Oklahoma Embraced 'Good Chaos' to Weather Opening Day Emotions at Love's Field
NORMAN — Opening day at Love’s Field was far from straightforward for Oklahoma.
Patty Gasso’s top-ranked Sooners opened their new stadium, but got everything they could handle from Miami-OH.
The visiting Redhawks launched back-to-back home runs in the top of the first inning, taking a three-run lead they’d hold onto for a long stretch.
When Oklahoma finally battled back and took the lead for the first time, thing appeared to settle.
Then Miami hammered three straight bombs to erase a 7-3 lead, forcing the Sooners to return to the plate to extend their winning streak.
Kinzie Hansen delivered, because of course she did, with a walk-off, two-run bomb in the bottom of the seventh, finally allowing OU to breathe easy again on Friday.
“The Lord made that game to be the way it was to break in the stadium,” Gasso said Friday night. “It was a thriller. Fans were in it. There was a lot of hitting, a lot of dramatics.”
Oklahoma's Riley Ludlam delivered the Sooners' first go-ahead RBI at Love's Field, scoring Kinzie Hansen from second in the sixth inning against Miami-OH.
NATHAN J. FISH / THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK
The second game of the day was more straightforward, with OU needing only five innings to down Liberty 8-0.
Opening Love’s Field was more than just a pair of games on Friday afternoon.
The team was present at the opening ceremony Friday morning, and then learned about the nuances of the stadium, the field and the walls as the gates opened and the fans saw the new facility for the first time.
At the start of the day, Gasso said all of the newness meant the team felt like they were on the road even through they were surrounded by nearly 4,500 crimson-clad fans.
“It was tough,” Gasso said. “I’m going to be honest. It’s no excuse … but the expectations, the anxiety, the build-up of it all. … It felt like a lot of chaos. Good chaos, but I don’t know that we knew that it would drain us that much.”
Finally, it was OU associate head coach JT Gasso that brought the team together in the fourth inning to get everyone settled down.
“We were like, ‘Guys, this is our home advantage,’” Hansen said. “JT said, ‘Be you. Like, let’s be us. Be you. Be who you are. This is the same game that we’ve been playing whether it’s at Reaves or Marita or at Love’s Field. It’s all the same game.’
“Once we kind of came back to ourselves, we were just fine.”
Starting in the fourth inning, the Sooners scored in every remaining trip to the plate, fully making Love’s Field their own.
Oklahoma will have three more chances across home-opening weekend to continue to get comfortable in the new environment.
Gasso wasn’t able to bring her team in for a workout inside the stadium until pre-game on Friday, but she was able to lessen some of the emotional toll on herself with a trip to the complex on Thursday night.
”We didn’t get to do anything except look, it was raining, the tarp was on,” Gasso said. “But I went out on the concourse where the coaches’ families sit, I wanted to see what that looked like. And I saw Sarah (Zeinalpour), who is the head of this project, overseeing the entire project, and we’ve gone through a lot together, going through different questions, answers, picking things out — things like that.
“For the first time, when I saw her, we both kind of hugged and we both kind of cried. Because I was looking up at the lights on the stadium and it was just a wow moment.”
Love's Field
NATHAN J. FISH / THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK
Then the events Friday came one after another.
Gasso fought back emotions during the opening ceremony, getting to look into the crowd and see so many alumni gathered, but she was able to kick into gear once the game preparation started.
Even Hansen, a veteran of three successful Women’s College World Series trips, noted how different the day felt.
“We definitely had a long day,” Hansen said. “We had the ceremony this morning, we were suited up. We had two different (batting practice sessions), so there was a lot going on today.
“I definitely felt as if the thoughts kind of were, not necessarily all over the place, but there was just a lot going on for us and it could have been a little bit overwhelming for some players. … It took us time to get comfortable, for sure.”
Oklahoma won’t have that issue moving forward, however.
Now with everything opened, the Sooners can focus on playing their best softball — with over 4,000 fans backing them at every home game.
“It wasn’t really the field. It was the fans that threw us for a loop,” Gasso said. “It was very loud. You could just feel the energy. And I feel I speak for our team, I felt that we were very tight in the first game. It took us a while to get going.
“… We were much more ourselves in the second game, but it took us a little time to get this figured out. It was a little overwhelming, really.”
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