oklahoma nor Oklahoma State is taking part in at house; with February climate in our neck of the woods being wildly unpredictable, the groups all the time open on the street.
Gasso and her Sooners are in Arizona whereas Kenny Gajewski and his Cowgirls have gone to California.
But that’s no purpose to be within the dumps. Opening day is the start of 4 months of great, wonderful, magnificent faculty softball, a journey that’s certain to have twists and turns however a street that can finally result in Oklahoma City.
The Women’s College World Series begins in 113 days.
We have a lot to look ahead to in these months forward.
We’ll get to see Texas Tech ace and defending nationwide participant of the 12 months NiJaree Canady footstomping and hollering after massive strikeouts. Nebraska pitcher Jordy (Bahl) Frahm striding as much as the rubber and going into that crouch and swinging that arm like a tiger flicking its tail earlier than pouncing. Tennessee flamethrower Karlyn Pickens throwing pitches sooner than anybody else within the faculty recreation ever has.
She hit 78.2 mph final season.
“Unbelievable!” some stated.
“Untouchable!” others added.
The former was completely true as a result of even actually good faculty pitchers don’t throw all that usually within the 70s. But the latter sentiment was false as a result of later within the season, Pickens broke her personal file.
She hit 79.4 mph.
Adjusting for the space from the rubber to the plate, which is shorter in softball, that pitch would’ve been like a 111.7 mph fastball in baseball. The quickest pitch ever clocked in a regular-season Major League Baseball recreation was solely 105.8 mph.
But after all, softball is not dominated by pitchers. Hitters do a number of injury as of late, too.
This season, we’ll get to see Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery mashing dingers at UCLA, Reese Atwood and Katie Stewart launching bombs at Texas, and Taylor Shumaker and Jocelyn Erickson smashing homers at Florida.
We’ll get to see, too, what massive bats can do within the West Texas wind. Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco lured an unbelievable switch class to Lubbock, and whereas the Red Raiders obtained a little bit of the whole lot — together with pitching depth to assist maintain Canady more energizing for the postseason — the offensive firepower is jaw-dropping. A 12 months in the past at Ohio State, Jazzy Burns hit 25 homers, which ranked fifth nationally, whereas Mia Williams hit 19 at Florida and Taylor Pannell hit 16 at Tennessee.
Now, they’re all Red Raiders.
If the wind’s blowing the appropriate manner, they may hit balls to Odessa.
We’ll get to see a number of offense in our personal state, too.
Kasidi Pickering and Ella Parker have been recognized to ship a number of pitches into the stratosphere from Norman, however the OU lineup appears to be like stacked this season. We’ll get to see massive bops from many Sooners. Gabbie Garcia. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas. Sydney Barker. Even freshmen Kendall Wells and Kia Minor.
The offensive firepower is much less assured in Stillwater, however OSU isn’t with out pop. Rosie Davis. Amanda Hasler. Lexi McDonald. Claire Timm. The largest bat in Stillwater belongs to Karli Godwin, however after an off 12 months final season, we’ll get to see if she returns to kind.
If Godwin does, her hitting is a factor of magnificence. Powerful. Fluid. Concussive.
Much like Parker, who has performed harm a lot of her first two seasons in Norman. If she will get wholesome and stays that manner this season, her at-bats would possibly really feel like holy experiences.
But for nearly as good because the hitting will probably be in our state, we’ll get to see how far these groups go primarily based on their pitching. OU ended up counting on one-and-done switch Sam Landry far more than it anticipated final season. Now, will LSU switch Sydney Berzon have to hold an analogous load this season? Or will Kierston Deal, Audrey Lowry and Ole Miss switch Miali Guachino decide up extra slack?
OSU had an analogous scenario final season, too. Ruby Meylan was left to shoulder many of the innings, particularly towards the Cowgirls’ finest opponents. This season, RyLee Crandall should do extra as a result of no different OSU arm has thrown even a single pitch in faculty.
But even with questions, we’ll get to see so most of the issues we love.
Fans filling each nook and cranny at Love’s Field in Norman. Patty Gasso holding down her common spot within the third-base coach’s field. Sooners rising to their ft and cheering on a 3rd strike or a 3rd out or a victory full.
Then in Stillwater, we’ll get to see the creatures within the bleachers going loopy, beginning chants and messing with unsuspecting left fielders.
There’ll be OSU orange and OU crimson. Patty’s visor and Kenny’s glasses. Ruby’s exclamations and Ella’s smile. Sooners airplaning into house after hitting dingers and Cowgirls chasing after foul balls simply to see who will get there first.
There’ll be chants and cheers, strikeouts and hits, wins and losses, issues we’ll all the time keep in mind and issues we’d prefer to overlook.
There’ll be softball, wonderful softball.
We’ll get to see all of it.
Here we go, certainly.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni could be reached at [email protected]. Like her at fb.com/JenniCarlsonOK, observe her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, andsupport her work and that of different Oklahoman journalists by buying a digital subscription at present.
Season openers
Thursday’s faculty softball season openers for Sooners and Cowgirls:
OU AT ARIZONA STATE: 7:15 p.m. Thursday in Tempe, Arizona (ESPN+)
OSU AT STANFORD: 8 p.m. Thursday in Palo Alto, California (ACC Network+)
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