Fresh Faces: Why Oklahoma Needs Isabela Emerling's Experience Behind the Plate

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

NORMAN — The first position Patty Gasso addressed in the transfer portal last offseason was catcher.

The Sooners lost both Kinzie Hansen and Riley Ludlam to graduation, and the emergency third catcher option, Alynah Torres, also departed though OU never had to resort to that a year ago.

Gasso had already signed Corri Hicks and Riley Zache to join the team as freshmen, but she needed a veteran who could plug straight into the lineup.

Enter North Carolina’s Isabela Emerling.

The Martinez, CA, product played redshirted in 2022 due to an injury, then she cemented herself as a redshirt freshman in 2023.

She started 48 of her 52 appearances for the Tar Heels, where she became an essential part of the defense behind the plate. Emerling threw out nine runners, though her offense lagged behind her impact on the field.

Tested Bela's arm and got thrown out 🤷‍♀️

📺: ESPNU (https://t.co/phLTX1NdFL)#GoHeels pic.twitter.com/f47RM0B79c
— Carolina Softball (@UNCSoftball) April 27, 2024

She hit .179 for the season, totaling six home runs and 20 RBIs.

That side of the game would see major improvement from her redshirt freshman to her redshirt sophomore year.

Emerling set career-highs across the board, hitting .323 with 14 home runs, 53 RBIs and drawing 35 walks.

Read More OU Softball: Meet the Sooners' 2025 Transfers

She ended the year with a .418 on-base percentage, a 1.103 OPS and a .685 slugging percentage. Emerling’s 53 RBIs ranked eighth in the ACC, and she started all 43 games she appeared in either at catcher or in the infield.

Emerling’s offensive advancements continued this past fall.

She was a powerful piece of Oklahoma’s new-look lineup throughout the Battle Series, but she’l be tasked with leading the infield as Gasso’s catcher.

BELA 💣 TO TIE IT AT FOUR@isabelaemerling | SECN+ pic.twitter.com/nGbtjFnvAz
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) November 7, 2024

To take that step forward, Emerling and the rest of the Oklahoma catchers will have to continue to find their voice as the season gets rolling on Thursday.

“What the hardest thing was is to get them out vocally and really make decisions for us,” Gasso said on Saturday. “You're just used to Kinzie Hansen absolutely taking control of the field and you knew always where you were going, what you were doing.

“They're new, they're uncertain sometimes because they don't wanna make mistakes and it's just hard. I don't know if you've ever heard a coach say, ‘Good, make mistakes. Make mistakes because we've gotta learn what you're not comfortable with.’ And if (the catchers are) like reserved in it that, I can't tell. None of us can tell.”

Emerling will have plenty of opportunity to show the coaching staff just how in control she is behind the plate to start the season.

The Sooners will head to the West Coast this weekend and then play four games in Waco, TX, before opening up at home.

Oklahoma’s entire lineup will be a work in progress as Gasso tries different combinations to start the year, but Emerling is the only catcher with collegiate experience — something the coaching staff valued in the transfer portal process.

And Gasso has already seen improvement from her entire group of catchers, spearheaded by Emerling.

“They've really elevated. Now, some of their calls maybe are not right, but that is how we learn,” Gasso said. “If they don’t say it, we don’t know. So I like what's going on back there. It's much more firm and I feel really comfortable with it.”