Oklahoma Softball 2022 Season Preview: The Outfield
SI Sooners’ five-part series counting down the days until OU softball returns to action continues today with the outfield as the Sooners look to repeat as National Champions.
The Oklahoma outfield will continue to bring the noise in 2022.
Super senior Nicole Mendes moves on as she won the National Championship in her final game for the Crimson and Cream, but the rest of OU’s outfield will return this season.
Perhaps the best hitter the sport has ever seen can be found patrolling left field again this year when head coach Patty Gasso opts to throw Jocelyn Alo into the field instead of slotting in the lineup as the designated player.
Last year’s USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Alo rewrote the record books repeatedly in 2021.
Alo set new Oklahoma program marks for home runs (34), batting average (.475) and total bases (203) in 2021, and she’ll be chasing even bigger prizes this year.
Oklahoma Softball Season Preview:
Entering the year, Alo trails Sooner legend Lauren Chamberlain in the all-time career home run race, as just eight bombs would make Alo college softball’s new home run queen.
Even better for the Sooners, Alo said she feels almost no pressure chasing down the record headed into the season.
“I’m not really thinking about it,” Alo said before the season in a Zoom press conference. “Honestly, I know it’ll come.
“… I’m not pressed about it or nothing… I just want to win another Natty.”
The everyday outfielders are poised to impress in 2022 as well.
NFCA Freshman of the Year finalist Jayda Coleman returns, bringing excitement both in the field and behind the plate.
In 2021, the fiery freshman wowed with her impressive range in centerfield, as well as an on bade percentage of .545, good enough for second on the team. Once Coleman got on base, she was a terror. The freshman stole 20 bases, adding pressure to an already excellent bat which added nine home runs, 11 doubles and 53 RBIs to the cause for the Sooners.
In left field, Women’s College World Series breakout star Mackenzie Donihoo should see plenty more playing time.
Starting 17 games in left last season for the Sooners, Donihoo hit finished with a .438 batting average and nine home runs.
But Donihoo saved her best for the WCWS, where the Mustang, OK, native went 10-for-21 at the plate, smashing three home runs and driving in 10 runs. Her lasting memory from the WCWS came in the field, however, as she tracked down a ball, jumping to make an over-the-shoulder catch at the wall to deny a home run.
Mackenzie Donihoo
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
Both Coleman and Donihoo should be even more prepared entering the season this year, as Gasso said during a preseason Zoom press conference that Oklahoma’s pitching has taken a big step up this spring over where it was coming into the 2021 season.
“Last fall this offense was literally demoralizing our pitching staff,” Gasso said. “This year, our pitchers are handling our hitters.
“… It's not fun for our hitters. But it should be good news for them as well, because in my mind, they're facing some of the best pitchers in the country right now every day.”
Another home grown outfielder is primed for a much larger role in right field.
Owasso’s Rylie Boone is tipped to start in Mendes’ spot, and she’ll be another spark plug for Gasso’s offense on theses.
Appearing in 55 of 60 games last year mostly as a reinforcement off the bench, Boone still batted .412, logging 21 hits, 13 RBIs and 31 runs scored, also stealing six bags in the process.
Another player who plays with their emotions on their sleeve, Boone is another player who can provide and emotional jolt in an instant, making Oklahoma’s offense that much more potent in 2021.
Rylie Boone
John E. Hoover / SI Sooners
Plenty of other players could see work in the outfield as well next year.
Oregon transfer Alyssa Brito could fight for time in the outfield, as well as all-around utility player Grace Green and true freshman Hannah Coor.
Coor was rated a top 20 recruit nationally, and she saw plenty of action over OU’s fall exhibitions.
Though Mendes will form a big hole in right field, the Sooner roster is more than equipped to make up for the lost production to once again help form one of the most potent offenses in the country.
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