For OU softball, road to SEC title 'is going through Austin' vs. Texas
· Yahoo Sports
NORMAN — Patty Gasso doesn’t need to sell what’s waiting this weekend in Austin.
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She’s been there. She’s felt it. And she knows exactly what her team is walking into at Red & Charline McCombs Field.
No. 2-ranked Oklahoma softball heads to face No. 4 Texas — the defending national champions — in a three-game series that already feels like late May or early June. In recent years, this matchup has doubled as a preview of the Women’s College World Series.
So this week, the Sooners have practiced accordingly with artificial crowd noise in order to create extra chaos and try to simulate what’s ahead.
"This is really important for me to see how tough we are, because this is not an easy environment,” Gasso said. “This will be the toughest place that we have played. We played at LSU. This is different.”
OU already passed one road test in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, taking two of three at LSU in a series that taught its young core valuable lessons.
“It really helped us,” Gasso said. “There were times when I could see we were getting a little rattled and then you see them settle in.”
Only a few Sooners on the roster have played in Austin before. The rest will be seeing it — and hearing it — for the first time. Gasso’s message is to embrace it.
“I just need these players to go in fearless,” she said. “It's a rivalry. But they’ve got to go in being tough.”
OU will arrive with momentum.
The Sooners’ pitching staff is playing its best softball of the season and the lineup is surging behind a mix of youth and experience. Freshmen Kai Minor and Kendall Wells have had elite success at the plate, while veterans Ella Parker and Kasidi Pickering continue to produce.
“This week, we know it's going to be a very big matchup,” Parker said. “We know that the environment we're going into is going to be almost like a World Series feel.”
This weekend’s matchup sells itself.
Longhorns ace Teagan Kavan vs. OU ace Audrey Lowry. The star power Wells brings. The reigning champs against the sport’s modern dynasty.
But inside the Sooners’ dugout, Gasso has stripped it down to something simpler. Noise.
Or more specifically, how her team handles it and creates its own. On Wednesday, she challenged the Sooners to be the louder side, even on the road. To let the moment fuel them instead of speed them up.
“Would you rather play in sounds — whether they're for you or against you — or just play with no sounds around you?” Gasso said. “Adrenaline is in that game for both sides. So can we contain ourselves? Can we stay focused?
“If we make a mistake, we've got to be able to rebound quickly and not let it simmer.”
The way Gasso sees it, the path forward runs through Austin.
“They know the importance of this weekend,” she said. “The road to an SEC championship is going through Austin and we have to have everybody on board."
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU softball prepares for 'toughest' road test at Texas in top-5 series