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Oklahoma Softball Staff Expands With Pair of Hires

Patty Gasso's team added pair that includes a veteran of Melyssa Lombardi's Oregon staff.
Ryan Aber|
Oklahoma's coaches meet during a Kentucky mound visit at Love's Field.
Oklahoma's coaches meet during a Kentucky mound visit at Love's Field. | Ryan Chapman / Sooners on SI

NORMAN — Oklahoma's softball support staff will have some new faces in the upcoming season.

Patty Gasso's team announced the hiring of Sam Marder as the program's Director of Player Development and Billy Fryer as the Video and Analytics Coordinator.

Marder was an assistant under Melyssa Lombardi, the OU alumn and longtime Sooners' pitching coach, at Oregon from 2021-26.

In 2025, Marder was named the Easton/National Fastpitch Coaches Association's Assistant Coach of the Year afer helping Lombardi's Ducks make the Women's College World Series. Running the Oregon offense, Marder helped the Ducks ran third nationally in hits, fourth in scoring, eighth in batting average, 10th in on-base percentage and 11th in home runs that season.

Marder was a volunteer analyst with Oklahoma during the 2021 WCWS championship season. The Sooners led the country in batting average, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walks that season.

As a player, she was a three-time All-American at Ohio State, setting a program record for career home runs (61), RBIs (191) and walks (232). Marder was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame in 2016 and was a 2011 draft pick of the Akron Races of National Pro Fastpitch and was the league's offensive Most Valuable Player in 2012.

Marder replaces Ryan Wondrasek, who previously served in the role for the last four seasons before joining DJ Gasso's staff at Tulsa.

Fryer was most recently a data challenge coordinator with SportsMEDIA Technology, working heavily in professional basketball. Prior to his time at SMY, he was a basketball data analyst for the WNBA's Indiana Fever, developing scouting reports and post-game recap data summaries, as well as assisting with other front-office requests.

He worked at North Carolina State as a student data and video analyst during a time when the Wolfpack reached the 2021 Men's College World Series semifinals and the women's basketball team won a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference titles.

The Sooners are coming off a 52-10 season where they won the SEC regular-season title for the second consecutive season. Oklahoma missed the Women's College World Series for the first time since 2015 after falling to Mississippi State in three games in the Norman Super Regional.

Oklahoma returns much of its roster from last season, including catcher Kendall Wells, shortstop Gabbie Garcia, right fielder Ella Parker and centerfielder Kai Minor.

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Ryan Aber
RYAN ABER

Ryan Aber has been covering Oklahoma football for more than a decade continuously and since 1999 overall. Ryan was the OU beat writer for The Oklahoman from 2013-2025, covering the transition from Bob Stoops to Lincoln Riley to Brent Venables. He covered OU men's basketball's run to the Final Four in 2016 and numerous national championships for the Sooners' women's gymnastics and softball programs. Prior to taking on the Sooners beat, Ryan covered high schools, the Oklahoma City RedHawks and Oklahoma City Barons for the newspaper from 2006-13. He spent two seasons covering Arkansas football for the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas before returning to his hometown of Oklahoma City. Ryan also worked at the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Muskogee Phoenix. At the Phoenix, he covered OU's national championship run in 2000. Ryan is a graduate of Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City and Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.

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