If you can coach a team to three straight National Championships and seven titles in 29 years, you deserve a statue. At least that is how it has turned out for University of Oklahoma head softball coach Patty Gasso. Her team won it’s third straight title on Thursday with a 3-1 victory over Florida State at the USA Softball Complex in Oklahoma City. A crowd of 12,195 attended the final game.
During a championship celebration on Saturday, OU vice president and director of athletics Joe Castiglione made the announcement that the university will be erect a statue of Grasso at the new Love’s Field softball stadium that is set to open next year.
“I get emails, social media posts, people stopping me, [asking] ‘when are we going to dedicate a statue for Patty Gasso?’” he said. “You all, we do things and try to keep it a secret for a while, but you just won’t let us keep a secret, so tonight, I’m just breaking it out. We’re going to have a statue for coach Gasso next year.”
“I’m honored,” Gasso said as she became emotional choking back tears, “It’s the first time you guys can be silent. I haven’t heard you so silent.”
OU finished with a 61-1 record and own the highest final winning percentage (.984) in Division I history, surpassing UCLA’s 1992 squad that finished 54-2 (.964).
The Sooners third straight title matches UCLA (1988-90) as the only other school to three-peat. OU will take its Division I record 53-game winning streak into next season.
The Sooners have won five of the last seven national championships and seven overall since 2000. Only UCLA (12) and Arizona (8) have won more championships.
Gasso, who has coached the Sooners for 29 years, said after the championship game that her and the Sooners have felt a lot of pressure this season to win it all again.
“I think this really was the roughest [season] I’ve ever had to go through just because of with lots of fans and the growth of the sport comes a lot of pressure,” she said. “I think I’ve felt that and they [our players] have felt that.”
If you look at the Sooners stats, it certainly didn’t seem like the pressure affected them any. The team turned in 35 shutouts and lost only one game. However, the coach continued to talk about how the team pushed through the pressure of winning three straight titles.
“It is incredibly hard,” Gasso said. “I don’t know how to explain it. I just can tell you the way I feel right now is free because the expectation is overwhelming, the pressure is overwhelming. I know what they’re feeling. I know what I’m feeling. It’s very difficult. It’s extremely rewarding. Like, I just want to go to Costco and shop and no one care that I’m there. [Our players] feel the same.”
OU super senior shortstop Grace Lyons, hit a solo home run in the fifth inning to give the Sooners a 2-1 lead.
After the game, Lyons said, “Something we talked about early on in the fall is the expectations from the outside, of what people expect of us, what fans, even like opposition, what they make us see or think on social media.”
The Sooners fell behind 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homer by Florida State’s Mack Leonard.
OU responded in the top of the next inning when Cydney Sanders and Lyons both hit solo homers, marking the 11th time this season OU has hit back-to-back home runs.
In the sixth inning, pinch-hitter Alynah Torres grounded into a fielder’s choice to that scored Jordy Bahl.
Bahl, the winner in Game 1, was named the WCWS Most Outstanding Player. She came into the final game in relief of starter Alex Storako in the fifth and retired all nine batters she faced. Storako (18-0; 1.15 ERA) got the victory while Bahl (0.90 ERA) earned her fourth save.