NORMAN — It’s a big weekend for the Sooners, and a huge opportunity to seize momentum.
The Sooners control their own destiny heading into the final weekend of the regular season. They travel to Florida in sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the SEC standings — they can clinch a share of the regular-season title with a win this weekend and clinch the conference outright with two or more wins.
The good news for Patty Gasso‘s program is they enter the weekend with momentum. The Sooners (42-5, 16-5 SEC) swept Texas over the weekend and appear to be peaking at the right time.
Here’s a look at some of the notes from the team’s midweek press conference on Tuesday:
Weekend schedule
Thursday: 5 p.m. (SECN)
Friday: 4 p.m. (SECN)
Saturday: 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
All games at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, Florida
Ailana Agbayani finding her groove
Agbayani projected to play a significant role for the Sooners both offensively and defensively when she transferred from BYU during the offseason. She solidified her spot at second base pretty quickly, but it took some time for her offense to come along. She entered last weekend with a batting average of .240 against conference opponents.
Last weekend was her breakout.
Agbayani logged six base hits in eight at-bats, including five RBIs, three runs, two walks and two doubles. Her weekend included a grand slam, which helped the Sooners pull out the victory in the series opener. She was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday.
When Agbayani is having that kind of impact, Gasso knows it significantly raises the Sooners’ ceiling.
“It’s a big spark,” Gasso said. “She’s in a good place in the lineup to be that big spark, and that is how I remember her hitting against us last year. She was just lighting us up, and so I know she’s capable. Again, for a lot of these new players, I think once they get their footing down — and it’s taken some time for some of them to just get their feet grounded — then we can start really moving.
“I am really excited to watch her going forward because she has finally found her swing the way she wants has been consistent with it. So you add that — that’s why I’m saying we’re piecing our lineup together now. You can see that there are no, like, ‘Oh, this person’s not real hot.’ They’re starting to line up right now and that’s what you’ve been seeing over the last six games.”
Florida scouting report
The Sooners may be playing well right now, but they know this weekend won’t be easy.
Florida (41-12, 12-9) has been viewed as a championship contender all season, ranking 10th nationally in scoring (7.7 runs per game). The Sooners faced the Gators in last season’s Women’s College World Series semifinals, dropping the first game before outlasting them in the second game.
The Gators haven’t been quite as dominant as some expected. But Gasso knows this will be a telling weekend.
“They’re good. Real good,” Gasso said. “(They have) power, speed. They’re just good in every facet of the game. So it’s definitely going to be a tough one for sure, and I know they’ll bring the fans out. I can’t remember the last time we played there. It was a long, long time ago. So I think it’ll be just a wonderful environment. And (Florida coach Tim Walton’s) got players that our players are familiar with, and our players have played travel ball with their team, so we know each other pretty well.
“It’s gonna be some fun softball to watch.”
Favorite team-building exercises?
Before the season began, Gasso knew it would take some time for the team to gel. After losing a heralded senior class, and adding so many freshmen and new players, the Sooners focused a lot on building chemistry early in the year.
Kierston Deal and Gabbie Garcia detailed some of their favorite team-building exercises from early in the season.
“The one that I can remember,” Deal recalled, “was the day where we split up and we were kind of doing a little bit of our deep talks and then we had a dodgeball game set up and a badminton game set up. And then one of the dodgeball games, it was you could only use your feet so we were playing basically soccer dodgeball and it was so funny. But just those little things are still competitive games… It’s kind of fun to see who’s athletic in other ways, not only softball and who’s kind of not, too.
“I thought it was really cool to be able to listen to other people’s stories,” Garcia added, “and open up and understanding you have more in common with people standing alongside you more than you think and I think that was a thing that really helped me integrate into this team the most. Like Kierston said, that same day we also did a lot of fun things and allowing us to see we’re more than just softball players, we’re multiple different kinds of athletes and it’s cool.”
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Softball notepad: Ailana Agbayani has ‘finally found her swing’
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NORMAN — It’s a big weekend for the Sooners, and a huge opportunity to seize momentum.
The Sooners control their own destiny heading into the final weekend of the regular season. They travel to Florida in sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the SEC standings — they can clinch a share of the regular-season title with a win this weekend and clinch the conference outright with two or more wins.
The good news for Patty Gasso‘s program is they enter the weekend with momentum. The Sooners (42-5, 16-5 SEC) swept Texas over the weekend and appear to be peaking at the right time.
Here’s a look at some of the notes from the team’s midweek press conference on Tuesday:
Advertisement
Thursday: 5 p.m. (SECN)
Friday: 4 p.m. (SECN)
Saturday: 4 p.m. (ESPNU)
All games at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, Florida
Agbayani projected to play a significant role for the Sooners both offensively and defensively when she transferred from BYU during the offseason. She solidified her spot at second base pretty quickly, but it took some time for her offense to come along. She entered last weekend with a batting average of .240 against conference opponents.
Last weekend was her breakout.
Agbayani logged six base hits in eight at-bats, including five RBIs, three runs, two walks and two doubles. Her weekend included a grand slam, which helped the Sooners pull out the victory in the series opener. She was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday.
When Agbayani is having that kind of impact, Gasso knows it significantly raises the Sooners’ ceiling.
“It’s a big spark,” Gasso said. “She’s in a good place in the lineup to be that big spark, and that is how I remember her hitting against us last year. She was just lighting us up, and so I know she’s capable. Again, for a lot of these new players, I think once they get their footing down — and it’s taken some time for some of them to just get their feet grounded — then we can start really moving.
“I am really excited to watch her going forward because she has finally found her swing the way she wants has been consistent with it. So you add that — that’s why I’m saying we’re piecing our lineup together now. You can see that there are no, like, ‘Oh, this person’s not real hot.’ They’re starting to line up right now and that’s what you’ve been seeing over the last six games.”
The Sooners may be playing well right now, but they know this weekend won’t be easy.
Florida (41-12, 12-9) has been viewed as a championship contender all season, ranking 10th nationally in scoring (7.7 runs per game). The Sooners faced the Gators in last season’s Women’s College World Series semifinals, dropping the first game before outlasting them in the second game.
The Gators haven’t been quite as dominant as some expected. But Gasso knows this will be a telling weekend.
“They’re good. Real good,” Gasso said. “(They have) power, speed. They’re just good in every facet of the game. So it’s definitely going to be a tough one for sure, and I know they’ll bring the fans out. I can’t remember the last time we played there. It was a long, long time ago. So I think it’ll be just a wonderful environment. And (Florida coach Tim Walton’s) got players that our players are familiar with, and our players have played travel ball with their team, so we know each other pretty well.
“It’s gonna be some fun softball to watch.”
The matchup is a bit of a reunion. Walton was an assistant coach under Gasso for four seasons, and the duo helped lead the Sooners to their first national championship in 2000. Walton is in his 20th season with the Gators.
“It’s interesting, because I’ve been watching kind of from afar, and when he was here, he was very energetic, hustler, on the phone constantly talking to people, hustling, all of that,” Gasso said. “He built that program… When he took over, he really took them to a different level. And really stayed there. He had some of the best softball players in the country at one time.
“So, familiar with a lot of his athletes. Sometimes he was really animated and very excitable. I think he’s kind of calmed down a little bit. He’s a good teacher. Good with defense. Just a good game manager.”
Before the season began, Gasso knew it would take some time for the team to gel. After losing a heralded senior class, and adding so many freshmen and new players, the Sooners focused a lot on building chemistry early in the year.
Kierston Deal and Gabbie Garcia detailed some of their favorite team-building exercises from early in the season.
“The one that I can remember,” Deal recalled, “was the day where we split up and we were kind of doing a little bit of our deep talks and then we had a dodgeball game set up and a badminton game set up. And then one of the dodgeball games, it was you could only use your feet so we were playing basically soccer dodgeball and it was so funny. But just those little things are still competitive games… It’s kind of fun to see who’s athletic in other ways, not only softball and who’s kind of not, too.
“I thought it was really cool to be able to listen to other people’s stories,” Garcia added, “and open up and understanding you have more in common with people standing alongside you more than you think and I think that was a thing that really helped me integrate into this team the most. Like Kierston said, that same day we also did a lot of fun things and allowing us to see we’re more than just softball players, we’re multiple different kinds of athletes and it’s cool.”
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