The Oklahoma softball team now owns the all-time Division I hitting streak record with 48 straight.
And luckily for the Sooners, they’re still counting.
Arguably the toughest win of the streak was the record-setting one as OU topped No. 16 seed Clemson 8-7 in nine innings in the Norman Super Regional.
The final home crowd was also the biggest in the stadium’s history with a record crowd of 2,127 on a Saturday in the sunshine.
So much emotion was tied to Saturday’s result.
In addition to making it 48 straight, it was potentially the last game at Marita Hynes Field with the Sooners (56-1) looking to keep alive their quest for a third straight national championship by advancing to a seventh straight Women’s World Series and his eleventh in the last 12 seasons.
And all of that came from the OU head coach Patty Gassothe birthday
The Sooners and their fans can now exhale, but not without experiencing some serious hyperventilation.
With two outs in the top of the seventh inning and teammates at first and second base, OU senior catcher Kinzie Hansen went 0-2 against USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist Valerie Cagle in what could have been the Sooners’ final swing.
All Cagle essentially had to do was keep the ball in the yard to seal the win. Hansen didn’t settle, though, and deposited Cagle’s third pitch into the left-field bleachers to force a 7-7 tie.
“She’s a great pitcher,” Hansen said of Cagle. “I’m not going to discredit her. She was throwing 71 (mph) and then she was coming at me with this offspeed thing. I took it for a strike when I was down 0-2. I feel like being a catcher sometimes gives you an advantage. As a caller, I’m thinking in my head that I’m going to get it again, I might as well.
“(OU third baseman) Alyssa Brito was in my ear saying, “She must hit you three times.” Hansen said. “I knew I was going to get another one. The Sooners aren’t done until the last strike. We’re not done until the last out is made and it’s sealed. We were in the meeting saying it’s never over. No it’s done. That was really the approach that I had. I know that the younger Kinzie might have gone into it a little bit excited and she was just taking it all in and trying to finish the game. She was really just trying to keep her composure that this is the ‘last game, potentially, to Marita Hynes.
“I’ve never sprinted around the bases so fast in my life. Not even when I hit inside-the-parker against Washington. I think I ran faster today. I heard my teammates screaming just as I hit it , and I just wanted to get home. It felt like a pit. Everyone was pushing each other. My tongue was bleeding. I’m pretty sure I got punched in the face. It was chaotic. I knew at the time , this team. won’t be done in 2023 until we decide we’re done.”
When asked if the pitch got away from Cagle, Clemson coach John Rittman said, “I think she (Hansen) just made a good pitch. It’s just one of those where you hang your hat on “.
On the first pitch in the top of the ninth, OU’s second baseman Tiare Jennings blasted a solo homer to center to set up the final margin. It was Jennings’ second home run of the game.
“We know this,” Gasso said, “we’re never out of a game. It doesn’t matter what. We could be down five, four, whatever. We’re not out. And we believe it. And we’ve done it in this stage with so much at stake. And the stakes are higher. Can we do this? I guess we can. They don’t doubt it.”
“Tiare came through really well to close the game for us,” Hansen said. “It’s never one person. (left fielder Kylie) Boone and everybody had to be on base for me. It could have easily been a different outcome. It’s not just about that swing. It’s about the other swings that they preceded me. Kudos to my other teammates who also did their jobs.”
When OU midfielder Jayda Coleman squeezed out the final out of a game that took three hours and 45 minutes to complete, the Sooners’ immediate reaction was one of exhausted relief and not celebration of having the longest hitting streak in DI softball history .
Gasso cried during a postgame hug with her coaching staff and family, but was surprisingly composed in the postgame interview session.
“I’m in the moment,” Gasso said. “It might not look like it, but that’s how I live the moment. When you all leave, I’ll probably lie down in the middle of the field and cry my eyes out.”
The Sooners’ late heroics make Gasso’s birthday present all the more palatable.
“I always pray my birthday isn’t on a weekend because I know where I’m going to be hopefully,” said Gasso, who had to endure a pregame “Happy Birthday” chorus from the crowd he set best regards. “A special crowd. The crowd was wonderful. I’m not a person … I want to hide from it. I have a hard time accepting things, but they were great and the team gave me a wonderful gift card.”
A gift card from where?
“I love IHOP,” Gasso said. “I like French toast and coffee at IHOP. I go with my husband every now and then, so they got me an IHOP and I was really excited about it.”
The start of the game was certainly auspicious for the Sooners, as Coleman hit his third pitch of the game over the center field wall for a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Jennings hit the fifth pitch of his at-bat over the right-field wall for a 2-0 lead, marking the 10th time this season OU has hit back-to-back homers.
In the top of the fourth, Brito added a solo homer to center field to make it 3-0. An RBI on a fielder’s choice made it 4-0.
The bottom of the fourth is when OU’s magical ride began to go off course as the Tigers exploded for seven unanswered runs.
It started with a 3-run, two-out homer to left off second baseman Maddie Moore that cut the Tigers’ deficit to 4-3.
A four-run burst in the bottom of the fifth started with a 2-run homer to center by McKenzie Clark to give Clemson a 5-4 lead. A bases-loaded walk made it 6-4 and an RBI on a fielder’s choice pushed the Sooners’ deficit to three runs.
It marked just the second time this season OU has trailed by three runs. The previous event came in a 4-3 loss at Baylor on Feb. 19, which remains the Sooners’ only setback this season.
In just its fourth year of existence, Clemson softball has quickly proven itself to be among the top programs in the country.
“We got a lot of help from the long ball today,” Rittman said. “Like I mentioned earlier, there’s very little margin for error when you play Oklahoma. You can’t make too many mistakes. We were just one goal away from winning the game. We didn’t get 21 when we needed to. What doesn’t just kill you it will make you stronger.”
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