The Oklahoma Sooners swept the Norman Regional with wins over Binghamton, Kansas, and Michigan, outscoring their opponents 28-1 over the weekend. Now the Sooners get ready to face Mississippi State in the Super Regional round, looking to advance to the Women’s College World Series for the 10th straight season.
Oklahoma’s pitchers allowed just six hits over the weekend, and one earned run. That included an impressive one-hit performance from Miali Guachino against Kansas. Audrey Lowry picked up wins against Binghamton and Michigan to bookend the series.
Oklahoma’s lineup hit eight home runs, including a pair each from Kasidi Pickering and Kai Minor.
Here’s what Patty Gasso had to say about her team’s performance over the weekend.
On the Norman Regional Win
It’s special. It’s pretty amazing, too. I don’t know, maybe not amazing, but the expectations of this program is, thank you, Michigan. And we’re moving on without any kind of celebration. They’re almost kind of embarrassed to celebrate. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s our expectation, so we just keep moving on. I thought we played really well this weekend. Pictures were amazing. I think maybe could be wrong, but something like six hits over three games, really great job. I thought everybody played well. I thought we started to run out of gas a little bit the end of this game, but for the most part, everything was right on key.
On Audrey Lowry’s performance vs. Michigan
Audrey was efficient. She has really become a professional in the way of planning. That’s what I love about her, is she writes things in her book, and she kind of almost like journals after each inning and knows exactly what she needs to do better, so I love that about her, and just her focus was there. Thinks she’ll tell you more about the technical side, but I thought she was great, along with KD (Kierston Deal), and I was so happy about our fans giving her a rousing applause, because she is a senior, and it was important for her to get on the field, as well as (Sydney) Berzon, they both did a great job.
On setting the tone early
I think that’s the thing I’m most happy about, is that we come out and we just set a tone right from the start, and that’s has a lot to do with Kai and Gabby and the hitters right behind that are ready to drive them in, so when you can put three up in the first inning, you’ve already set a tone, and we try to just keep matching that.
On Pitcher’s Mindset
Yeah, to be honest, I don’t care what anybody has to say, because they’re not with us every day on the field watching these pitchers compete against the best hitters in the country, are standing right here in this stadium, so they, it’s trial by fire, it’s really tough to get our hitters out, but if they allow their mindset to stay where it needs to stay, and maybe I threw a great pitch, but somebody hit it out, it’s still a great pitch, and Audrey is mature enough, and the rest of them now are mature enough to understand that, and so we really do put them out on the mound and have them go at our hitters for that reason, as long as their mindset stays like, okay, I missed that one, but I’m coming back for the next instead, and not just kind of let everything just take them down. I think that’s been the change… It’s not the pitches; they have quality pitches. It’s the mindset, and that has changed. I can see that change. So I think Audrey has been the leader in that way and led them to understand how to do that. Berzon has had experience in her life as well as K.D. (Deal). So I am really, really comfortable with where we are right now with our pitching staff and going into a super regional.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: ‘It’s special’: What Patty Gasso had to say about OU Softball’s sweep