SO SAD:Patty Gasso head coach Gasso explained why he will no longer continue with the team…

SO SAD:Patty Gasso head coach Gasso explained why he will no longer continue with the team…

NORMAN — On Sunday afternoon, Patty Gasso, holding her grandson, entered Love’s Field’s postgame media room accompanied by co-captains Kinzie Hansen and Tiare Jennings.

The Sooners had just finished a jam-packed weekend of events celebrating the grand opening of their gorgeous new $48 million stadium—the biggest on-campus softball facility in the nation—which included five games over three days. At the end of the day, the trio was exhausted, just like anyone else who would have gone through the same thing. It’s easy to be swept up in the home runs, records, streaks, and glamour of the machine Gasso has built at OU.

“We are human,” declared Gasso.

It’s easy for people to forget this during the No. 1 Sooners’ 71-game winning streak, which ended on Sunday after a 7-5 loss to Louisiana in eight innings and featured moments when Gasso’s players performed superhuman feats. There will come a time when the run would end. Not if, but when was the question.

It was Gasso who stated it. The Sooners (18-1) were undeserving of the victory. For the first time since June 2021, OU made three or more mistakes in a game due to their abnormally careless defense performance. Gasso’s side also committed running errors, such as Jayda Coleman’s early removal from second base in the third inning and Hansen’s pickoff in the sixth.

More: The 71-game schedule for OU softball

“We blew a lot of time early in the game, from pitching to defense to timely hitting,” Gasso remarked. We don’t deserve to have won this game, but we know how to bounce back. I’m aware that this team takes much too much pride in itself to wallow in self-pity; we’ll bounce back stronger. We are made that way, as we have demonstrated.

The Sooners’ undoing was ultimately two fielding mistakes by OU: one by Hansen on a tag at home, which allowed Mihyia Davis to score a run, and another by Jennings at shortstop, which allowed Maddie Hayden to reach base.

However, Gerry Glasco, the coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns (10–12), and his