OU softball stunned by BYU as Sooners suffer first Big 12 home loss since 2017

NORMAN — Kinzie Hansen has seen a lot during her long OU softball career.

But neither Hansen nor any of her teammates have ever experienced anything like this, not after top-ranked OU fell to BYU 9-4 on Friday night at Love’s Field.

The loss was the Sooners’ third in five games and leaves them needing a win in Saturday’s 1 p.m. series finale to avoid what would be a second consecutive series loss.

“There’s a good group of us on the team that have never been kicked in the teeth before, so this one definitely hurts,” Hansen said. “We felt it last weekend too but going forward, what are we going to do about it? That’s the big message. And there’s two choices that you can really make.

“Something that we always talk about is if you want to be great, you don’t really have a choice. There’s one way. At this point, we all need to buy in and get on that path.”

OU’s first three losses could all be explained away in some way.

The first loss, March 3 to Louisiana, could be written off as still settling into their new Love’s Field home against a team with a history of pulling off wins over powerful teams.

The other two, both to Texas last weekend, were 2-1 defeats on the road against a team expected to contend for a Women’s College World Series berth.

But Friday none of those factors were present.

Even after the win, BYU is just 22-18 overall and 5-12 in Big 12 play.

The Cougars’ hitting is third in the conference behind just OU and Texas, but its pitching is ninth.

But the Sooners’ couldn’t get much going offensively.

OU (37-4, 14-3 Big 12) had eight hits and drew 10 walks, but only one of the hits — Tiare Jennings’ fourth-inning home run — went for extra bases.

“We had a lot of walks. We had a lot of mishits as well,” Hansen said. “We were popping the ball up a lot, we were swinging at changeups, which is a little bit more uncharacteristic of us. We were also taking pitches that we usually hammer.”

But Hansen said it wouldn’t be difficult for OU to get back heading in a strong direction offensively.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a difficult switch,” Hansen said. “This turning point is not going to be difficult for us, but however, I think that when there is walks like that, there has to be swings to be able to back that up.”

OU hadn’t lost a conference home game since falling to Baylor on April 23, 2017 and hadn’t dropped multiple games at home in the same season since 2017.

Here are three other takeaways from the Sooners’ loss:

More: Big 12 softball power rankings: Should Texas leapfrog Oklahoma after historic series win?

Patty Gasso: Pitching staff ‘not gritty enough’

Nicole May struggled from the get-go Friday, allowing a double on the second pitch of the game and soon adding a wild pitch.

May ultimately gave up three runs in three innings before Kierston Deal gave up two runs in an inning of relief and Karlie Keeney gave up four in 2 2/3 innings.

“Not good enough, not gritty enough,” Sooners coach Patty Gasso said. “We can’t rely on one arm, and we need fighters. And I’m not making excuses for anybody. But it’s hard sometimes to play in this program because of the expectations. And the pitchers really want to be perfect. And when you’re trying to be perfect, you’re not going to be perfect.”

BYU scored in each of the first five innings, scoring one in each of the first four and then two in the fifth.

The Sooners hadn’t allowed runs in even four consecutive innings in a single game since UCLA also scored in five consecutive innings in the first game of the 2019 Women’s College World Series Championship Series.

During that span, the Sooners had allowed runs in even three consecutive innings in just three games — twice to Oklahoma State and once to North Texas.

Kinzie Hansen: ‘We do get caught up in being perfect’

Hansen said the Sooners sometimes get so caught up in being perfect that it can keep them from excelling.

“I think we do get caught up in being perfect,” Hansen said. “It’s not just the pitchers that are trying to be perfect and hit the ball perfect and swing at the perfect pitch. … So just being able to trust ourselves and trust our timing and fall back on that, because when you’re trying to be too perfect — there’s only been one perfect person on this planet, and he didn’t play softball.”

Gasso said she was “anxious” to see how her team responded to Friday’s loss.

“We sometimes feel like we’re not allowed to have a little glitch in our season, you know. ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve lost three games already?’,” Gasso said. “So again, we’re human. I think we would all tell you that we didn’t play our best, we didn’t do anything our best. But we are allowed, we should be allowed, and we just don’t care if people allow us to or not.

“What I’m really anxious and actually excited about is to see, when this team steps up and steps forward, we’re going to be at a different level. We just haven’t been there yet.”

Gasso talked about her team not looking like a potential champion, but that a big piece of the Sooners’ lineup knew what championship level looked like.

“I know what it looks like. We know what it feels like, and this is not it,” Gasso said. “But the good news is we do know what it feels like. We’ve been there; We know how to get there.”

Will Kelly Maxwell pitch in series finale?

After the Sooners lost the second game of their series against Texas last week, Gasso went with Kelly Maxwell in the series finale after using a three-pitcher rotation to that point.

Gasso said she was unsure of whether she’s do the same thing this time around, especially after Kierston Deal and Karlie Keeney, the other candidates to start, threw in relief Friday and struggled.

“I haven’t gotten there yet,” Gasso said. “It’s important that we really fight for this win to win the series and still have an opportunity to hopefully win this conference race. I’m not sure where we’re going yet.”

Maxwell threw a one-hitter in Thursday’s series-opening 8-0, five-inning win over BYU.

More: OU softball run-rules BYU in series opener as Kelly Maxwell pitches one-hitter

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU softball thumped by BYU for first Big 12 home loss since 2017