OU softball 'itching' to play again in Norman Regional

Those things just do not happen to OU softball. Period. The Sooners do not give up a five-run lead and allow 10 consecutive runs to lose.

That is, though, what happened last Thursday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal matchup vs. Georgia.

Up 5-0, OU was bounced 10-5. No. 1 seed in the tournament, but one-and-done in Lexington. A lesson to learn.

A lesson that head coach Patty Gasso is hoping has officially been learned. Because now? It’s time to get back to work.

“Compete on the mound, compete at the plate, compete on the field,” Gasso said. “Just don’t look at the scoreboard. Just keep competing. Play hard, play to win, but you got to do it together. You can’t do it in segments or individuals. We’ve got to have a team behind that mission. And those are things I think we are figuring out, figured out, and we’ll see it look different.”

You can’t let something like last Thursday happen again, sure. But you also cannot dwell on just one night where everything fell off the rails.

This team has been better than that. At 48-8 overall, OU earned the No. 3 overall national seed and the No. 1 seed in the Norman Regional this weekend at Love’s Field.

OU begins play against Binghamton at 2:30 p.m. Friday on SEC Network. Kansas and Michigan will follow that contest.

It will be good to be home, back at Love’s.

“I think we’re excited to get back on the field,” senior Abby Dayton said. “If that’s one thing we took from it, it’s just, we’re itching to play. And so that’s really fun. And just having practice be so competitive now, because we’re acting like it’s a game and it’s fun.

“I can’t wait to see this team on the field, because I think we’ve grown up from the SEC Tournament, even though it’s only been a couple days. And I’m excited. I’m excited to see how we compete, because now the brackets formed, but you can’t take anyone too lightly. They all earned to be there, so it’ll be really cool to be able to face good competition and ‘show that we earned it’ kind of thing.”

Some OU fans were miffed at the No. 3 seeding. The Sooners won the outright SEC regular season championship. But it was Alabama earning the top spot, finishing second in the regular season and making the SEC championship game.

Texas, who defeated Bama, is the No. 2 seed. One word Gasso used repeatedly to describe everything? Fair.

“I thought it was very fair,” Gasso said. “Obviously, we would have liked to move – but at this point in the game, it is what it is. You cannot hope or wish. It’s our body of work. I thought it was fair. I think the entire bracket is pretty fair.”

Scouting the regional field

“I feel good. But we’re facing very good, historic teams. Michigan has won a national championship. They know how to win. They played really well in the conference. Kansas, I love Jen McFalls. She was a coach of mine or GA or no, actually a real coach a long time ago. Couldn’t stay with me because she was part of the Olympic team and won a gold medal with them. I love what she is doing at Kansas and their team has really, really elevated.  We’re still learning about these teams. We’ll be ready. I feel like we’re in a good space after Georgia. That was a really tough time for us. Not being used to that. But also, not making too big of it. Just learning from it, and I think we have done that. Our practices have been really solid as of late.” – Gasso

Norman Regional Schedule

Friday
Game 1: Binghamton vs. OU, 2:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Game 2: Michigan vs. Kansas, 5 p.m. (ESPNU)

Saturday
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 2 p.m.
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 4:30 p.m.
Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7 p.m.

Sunday
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, 2 p.m.
Game 7: *If Necessary, 4:30 p.m.