Oklahoma Softball Opens 2023 Season With Double Header at Mark Campbell Invitational

Oklahoma’s march toward history starts on Thursday.

Patty Gasso’s back-to-back defending National Champions look to become the first program since UCLA to win three straight crowns.

The Bruins accomplished the feat from 1988-1990, and the No. 1-ranked Sooners will have to replace the production of college softball’s all-time home run hitter, Jocelyn Alo.

Star second baseman Tiare Jennings returns alongside super senior captain Grace Lyons, 2022 NFCA Freshman of the Year pitcher Jordy Bahl and nine other members of last year’s title team.

Gasso also added four transfers in Alex Storako, Haley Lee, Cydney Sanders and Alynah Torres and brought in four freshmen to round of the roster.

After working throughout the fall and winter, the Sooners will finally take the field against a different opponent when they meet the No. 19 Duke Blue Devils on Thursday.

“I can’t tell you how excited they are to play someone else in a different uniform,” Gasso said of her team on Monday.

To open the year, the Sooners headed off to Irvine, CA, for five games in the Mark Campbell Invitational.

Oklahoma will get quite a test out of the gates, as three of OU’s five opponents are ranked, and one other is receiving votes.

Up first will be Duke, who despite only establishing the program in 2018 made it into the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals last year, falling only to UCLA in postseason play.

Ace pitcher Jala Wright returns for the Blue Devis, and she’ll work to hold OU’s lineup in check while the Duke offense works through plenty of turnover from last year’s team.

Coaching from the Duke dugout will be a familiar face.

Sydney Romero, former Sooner star and two-time National Champion, joined the Blue Devil staff as an assistant coach this past offseason.

She spent the last two seasons on Gasso’s staff before stepping out on her own in the coaching realm.

The contest against Duke will start at 6 p.m. and be streamed on FloSoftball, but it won’t be the only action of the night for the Sooners.

Oklahoma will face off against Liberty at 9 p.m. before returning on Friday to play the No. 14-ranked Stanford Cardinal at 9:30 p.m.

The weekend will close with a battle against No. 16 Washington on Saturday at 9 p.m., and a bout with San Jose State on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Undaunted by the difficulty of the schedule, the Sooners hope the early contests against other talented rosters will help the new pieces on the team gel.

“I think it will help us know where we’re at early on in the season rather than waiting later into the season,” centerfielder Jayda Coleman said. “… We’re going to see them early and learn from our mistakes earlier on in the season rather than right before postseason.”

But for Coleman, the start of the season came long before the Sooners gathered for the offseason fall slate.

“It started in August,” Coleman said. “… It didn’t start after Christmas Break. We’ve been grinding and working out butts off.”

The march back to Oklahoma City isn’t something Gasso said the team focuses on every day.

She just wants the group to take things day-by-day, focusing on getting the most out of each practice and every game.

The first steps toward defending the title will be to take on Duke and Liberty Thursday, finally opening up the highly-anticipated 2023 season.

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