Fresh Faces: Audrey Lowry Will Bring a Familiar 'Quiet' and 'Crafty' Approach to the Circle for Oklahoma

Leading into the 2025 softball season, Sooners on SI is profiling Patty Gasso’s nine talented freshmen who are set to help OU in the program’s first trek through the Southeastern Conference.

NORMAN — Audrey Lowry, Oklahoma’s unassuming freshman pitcher, drew quite the comparison from head coach Patty Gasso this past fall.

“You go out, you might look at her and go, 'Oh, what a cute little pitcher.' And she's used to that,” Gasso said of the Pittsboro, IN, product. “She's very quiet, she's kind of shy, but she's very crafty. Kelly Maxwell has a little bit of that, kind of shyness in her, but I see her looking to be someone like a Kelly Maxwell in the future.”

Gasso’s comments came after the Sooners dispatched of MACU last November, an outing in which Lowry had another nice night.

She often impressed this past fall, regardless of if she was taking on her own teammates or any of OU’s other opponents, and she was flattered by Gasso’s comparison.

“It means a lot because Kelly is influential to many people, especially me,” Lowry said. “When I got here, everyone was like, 'Oh, you're Kelly. You look just like Kelly, you act just like Kelly. You're literally Kelly.' And I actually saw Kelly at a football game and I was talking to her about it. She just laughed. She thought it was hilarious.”

Lowry would obviously love for her career to end up like Maxwell’s with multiple All-American honors and getting to end the season under a dog pile of teammates at Devon Park in June.

To get there, she’ll have to continue to learn how to mix her pitches, like all hurlers, to constantly fool batters. It’s a path Gasso is confident Lowry will be able to traverse.

“Kelly didn't start that way. Kelly Maxwell took a couple of years to develop that,” Gasso said. “Audrey can mix her pitches up. She throws a lot of strikes. I'm really excited about her future, and I really am excited where her progress with Coach Rocha is right now.”

Working with Jennifer Rocha, Oklahoma associate head coach and pitching coach, has been a rewarding challenge for Lowry.

“It's awesome,” Lowry said. “… It's just really great to learn from her and just mechanically I've learned a lot more, especially on certain pitches and I just love watching with her.”

Between Rocha’s instruction, leaning on her fellow pitchers and learning to battle against Oklahoma’s lineup every day, Lowry believes she’s already improved a great deal since high school.

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The positions she gets put in every day at practice only pushes her to compete and discover a different gear to succeed.

“Coach Rocha challenged me more mentally,” Lowry said. “… There was a practice where I just threw dropball and changeup to every single batter, so it's just — she challenges us and it makes us better.”

Facing off against the Sooners’ hitters and staying confident can be a huge mental hurdle for every pitcher new to Gasso’s program — both for freshmen and for transfers who step into the circle — but Lowry said her fellow pitchers and new teammates have played a huge role in helping her feel at home.

As has Gasso.

Like many of her fellow freshmen, Lowry couldn’t quite believe it when she first knew Gasso was interested in recruiting her to Norman.

“I think it was in seventh grade when I first started getting recruited by Coach Gasso,” Lowry said. “I remember the day my dad texted me, ‘You got invited to a camp.' I was so excited. Oklahoma has always been my dream. It was actually the only visit I went on my junior year. I just knew as soon as I stepped on campus.”

Oklahoma freshman pitcher Audrey Lowry | Bobby Goddin/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Without Maxwell, four-time national champion Nicole May and veteran transfer Karlie Keeney on the roster anymore, Lowry will have a chance to carve out a role in the rotation early on.

Gasso and Rocha utilize a deep pitching staff, especially early in the season, both to test the mentality of the group while also keeping everyone fresh for a deep postseason run.

That kind of trust in the entire group will afford Lowry a chance to ingratiate herself to OU fans next month, but it also serves as motivation to propel her through her freshman year.

“It definitely pushes me because she has high expectations and we just work hard in the bullpen every day,” she said. “We throw every day and we try to get better every day.”