Kendall Wells' Humility and Hard Work Have Her on the Verge of History at Oklahoma

NORMAN – It only took Kendall Wells three at-bats to announce herself to the softball world.

On the opening night of the 2026 season, the Oklahoma freshman took Arizona State’s First Team All-American pitcher Kenzie Brown deep.

The homer instantly validated the power Wells displayed all through the fall, and showed that not only could she change a game with one swing of the bat, she’s also a clutch performer.

The Sooners were down 1-0 in Tempe, and the sixth-inning bomb erased a game’s worth of frustrations for the OU lineup.

knew it when she hit it 🚀@KendallWells__ | 🔗» https://t.co/Th2U6csZ7g pic.twitter.com/P8areJPiCb
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) February 6, 2026

Since then, Wells has only gone on to hit 26 home runs in 35 games so far, which is four homers short of tying the NCAA freshman record (30) and on pace to break the OU single-season record (34). She might even challenge the all-time NCAA standard (37). Wells is hitting .384 overall and has driven in 57 runs with a team-leading OPS of 1.572, a 1.107 slugging percentage and she’s drawn 17 walks to 14 strikeouts.

“She just can cover the plate so well, and I think she's got such a presence at the plate. I know it's got pitchers thinking. She's continuing to get better,” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said last week.

“... She is elite and she continues to stay there.”

Wells also has started at catcher in 28 games so far this season as well as four games at first base. In 186 chances on defense, she has yet to make an error in 2026.

Wells’ early success in college was no surprise to those who watched her grow and develop throughout her travel ball career.

“She's going to break a lot of records, man,” said Brett Sampson, one of Wells' coaches for the Georgia Impact. “I know this. I don't think it's a fluke as a freshman.”

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It didn’t take long for Wells to burst onto the softball scene in Georgia.

Sampson is one of the owners of the Georgia Impact team and coached Wells for three years with the Impact’s 18U team. He knew about her long before she joined his club.

“I was at a, I want to say like a middle school game for some reason, and there was this kid playing with all the boys, like roughhousing. And it was a little girl. It was Kendall,” Sampson told Sooners on SI.

“Again, didn't know who she was. ... So I was like, 'That kid, she's a tough little kid.' She was basically throwing these boys around, they were playing soccer or whatever, roughhousing. And even then I was like, she's going to be a strong kid.”

The competitiveness, talent and strength all translated to the softball field.

Wells starred at every level, and she was destined to play on the biggest stage early.

“When she was 14, we knew she'd play 18's early. So she came over to me probably when she was 15 and fit right in,” Sampson said. “All the girls were a year older than her and we already had a really talented team. I think she kind of had to go through the, you know, she's an alpha. But when you're a young alpha and you've got a bunch of other alphas, that was a great learning thing for Kendall because especially at Oklahoma, you're around a lot of really talented players and we always had a lot of really talented players so I think that helped her. You know, talent wants to be around talent. Game knows game, it's just the way it is. So it fit in.”

Oklahoma Sooners, Kendall Wells — Oklahoma catcher Kendall Wells celebrates after hitting a home run against Alabama State. | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

Wells played alongside future college stars like Alabama’s Audrey Vandagriff, Washington’s Morgan Reimer and Georgia’s Emily Digby, and she still stood out.

Although, she had to go through an early setback with Sampson.

“What sucked is the first year I had her, we're down in Newberry,” Sampson said of his trip to the PGF Show Me the Money Tournament. “... It was just damp enough, dude, and she hit second base and her — oh my God, her leg went the wrong way. And it was dead silence. ... When I got there I had to take a breath. The ambulance came and all that, and I'm losing her and that's early in the year.”

The injury cost Wells the entire summer, but she didn’t suddenly disappear.

“But let me tell you something, man. That kid came to everything on crutches and a cast,” Sampson said. “After she had surgery, she was in California with us. I mean she came to everything. She didn't have to. And that's just a good teammate. She was there. And let me tell you, she was the loudest one cheering, and the youngest. The youngest.

“But she wanted it so bad for the other girls, to win even though she couldn't contribute, and I know when we got put out of PGF that year she was crying because she thought it was the end of the year and she could have helped us.”

Wells never thought about being anywhere else than with her teammates while she was injured.

“A big part of that was for me mentally, it was good for me recovering from it to be around my teammates,” Wells told Sooners on SI. “Obviously, they were some of my closest friends, so I just wanted to get back out there as soon as possible to be with them. And then, I tell people all the time, it was the best summer because I didn’t have any worries about anything softball-related. I was just in the dugout cheering on my teammates. Didn’t have to worry about going up to bat, being on the field. Just there to be there for my teammates and encourage them."

Wells, as any great player would, took more from the experience than simply being there for her teammates. She paid close attention while she was out of commission in the dugout, and it helped her pick up right where she left off when she was cleared to play again.

“It definitely helped me overall just to see the game from a different point of view, if that makes sense,” Wells said. “Like, more on the coaching side just because I wasn’t able to do anything. I was able to see the game from a different view from the dugout. Notice different things. Pick up on pitch sequences or like picking pitches or stuff like that.”

Oklahoma Sooners, Kendall Well — Kendall Wells' teammates greet her at home plate after hammering another home run. | NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Wells was also in a better place to compete with the older age group when she was able to step back between the white lines.

“After my injury I was in the best shape I’ve been physically. So just being in that shape and then getting out there, getting to see it from the sidelines for a year and then being out there finally, I think that helped me a lot,” Wells said.

Healthy again, it was back to business as usual.

“With her, she's strong. She's not scared at all. She's gotten mentally stronger over the years, I've watched that because I had her for three years,” Sampson said. “... When she hits a ball, it's different. ... She just destroys the ball. ... It's like a one-percenter. And maybe it's less than that.

“And I knew that early on. She can mis-hit a ball out of the park, no problem.”

The path Wells was on meant every door was open to her collegiately, she just had to choose her path.

*****

Patty Gasso is an ace recruiter coast-to-coast, but she has a few pipelines she loves to use to add the best players to her program year-after-year.

Oklahoma does an excellent job keeping in-state talent in Norman, and the Sooners have plenty of success recruiting south of the Red River.

Gasso also brings in star after star from the OC Batbusters, one of the preeminent travel ball organizations on the West Coast.

OU can dip into the southeast when needed – something that will happen more and more as the Sooners and the Longhorns continue to establish themselves as the programs to beat in the SEC – but the traditional SEC powers generally do a good job of keeping the talent in the southeast away from Oklahoma and Texas.

“Oklahoma wasn't part of the SEC yet,” Sampson said of Wells’ recruitment. “And most girls in the south, I don't want to say all, but you're in the south. You grew up in the south. You want to play in the SEC. Why would you not? Some of the biggest colleges in the country, it's fun, it's a true college experience. Especially Georgia. She lives 10, 15 minutes from UGA.”

Florida battled with Oklahoma for Wells, but things fell into place quickly when the Sooners brought Wells in for her official visit.

“When I came out on my official visit I remember we did a dinner at coach’s house and all the coaches and their families were there,” Wells said. “My family was there. All the other recruits’ families were there. So just kind of being in that environment and seeing everyone interact. It really felt like a big family dinner, everyone there together, I think that was super important.”

Gasso’s blend of a family atmosphere paired with the requirement that every player competes and earns their spot every day spoke directly to Wells.

“I had seen a bunch of different schools, but I kind of always felt comfortable here. I really like that I was around elite players and coaches every day,” she said. “Always pushed to be the best. You can’t take a day off here. If you take a day off, you’re falling behind.

“So just being in that environment was super important for me. And then it’s like a family culture out here so that made it really easy to go 12 hours away from home. I knew I was going to be around people and in a culture that felt like family so that made it easier.”

Wells also loved the way the Sooners played.

“I was looking up to people like Kinzie Hansen, Tiare (Jennings), Jocelyn Alo,” she said. “Just some of the greats that I really liked the way they played the game. They just played it super passionately. Had a lot of energy, a lot of fun.”

From there, she decided to join Oklahoma’s star-studded 2025 recruiting class, a decision that already looks like a perfect fit.

*****

Wells is no stranger to hitting as one of the top names on the opposing scouting report.

She dealt with that long before arriving at Oklahoma, and she’s always shown the mental fortitude to power through all obstacles set in front of her.

“The pressure of being that good of a hitter all the time is hard,” Sampson said. “... That's the toughest part for any hitter. It's hard to be on all the time. ... So for Kendall to be this hot right out of the gate, I just — it's how she reacts when she's off. And I feel like she's mentally strong enough that she can do it because I watched her with me.

“There's been games, like PGF even one year she got so upset because she struck out like three times in a game. You know why, dude? Because they just kept throwing her changeups and she got in her head. That was it. She got in her head. And I finally said, 'Just stop overthinking it,' and then she went on a tear because that's what she'll do. … In the next game I think she hit a grand slam against the Hotshots that were older than us at the time. ... Kendall got them and hit a grand slam in the first inning.”

Sampson said Wells’ worth ethic, paired with her humility, keeps her level and on a constant path of growth.

Her teammates at Oklahoma got a glimpse of that humility when the Sooners traveled to Oxford to take on Ole Miss.

Wells went 3-for-11 for the weekend, but she crushed three home runs and drove in six runs in the three-game sweep. It’s the sort of “off” weekend every hitter in the country would take in a heartbeat.

“Every off day she’s working,” OU senior Abby Dayton said. "And I think just being able to watch her grow, like she’s not a freshman. She doesn’t have the mentality of a freshman. She is defying all the odds of what people call a freshman.

“... She’ll say that (Ole Miss) weekend was probably the worst weekend that she’s had and it’s crazy because she’s doing so good. And I think just her being able to be humble in the things that she does.”

Gasso preaches to all of her players that the team always comes first, and the best players will never reach their full potential at Oklahoma if they aren’t as invested in their teammates' success as they are in their own.

That’s never been an issue for Wells.

“She's always been able to rise above and really became a really good leader and a good teammate,” Sampson said. “And that's what I preached a lot with all of my girls. Because again, they were all going big time for the most part and it takes a team.

“If I taught any of them anything, it was being a good teammate and being humble because you are good and you're going to have good days and bad days, and a lot of times, too, you're going to fail. It's just how you react when you fail. I'm super proud. ... I'm very proud of that.”

The hard work on the off days is what Wells leans on when the lights are the brightest, and she’s only scratching the surface of what she can do for the Sooners.

“(I’m) just really trusting my training, trusting my preparation,” Wells said. “Here, we’ve been put in hard situations. We’re put in tough, difficult situations every day at practice all the time. Even when we hit on our own, we’re doing at-bats. We’re doing game-like stuff just to be prepared for those situations when we do face them.”

*****

Hitting under JT Gasso can yield incredible results, but it sometimes takes a hitter a year to fully grasp what the OU associate head coach is preaching.

Wells put her full faith in Gasso immediately.

“Obviously, at the beginning it’s kind of a little different,” she said. “(It) might feel uncomfortable, some of the stuff that he wants us to do. But he has so much knowledge about the game, about the mechanics, about motor preferences, about what we’re going to see from pitchers, about what the pitchers are going to do.

“So just, we have full faith in him. But getting to sit down and understand it more, definitely, since I’ve been here I’ve learned a lot more about it. So being able to learn about it and understanding it better has been really cool.”

The results speak for themselves.

Wells is four home runs away from tying the NCAA freshman record. Alo twice hit 34 bombs at Oklahoma, which is the program record, and Laura Espinoza hit 37 long balls at Arizona in 1995, which still stands as the NCAA record.

Yet, the freshman is remarkably able to tune out the noise.

“It's a little surreal,” she said. “I don't really look at the stats that much. When I see it, it's usually scrolling on Instagram and it's like, Oklahoma home runs and blah, blah, blah. Something I try to not focus on. If I try to hit home runs it's not gonna happen. So I try to push that off to the side and not really worry about it, which we all do. We keep it super focused, super locked in here.”

She didn’t even know how close she was to history.

“I think it would be cool. I honestly didn't even know the freshman record was 30 or the OU record was 34. I didn't know those were the records,” Wells said.

Wells said she doesn’t even quite feel like she gets the full attention of opposing pitching staffs yet.

“I think as the year goes on I definitely will,” she said. “... Having Gabbie (Garcia) and Ella (Parker) and Kasidi (Pickering) in the lineup behind me, it’s so easy to hit. I know if I don’t get the job done, they’re going to get it done. And, you know, you can’t really pitch around anyone in our lineup.”

The success early in Wells’ career has only motivated her to work harder at practice and anytime she’s in the batting cages with JT Gasso.

“We're always working to be better,” Wells said. “There's no time to take any time off. There's always more we can do. So just knowing that, knowing that I can do more and learn more, practice more, do anything more — there's always more to gain. So just knowing that, keeping my head down and working hard is super important.”

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It’s not just the success on the field that has people back home proud of Wells, but how she’s conducted herself throughout the year at Oklahoma.

“She's always worked. She wanted it bad,” Sampson said. “And she does good in school, too. I'm super proud of her about that. ... I saw her mature over those years and be very good, which I was big on this anyway, wanting more for your teammates. And that shows maturity, too. Because even when you're having a bad day, you need to be up there wanting more for your teammates, which taught them all that it can change. I can be on top of the world for like a weekend and kill it, and I can have a bad day, but I've got to let it go.”

Wells is just enjoying the ride — something she’s done since her first game when she battled Brown deep into the Tempe night.

“It was definitely super cool in my first game hitting that big home run,” Wells said. “But like I said, we were prepared. We knew what she was showing. I was trying to work from at-bat to at-bat. And then I learned about the at-bats, and in my final at-bat it finally paid off.”

Wells’ work continues to pay off, and there’s no sign of it slowing down for the Sooners’ latest record-breaking slugger.