Oklahoma's Allyssa Parker 'Trending Well' in the Circle Entering the SEC Tournament

Sitting on a 6-0 lead last Saturday against Texas A&M, the No. 1 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament secured, Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso decided it was time to give Allyssa Parker a chance.

“You’ve got to give opportunity,” Gasso said.

The move worked initially, as Parker quickly retired the side in the sixth, before the freshman ran into some trouble in the seventh with a walk, two singles and a home run before Parker gave way to Audrey Lowry to close the game.

But Gasso wants Parker to be ready to come into games late in the postseason and she wanted to continue to build trust in the Pocola native.

“Allyssa Parker is sitting in the bullpen waiting to be a closer and never needing closing and we are needing to get her in games,” Gasso said. “We need to get her sewing in games, we need to figure out there that is. She’s been working at third, she’s been working at first, but she’s been working mostly in the bullpen.

“That’s the hard part of it, but she is really starting to trend well with Coach (Jennifer) Rocha so we’re feeling good.”

At bats have been tough to come by for Parker lately.

She’s had just four at-bats over the last month, but Parker has continued to carve out a niche among the pitchers.

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Parker figures to take a backseat to the most experienced Lowry, Miali Guachino and Sydney Berzon in the postseason as far as starting games, but she could be a valuable piece out of the bullpen.

Parker has certainly settled in on the pitching side as the year has gone on, but she’s also executing her pitches better.

“She’s got a great competitiveness about her — early strikes, changeups for strikes,” Gasso said. “We’ve got to really pinpoint those … any ball that she’s throwing hard has to be hitting a corner otherwise it’s going to be hit hard but when she can mix in throwing 70 mph with a 50 mph changeup, it’s unfair. But she’s got to be able to use both the right way and really feed off each other.”

Like the rest of the Sooners' freshman class, Parker is showing uncommon poise for a young player that's being asked to play a vital role.

"She's really matured on the mental side of things, being able to put her routine, her ritual, into eveyr single outing," Berzon said. "I think that's the biggest thing I've noticed is just seeing her out there calm and just attacking the zone."

Parker and the top-seed Sooners open the SEC Tournament against either LSU or Georgia at approximately 7 p.m. Thursday in Lexington, Ky.

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