Clay Horning is asking the right question and not quite saying the hard thing out loud, so I will.
Audrey Lowry is Oklahoma’s best pitcher. She entered Thursday’s game in the fourth inning — after two other pitchers had already surrendered a 5-0 lead and watched it become a 5-5 tie. She allowed five more runs and took the loss. That is not a pitching problem. That is a deployment problem, and it belongs entirely to Patty Gasso.
Horning floats the “mad genius” theory — that Gasso saw this loss coming and engineered it as a humility lesson before the Women’s College World Series. It’s a generous read. It might even be correct. Gasso has earned that benefit of the doubt more than almost any coach alive. But here’s the thing about that theory: it only works if the lesson lands. And right now, Kendall Wells is 1 for 14 with a single over six games, Kasidi Pickering can’t find her footing, and the team that looked like a dynasty in March is going back to Norman to practice until their hands bleed.
That is not a team that needed a humility lesson.
That is a team that needed its best pitcher in the first inning.
Presley Harrison — a freshman — showed Oklahoma exactly what that looks like Thursday night. 6 2/3 innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts, zero walks, after her starter failed. Harrison didn’t manage the moment. She owned it. When ESPN asked how she refocused after Kai Minor took her deep, she didn’t talk about her feelings. She said next pitch. That’s it. That’s the whole answer.
The Sooners are talented enough to make a deep run at the WCWS. Kai Minor is on fire. The lineup, when it clicks, is as good as anyone’s in the country. And Gasso is right that this team knows how to bounce back — the résumé supports it.
But Lowry pitches first. That part isn’t complicated.
Clay Horning is asking the right question and not quite saying the hard thing out loud, so I will.
Audrey Lowry is Oklahoma’s best pitcher. She entered Thursday’s game in the fourth inning — after two other pitchers had already surrendered a 5-0 lead and watched it become a 5-5 tie. She allowed five more runs and took the loss. That is not a pitching problem. That is a deployment problem, and it belongs entirely to Patty Gasso.
Horning floats the “mad genius” theory — that Gasso saw this loss coming and engineered it as a humility lesson before the Women’s College World Series. It’s a generous read. It might even be correct. Gasso has earned that benefit of the doubt more than almost any coach alive. But here’s the thing about that theory: it only works if the lesson lands. And right now, Kendall Wells is 1 for 14 with a single over six games, Kasidi Pickering can’t find her footing, and the team that looked like a dynasty in March is going back to Norman to practice until their hands bleed.
That is not a team that needed a humility lesson.
That is a team that needed its best pitcher in the first inning.
Presley Harrison — a freshman — showed Oklahoma exactly what that looks like Thursday night. 6 2/3 innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts, zero walks, after her starter failed. Harrison didn’t manage the moment. She owned it. When ESPN asked how she refocused after Kai Minor took her deep, she didn’t talk about her feelings. She said next pitch. That’s it. That’s the whole answer.
The Sooners are talented enough to make a deep run at the WCWS. Kai Minor is on fire. The lineup, when it clicks, is as good as anyone’s in the country. And Gasso is right that this team knows how to bounce back — the résumé supports it.
But Lowry pitches first. That part isn’t complicated.