OU Softball: Catcher Kinzie Hansen Reportedly Confirms She'll Return for 2024 Season

It may seem like a no-brainer decision, but Kinzie Hansen confirmed it Sunday night.

Oklahoma’s senior catcher told Dean Blevins during her visit to the KWTV studios for her appearance on “The Sports Blitz” — alongside coach Patty Gasso — that she intends to utilize her COVID year and will return to OU for a fifth season in 2024.

Look who dropped by @news9. All-American ⁦@kinziehansen⁩ will join me on the Blitz tonight Along w the old ball coach ⁦@GassoPatty⁩! Kinzie tells us she’s returning for a FIFTH season w @OUSoftball. Watch us also on @newson6. pic.twitter.com/vtJnKEQ7wj
— Dean Blevins (@DeanBlevins) June 12, 2023

Hansen’s other options are to receive her degree, leave school and, if she wants to keep playing, join a professional softball league. So it makes perfect sense to come back to OU to pursue not only an unprecedented fourth consecutive national championship, but also postgraduate education as well as lucrative NIL opportunities as one of the most popular players on an outrageously popular team.

Hansen was a freshman in 2020, when the pandemic shut down the college softball season less than halfway through. OU was 20-4 when the shutdown occurred, the NCAA granted all student-athletes enrolled for the 2019-2020 academic year an additional year of eligibility.

Watch the interview with Patty Gasso and Kinzie Hansen

Hansen, from Norco, CA, ranked 30th in the nation this year (and third on the team behind Tiare Jennings and Alyssa Brito) with a .409 batting average, and was tied for 70th (and fifth on the team) with 13 home runs.

She’s played for USA Softball’s National Team, was accorded second-team All-America honors and was named Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player despite injuries in 2022.

In 2021 Hansen also played first base and batted .438 with 24 home runs, which ranked fifth nationally.

Hansen’s popularity peaked late this season, when she came up with numerous clutch hits, including the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the seventh against Texas, and the game-tying, three-run home run against Clemson in the Super Regional.

“I knew I was going to get up,” Hansen said after Jennings’ RBI hit eliminated Clemson. “I was either going to be the last out of the game or I was going to keep it going for us. I sat in the dugout, and I was praying.

“The Sooners aren’t over until the last strike. We’re not done until the last out is made and is sealed. … We were in the huddle saying it’s never over. It’s not done. That was really the approach that I had.”