• last year
AllSooners Softball Show: Episode 2
Transcript
00:00 Welcome back. Softball season just a couple days away. We are back here on the
00:05 All Sooners softball show. Ryan Chapman here for AllSooners.com. You know me, you
00:11 know the drill. This is where we do the softball and today is Monday as I'm
00:16 recording this. It's gonna drop on Tuesday, but today we got to speak to Patty
00:19 Gasso. We got to speak to Alyssa Brito, Jada Coleman about the upcoming season
00:23 that will start in Mexico on Thursday at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge.
00:28 Utah Valley and Duke up first on Thursday. We covered a ton of topics and
00:33 we will get that all here on the All Sooners softball show. Lineup decisions.
00:38 Patty Gasso was not coy. She laid it out. I'll talk about that. We're gonna talk
00:41 about the core five. Who are they? What do they mean to Oklahoma? And obviously
00:45 some of this early season matchup talk. It should be a ton of fun when it gets
00:48 rolling on Thursday. We'll discuss all that and more. That's what we got today.
00:52 Stick around. All Sooners softball show coming up.
00:56 You're here. Welcome back. It's episode two. I did the preseason preview. If you
01:07 missed that, my three burning questions for Oklahoma softball ahead of the 2024
01:11 season. That is up wherever you're watching this on YouTube, John Hoover
01:14 Media. Just scroll. It's there. All Sooners dot com. Just Google All Sooners
01:19 softball show. It'll pop up. And I said not gonna be every week until the season
01:23 gets going. So if you're new here today, Tuesday, this is getting launched. We're
01:28 not gonna do a Thursday show. There's nothing for me to preview because the
01:31 season starts 10 30 a.m. Central on Thursday. But from here on out, starting
01:36 next week, Tuesday at noon, Thursday at noon Tuesday, I'll recap everything we
01:41 saw in Mexico Thursday. I'll tell you what we talked about with Patty Gasso.
01:45 The players will preview the weekend ahead, and that started with media day.
01:49 Like I said, Monday we got to talk to Patty Gasso. A couple of players as
01:53 Oklahoma embarks on what would be a historic and historic fourth straight
01:59 national title. They're still riding a winning streak, but not a lot of that
02:03 was talked about. The national title chase was kind of mentioned. But at the
02:07 beginning of the season, Patty Gasso is very much look. It's a process
02:09 situation. You have to be obsessed with the results day to day. All of that
02:14 builds into what would become a women's college World Series run and all that
02:19 stuff. She also said, though it's a privilege. This team sees the ability to
02:22 chase history as a privilege. So not a lot to dive in there. But there was a
02:27 bunch of interesting stuff, and we're gonna start with one of my burning
02:29 questions from the preseason. Who is going to replace Grace Lyons at short
02:35 stop? We wondered all offseason long. What would the options be? Isn't every
02:40 Hodge is Terry Jenny's just gonna slide over from second is Alyssa Brito gonna
02:45 move from third base to shortstop? What was that gonna be? What were the
02:49 ripples? Well, Coach Gasso just laid all out on the table on Monday night.
02:54 Right now, I think Tiare is gonna be working over its shortstop. Alyssa
02:59 Brito so good at third. It's hard to move her out of there, and her
03:02 experience is something else. I've got three buying it second. That's Avery
03:09 Hodge, Quincy, Lillio and Alina Torres. But Alina Taurus can do a lot of
03:15 things. Avery can also play shortstop. Q can also play the outfield, so
03:19 there's opportunities for all of them. There you have it. Tiare Jennings. She
03:24 will be your shortstop, at least to start for the Oklahoma Sooners. We did
03:27 see that a little smidge. The OU tournament last year, Grace Lyons missed
03:31 a couple of those games for a she was exhausted. Basically, one of those
03:37 things, a little illness situation. So it's your Jennings. Slider out. It did
03:40 play a little bit of shortstop, so we have seen it. We've seen it with kind
03:43 of this lineup that Patty Gasso talked about. If you get Alyssa Brito at
03:47 third, your Jennings at second or excuse me, shortstop Quincy Lillio at
03:51 second and Sydney Sanders at first. That's exactly what we played out there
03:54 at the OU tournament. So we shall see. Some of those questions will be
03:58 Quincy Lillio. Can she find that consistency if she plays second? We've
04:02 seen her in little spurts and she's shown off some power, but we haven't
04:06 got to see what a full season Quincy Lillio looks like. What Q looks like
04:09 there. Avery Hodge has her back come along enough that Oklahoma wouldn't
04:13 have to use a designated player spot for her or that she'd be at the bottom
04:17 of the line. One of those things. If it's Elena Torres, then the question
04:21 presses on. What does right field look like? And look, there's a lot of names
04:27 that are going to be thrown around. Patty Gasso also had a few, including a
04:30 freshman to look out for. That is what she talked about here. Yeah, I'll feel
04:35 the steel fighting. I mean, there's really good hitters. Um, our freshman
04:40 Ella Parker, she's not playing first. It'll be said Sanders at first, but Ella
04:45 Parker's gotta be in the sign up. So that's one thing that I'm certain
04:49 Cassidy Pickering is a big time hitter as well. Now you've got Hannah Core who
04:55 had a great fall and you've got Riley Boone, who is the starter of everything.
05:00 So there's gonna be a lot of movement this first weekend. We've got to give
05:05 everybody opportunity to see how they handle, but likely the opportunity is
05:10 gonna be the matchup that fits them from the opponent offensively. Sure.
05:15 Sounds like Ella Parker, regardless where she's playing, they're gonna find
05:19 a way to use her as the designated player is what it sounds like. There
05:23 from what Patty Gasso just said. We saw that early last year. If you remember
05:26 Jocelyn Erickson, she really just had a first couple of weekends. She just
05:31 sprinted out of the gate for the Sooners. Obviously, she is no longer
05:35 with the team. She transferred off to Florida, so having to replace that role
05:38 there. But I'm also curious to Riley Ludlam is someone that showed off a
05:42 ton of power during the battle series in the fall. She's gonna put tune.
05:46 She'll be Kinsey Hanson's backup catcher in those opportunities where
05:49 Kinsey Hanson is starting to catch. It was gonna be a whole lot. Has Riley
05:53 Ludlam come along enough to also fight for that designated player spot in the
05:56 batting lineup? We'll have to see. She's someone Ludlam is that Patty Gasso
06:00 described as very, very raw in fall ball, but she has had a whole off
06:05 season to continue to work with JT Gasso to continue to learn from
06:09 Oklahoma's hitters. So it'll be interesting to see what that looks like
06:12 come game one against Utah Valley. That'll be 10 30 a.m. On Thursday. Flow
06:17 softball. Yes, we're in flow softball season. But remember, flow softball had
06:22 the foresight to buy up some of these rights and invest in softball early. So
06:26 just deal with it. It'll be good. Flow softball's done a great stuff there,
06:29 and I hear that an old friend of Oklahoma will be heavily involved with
06:34 flow softball. So you want to keep up there. But Riley Ludlam, all the
06:37 newcomers coming along. They've had a good core to learn from as Oklahoma
06:43 entering this season. They're gonna have 10 seniors guys that are going to
06:47 graduate off at the end of this year between the graduate seniors and just
06:51 true and true seniors from that 2021. The group that was freshman in 2021.
06:56 You've got the guys that have or the gals excuse me that have transferred in
07:00 Alyssa Brito. She only spent one season in Oregon, but now she's a big part of
07:04 what Oklahoma's doing. Alina Torres obviously came over last year from
07:08 Arizona State. Then you got a trio of newcomers this year. Kelly Maxwell,
07:11 Carly Keeney in the bullpen, both of those two and then Riley Ludlam who
07:14 we've talked about. But then the other half of that 10 Tiare Jennings, Jada
07:20 Coleman, Kinsey Hanson, Nicole May, Riley Boone. They have been huge for
07:26 Oklahoma softball because they've been with the Sooners from the beginning.
07:29 They have spent their entire career in Norman and they are absolute titans.
07:34 They would be first ballot College Softball Hall of Famers. One of those
07:38 things they've won three straight national titles. Kinsey Hanson. The only
07:42 reason that she hasn't won four national titles because her first year
07:46 the 2020 season got cut short for this little thing called Covid. We don't
07:49 talk about it, but the other four along with Kinsey Hanson came in that next
07:53 year in 2021 and all they've known is winning, winning in bunches, dominance,
07:58 history, historic lineups, historic pitching staffs, all that stuff. And I
08:04 asked Patty Gasso, Hey, she started off her press conference on Monday by
08:08 basically saying, I hope Oklahoma fans are able to appreciate the
08:12 contributions of these 10 athletes, these 10 seniors because they're an
08:16 incredible group. But I wanted to dial in. What does this five mean to you? A
08:20 five that Jada Coleman labeled as the core five and Patty Gasso never
08:25 disappoints. I think about them more than I ever have because I know this is
08:30 like the end of, uh, I don't want to say that because we have a good freshman
08:35 class. It's not the end of a big long string, but it is the end of one of the
08:41 most elite classes that has ever and may ever play softball. So that's why I
08:46 understand that because I get to see it every day. Um, they're special, they're
08:51 different and their style of competitive spirit is very infectious
08:57 on this team, and it's really infectious to our freshmen, which is
09:01 exactly what I'm looking for. So, um, they have big personalities. They're
09:06 great players. They're great young women. So, um, it's going to be hard to
09:11 see him go, and I'm not gonna think about it. I'm just gonna coach the heck
09:14 out of them and try to get every ounce of softball out of them that we can.
09:18 One thing I've learned about Coach Gasso over the last couple of years is
09:22 that she's found a way, and part of it is this core. They are such good
09:25 leaders, whether it's how they handle themselves when they talk to us, the
09:29 media, how they handle themselves when they're leading on the field and
09:33 certainly the stuff at practice that you and I don't get to see. They have
09:37 built this program, built this foundation to a spot where it feels
09:40 like the team almost runs itself. Patty Gasso even joked later on in the press
09:44 conference on Monday that she's excited for next year because she gets to coach
09:47 again. She's like she joked, but these guys could coach themselves, all that
09:50 stuff, and it's just been kind of incredible to watch how self sufficient
09:55 this team has been over the last couple of years. Obviously, Patty Gasso,
09:59 Jennifer Rocha, JT Gasso have a huge fingerprints, huge, great deal to do
10:04 with the development of that group. But I think that Patty Gasso has been able
10:07 to step back and enjoy these last couple of years a little bit more. She's
10:11 talked at times about if it's a loss, she doesn't have to go home and just
10:16 beat herself up all day long, knowing A, be right back at the ballpark the
10:19 next day. But B, I think that these seniors, this core five, they set that
10:24 tone and they make the adjustments from head to toe, top to bottom of this
10:27 program of what needs to happen. Patty Gasso talked about this group being
10:30 absolute leaders. Jada Coleman is some of them. She sees something from some
10:34 of the newcomers in the outfield. She'll start practice herself. She'll go over.
10:37 Hey, we need to do this instead of that. This is how we do this. They're
10:40 teachers, and it's gonna be impossible not to miss this core. I asked Jada
10:45 what it means to her. She did loop Elisabrito in, but she labeled what it
10:49 means to her and how they're kind of approaching this season. If they
10:52 themselves, the players, have been able to appreciate the process throughout
10:56 the fall on the verge, on the precipice of starting the 24 campaign in Mexico.
11:01 I feel like the core five and it's so crazy that Brita wasn't there for like
11:06 the first one because I feel like she's been here for so long. But I feel like
11:09 we just truly find joy in the grind, like the complacency thing. Like it is
11:14 truly fun to like grind throughout the fall and like even during this time. So
11:19 like when you get in the World Series, you feel so confident because you know
11:22 that there's no one that has worked harder than you. And just the joy that
11:27 this group has. And like she was saying, like we live for the Lord. And so when
11:31 we just know that it's already written, we can just go out there and have a
11:34 blast. And I feel like that's where we find the joy of our core five. I'm
11:38 adding Brita to that six. Six. Patty Gasso hopes the Sooner Nation is going
11:43 to be able to appreciate them. I know for me, just a schmuck that sits up in
11:47 the stands and writes about this group. I've really enjoyed covering them. I'm
11:50 going to be one of those that for a couple of moments, I'm just going to sit
11:53 back and appreciate man. That's Jada Coleman. That's what Jada Coleman's
11:56 doing, man. That's Nicole May. I hope that everyone's able to do that as well.
12:00 But things will get all started up this Thursday. The Puerto Verde
12:03 Collegiate Challenge, Utah Valley, Duke, Washington, Long Beach State. That's
12:09 the group for Oklahoma that they will face this weekend. Three of those teams,
12:12 tournament teams a year ago. Two of those teams are starting in the
12:16 preseason. Top 10 ish. Duke is sliding around between eight and 12, depending
12:20 on where you look. But Washington and Duke, top 10 teams, top 10 caliber
12:25 teams, teams that expect not only to be playing in Super Regionals, but to be
12:29 hosting Super Regionals come late May. Alyssa Brito and this Oklahoma team,
12:34 they're used to playing really tough schedules. Last year, it felt like
12:38 Oklahoma played the entire top 25 that wasn't residing inside the Big 12 in
12:44 their non conference. But Brito talked about the challenge is going to be in
12:46 how Oklahoma embraces these moments early in the season, especially as
12:50 they head to Mexico to start this thing on Thursday. I think it only makes us
12:54 better. And I think, um, excellence craves excellence. And I think when
13:00 people give us their best, it only makes us better. So I don't think we
13:04 take it as like anything to watch out for. It's more of just like a growing
13:09 moment for both teams, honestly, and playing someone really competitive
13:14 early on in the year really gives you an idea of where you're at, um, both
13:18 sides of the ball. So I think those games are really important. Like you
13:21 saw it last year, like facing those top five power fives. It was it made all
13:26 the difference for us to see where we were and then grow from that point on.
13:30 But we're excited because those are just really great teams will coach. So
13:33 well, guys, all that's left is for this season to get underway. It's gonna be
13:39 an incredible ride. And all centers dot com has you from top to bottom the
13:43 whole way. All the press conference videos every second of video from
13:47 Paddy Gas or any player, whether it be Tuesday midweek press conferences,
13:52 preview and stuff, whether it be postgame press conferences, whether it
13:55 be when I head down to Austin to cover Oklahoma and Texas and Mike White,
13:58 everything that that guy has to say. I know you love him. He's box office.
14:02 Every bit of that video is on all centers dot com as well as if you're a
14:06 YouTuber, John Hoover Media, a story from every single game. We cover every
14:12 game here at all centers dot com. I do a lot of that stuff, but we have a
14:15 great team behind me helping me out. So be with all centers dot com for your
14:18 feature stories on all these players. You really get to know them. Everything
14:22 that happens every pitch of the season video, all that stuff. All Sooners is
14:26 the place to be. I'll be hanging out at Love's Field. I'll be on the road. If
14:30 you see me come say what's up. I love talking to you guys, and I really
14:34 appreciate all the help. But for everyone at all Sooners, John Hoover,
14:37 who's been a huge help. Randall Sweet, who did a great job with all this
14:40 video that you've seen from Patty Gasso, Alyssa Brito, Jada Coleman today
14:44 wouldn't be able to do it without them. Be sure you're locked in with all
14:47 centers dot com. You can follow us on Twitter at all underscore Sooners. We're
14:52 all over Facebook. If you're in the softball Facebook groups, you know me.
14:55 And then, like I said on YouTube, just follow John Hoover Media. I will talk
15:00 to you guys next Tuesday for episode number three of the all Sooners softball
15:05 show. Is this bad boys fired up twice a week the rest of the year until the dust
15:11 settles in Oklahoma City will be with you here at all Sooners dot com.