Healthy Again, Oklahoma P Jordy Bahl is ‘Feeling Good, Looking Good’
NORMAN — Oklahoma’s National Championship ending to 2022 didn’t exactly follow the script for star pitcher Jordy Bahl.
The 2022 NFCA Freshman of the Year missed a majority of the postseason with an arm injury, only able to return during the late stages of the Women’s College World Series to help her team take home the crown.
She was still engaged in the dugout, doing what she could to help the team, but the competitor in Bahl missed the opportunity to pitch throughout all phases of OU’s postseason run.
With the 2023 campaign on the horizon, Bahl is well rested and ready to take the field again.
“Jordy is feeling good, looking good,” OU coach Patty Gasso said during her preseason press conference on Monday. “Excited to get back and pick up where she left off. And it’s been a while since she’s felt healthy.”
Immediately following the WCWS triumph, Gasso said the plan for Bahl’s recovery was fairly simple — take your time.
“The summer the idea was to leave the ball in the bag and don’t pick it up and no need to,” Gasso said. “So just let it rest and let’s heal. And so, I mean it’s hard to keep her grounded because she wants to go, go, go, go, go.
“We haven’t had any kind of problems with the forearm. It seems like she feels completely fine.”
A return to her form before picking up the injury is a scary prospect for the rest of the softball world.
Bahl was electric as a freshman, striking out 205 batters while only issuing 34 walks in 141 1/3 innings of work. Opposing hitters ended the season with a batting average of .145 off Bahl, and she ended the year with a 1.09 ERA.
Even battling through the injury, Bahl was still able to record outs.
She allowed just two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings against UCLA in the WCWS, and Texas scored an additional pair of runs off Bahl’s right arm across four innings in the WCWS Championship Series.
This year, Bahl is expected to do more than just pitch.
During Oklahoma’s fall scrimmages, Bahl showed her power at the plate by hitting home runs off her fellow pitching staff.
Gasso said she’s even been working in left field to find more areas to help the team come up with victories.
The projected rise in work load doesn’t concern Gasso, however, as she said Bahl is physically built for all the coaching staff will ask of her in 2023.
“I think she’s another level athlete that I am not concerned about,” Gasso said. “She’s the strongest kid on our team. Probably the fastest on our team. She’s pretty phenomenal the things that she can do away from the mound. I think she wants it.
“She’s begging for an opportunity to lend more of herself to a chance to win, whether it’s on the mound, at the plate or in the field. She’s been working really hard to make herself an option and she definitely is. So I think she’s going to have a lot of fun with that.”
The mindset to always be ready, whether it be to hit or field, is something Bahl will have to recapture from her travel ball days.
But importantly, Gasso said she expects the same high level of production in the circle, and she’s seen nothing to indicate otherwise in Bahl’s recovery.
“I think you’re going to see the same competitor,” Gasso said. “The same walking around the mound, that same swag. Looks the exactly the same as it did last year.”
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