Patty Gasso describes her view of Abigale Dayton home run: 'As long as they have a swing left, they believe'

As it had been a handful of times in the last five years, Oklahoma was down to its final strike. Dynasty hanging in the balance. Abigale Dayton was at the plate.

Facing an 0-2 count with a runner on first and Oklahoma trailing 2-0, Dayton dug deep. She got a pitch she liked and muscled it to right field, sending it over the wall for a game-tying shot.

Oklahoma would last another half inning. The Sooners ultimately weren’t able to pull out the win, but Abigale Dayton’s dinger was everything about the last five years rolled up into one swing.

“They continued to believe. It’s like get your swing off. You’ve got to get there real quick,” coach Patty Gasso said. “NiJaree (Canady) is unbelievable. She’s really, really tough, and it was hard to square her up, hard to make solid contact. Like I said, as long as they have a swing left they believe and they do. That’s proof of it.”

The swing gave Oklahoma the spark of confidence that it could turn things around and potentially fight its way toward another appearance in the national championship series. Short-lived though it was, it was a moment few on the team will likely ever forget.

For her part, Dayton was just trying to do what she could. She knew everyone was counting on her. Luckily, she’d had some experience going against Canady in recent years. That paid off handsomely.

“I felt like I took a lot of it from the past two years,” Dayton said. “I hit off of her a couple times. But just being able to have my teammates’ back and knowing they have mine put a lot of confidence in myself. But definitely understanding how she throws was in my mind. I was able to kind of use that.

“But having these girls behind me, it gives you all the confidence in the world even if you don’t know who you’re playing, so that’s nice.”

It was a fantastic season for Oklahoma. No, the Sooners didn’t capture their fifth straight national title.

But they had plenty of Abigale Dayton moments along the way. And the team embodied the never-say-die attitude that made them, well, so darned tough to beat the last few years. That’s nothing to sneeze at.