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Best of OU HC Patty Gasso: 'Staying ready' plan working

Bob Przybyloby: Bob Przybylo03/03/26BPrzybylo

It’s going to be really hard to look at OU softball so far and not talk about that offense. The runs, the home runs, it’s pretty ridiculous.

But there are other parts that have the attention for head coach Patty Gasso. Because OU is at North Texas on Tuesday (6 p.m.), there is no weekly Gasso press conference.

Instead? We’ll go with a Best of Gasso from the opening weekend at Love’s Field where OU went 6-0, winning all games via run-rule.

But, yes, we have to talk about the offense, too.

How does this offense rank to past teams?

“They’re pretty good. They’re very good. It’s very powerful, but it’s also very fast. I think what we have is, I wanna say, a hybrid — because everybody here can hit home runs, but we’re adding speed and we’re adding consistency, top to bottom, and bringing people in off the bench. It was just a big second half shift and nothing changed. Balls were still being hit out, hit through gaps, things like that. I feel really good about it. I always feel a little uncomfortable when the runs start adding up and when do you and how do you stop that? That’s hard.”

Tia Milloy, Chaney Helton staying ready?

“Absolutely. They’ve got to be ready. They’re doing a good job of staying present. That’s super important. And they have made us feel they are a very viable option to come into these games. The problem is the games happen really, really fast. You’re watching your number, 4-0, 5-1, whatever it is, and then it’s just done sometimes before you can even get these guys in. Tia and Chaney showcased themselves this weekend big time and we feel really good about that.”

Audrey Lowry’s start?

“She’s a really hard worker. She’ll pitch as many pitches as she wants to in the bullpen just to get it right. But she’s also very calculated. She has a good plan for herself. She has a notebook that has a lot of information in it. But I think confidence is just completely — you can see some of our sophomores look different. Although these freshmen look like they’ve been playing for awhile, sometimes it takes freshmen a year to really get grounded. Sometimes, specifically, with pitchers. She is very confident with what she’s doing right now and you can see it.”

Offense, again, the insane numbers?

“Well, you look through our lineup, JT will hand a lineup and I’m like, ‘woah.’ And then he gives you another one, like, ‘Oh.’ Which one do you choose? They’re all good. They all have something. Abby Dayton who is a rally starter and infectious to Kendall Wells. You’ve got it throughout the lineup. You can play small ball, you can play long ball, you can hit and run, you can do a lot of things. These guys can steal bases. But it’s a very dynamic offense right now. … We want challenges and we got one today for sure. And next weekend will be a challenge for sure, and that’s what we’re needing now. We’re needing to get pushed. We can’t just go in and pop pop pop and walk away and we’re like oh we’re so good. We need to get pushed and today we got pushed.”

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