Patty Gasso sees SEC Tournament as a 'mini College World Series'

Oklahoma will play in its first-ever SEC softball tournament beginning on Thursday. They’ll take on LSU in the opening game of the quarterfinals from Jack Turner Stadium in Athens, Ga.

The Sooners are the No. 1-seed, though some of the best teams in the country litter the rest of the field. Being atop a field of stellar opponents is a familiar feeling for Gasso and her program, eight-time national championship-winning coach said.

“It’s very much set up like a mini College World Series, which is nice to feel,” Gasso said heading into the matchup. “It’s nice to kind of feel in another away crowd just for us to continue to learn from it. I am going to take it serious, but not too serious, because that doesn’t work well. And whatever we do, I mean, we’re going to be in the top eight. I feel very confident of that. I trust that we’re going to be in the top five. We can’t win the SEC and not be, in my opinion.

“We’re going to go in and work our hardest to be our best to lend us into hosting at home. So I do feel if we have a good SEC tournament, that might secure us to move up just one spot or so, which would make a difference.” 

Oklahoma enters the SEC Tournament as a two-time reigning Big 12 Conference tournament champion. Transitioning to the SEC this past offseason, it comes as no surprise that the Sooners won the SEC regular season championship and are the top seed in the conference tournament. Of course, they’ve also won the last four national championships before joining their new conference.

However, the Sooners earned the top spot by just one game, earning the title outright from Texas A&M, who finished one game back. Oklahoma finished the regular season with a 43-7 record, including a 17-7 record against SEC competition. The Sooners’ dominance during its first season in the conference was on display as OU won the SEC despite losing the last two games of the regular season against Florida in Gainesville.

First pitch between Oklahoma and the LSU Tigers, the nine-seed in the tournament, is set for 11 a.m. ET live on the SEC Network. The Tigers defeated eight-seed Mississippi State on the second day of the tournament to advance against the four-time reigning national champions in the SEC softball tournament quarterfinals.