Fresh Faces: Oklahoma OF Abigale Dayton Has Always Been Fueled by a Love of Competition

Oklahoma's newest outfielder dreamed of playing for the Sooners from a young age. A Gasso and the transfer portal helped make that dream become reality this summer.

Abigale Dayton / Abby Dayton via Instagram

Leading into the 2025 softball season, Sooners on SI is profiling Patty Gasso’s five transfer additions who are set to help OU in the program’s first trek through the Southeastern Conference. 

NORMAN — Abigale Dayton is no stranger to Oklahoam softball. 

Growing up playing for the OC Batbusters, the Sooners were always viewed as a destination for the talented outfielder. 

Even before making waves on the travel ball circuit, Dayton had designs of landing in Norman. 

She visited Oklahoma when she was 10-years-old for a youth softball camp, and her first meeting with Patty Gasso and her experiences at Marita Hynes Field stuck with her. 

“I was super stoked and excited when Coach Gasso reached out to me, just because it was always a dream for me to play here,” Dayton said last fall. “Since I was 10, we were playing on the field out here, and we were just always at Reaves (Park) playing in tournaments, and it was just every 10-year-old girl dreamed to go to OU. 

“And so when I got that call, it was definitely just all the emotions running through. Definitely a little scary when she called me to come out and visit. I was like, me? Are you sure you got the right phone call? But just coming here, as soon as I got here, I knew. I knew this was the place for me.”

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Picking up the phone and calling Dayton was a no brainer for Gasso, however. 

Dayton garnered NFCA Third Team All-American honors last year for her play at Utah. 

The outfielder hit .431, tallying 10 doubles, six triples, two home runs and 28 RBIs. She walked 27 times to just 12 strikeouts, and she posted a .510 on-base percentage. Dayton also added 10 stolen bases and excellent defensive play in the field, which all was more than enough for her to get all the attention from Oklahoma’s coaching staff. 

And while she was blown away, it wasn’t totally unfamiliar.

Not only had Dayton been around Gasso during youth camps, but she was coached by another Gasso — Patty Gasso’s younger son, DJ Gasso. 

DJ was Dayton’s first hitting coach at Utah in 2023, and he was a huge reason she signed up to play for the Utes. 

“I love DJ,” Dayton said. “… He was a game-changer for me."

Dayton and Gasso made it to the Women’s College World Series with the Utes in 2023, but Gasso took a job with Arkansas, and Dayton had to decide if she wanted to stay in Utah or test the portal waters after her freshman year.

“When he left, it was kind of a little bit late my freshman year when we found out, and so the portal was closing,” Dayton said. “So my sophomore year, I was like, 'let's give it a try,' and we went, but we barely ended up making postseason, and that's not something I wanted. I wanted to be able to know, like, I'm competing and we're gonna make postseason, we're gonna play and we're gonna get to the World Series. That was always a goal of mine. 

“So just being able to see myself in a postgame type scenario, I knew that I was gonna have to enter the portal.”

That competitive drive has fueled Dayton from a young age, battling with her brothers and onto the softball diamond even if she wasn’t always the biggest or most imposing player on the field. 

“My family has always been a competitive family,” said Dayton, “and my brothers played baseball, I played softball, but it was always 'who's gonna be the best?' 

“It had nothing to do with what sport we were playing, what thing. It was always like, 'Oh, we're drawing? Well, who's not gonna draw outside the lines?' That kind of thing.”

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Read More OU Softball: Meet the Sooners' 2025 Freshmen

• Kadey Lee McKay
• Chaney Helton
• Sydney Barker
• Corri Hicks
• Riley Zache
• Gabbie Garcia
• Audrey Lowry
• Tia Milloy

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Dayton’s competitive fire came out against the Sooners in 2023 as well. 

Utah played Oklahoma at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, a game OU ultimately won 10-3 on a wet morning in California. 

Dayton went 0-for-1 at the plate, but what she remembers most from batting the Sooners was the energy coming out of Oklahoma’s dugout that her Utah team was forced to match. 

“I think that's what OU softball has brought to the softball program in general, just like softball all over, that they have brought a different competitiveness,” Dayton said. “…  Playing against them, it was like, you've got Rylie Boone and Jayda Coleman, they're screaming and, like, after that day, I was like, 'OK, that's how I want to be.' Like, 'I want to have that energy.' 

“I want to bring my team with that kind of just emotion, they get on base, and they're like screaming at their dugout. And it wasn't like against the other team, like they were excited for their team, they were excited that they got on base.”

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Read More OU Softball: Meet the Sooners' 2025 Transfers

• Isabella Smith
• Sam Landry
• Ailana Agbayani

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Dayton won’t get to play alongside Boone and Coleman, who graduated after winning a fourth-straight national title last year, but she’ll get to leave her own mark on the program over the next two years. 

In 2025, she’ll help guide the program through its first year in the SEC as one of 14 newcomers. 

So many aspects of the team will be different when the season starts next week, but Dayton is ready to carry on the legacy of the teams that came before her in Norman.

“I’m ready. I'm going to have my best, the team's going to have their best, and we're going to give our all,” Dayton said. “… I love competitiveness, I love competing. I am competitive at heart. 

“So I'm excited to see, I want everyone's A-game. I don't want anyone to give me a 50 percent, like I want to see everyone's 100, 110 percent.”