All Sooners

OU Softball: Oklahoma Lands Transfer Catcher

Patty Gasso and the Sooners have been looking for Kinzie Hansen's backup, and they may have found it Thursday in the transfer portal.

John E. Hoover

Furman Athletics

Patty Gasso has finally found Kinzie Hansen's replacement.

Gasso dug back into the NCAA Transfer Portal on Thursday to land Riley Ludlam, a transfer from Furman.

The Sooners have been in the market for a backup catcher ever since Sophia Nugent transferred to Tennessee. The graduation of backup Haley Lee also hastened Gasso's search.

The news was first reported by Extra Innings Softball's Justin McLeod.

Hansen, a first-team All-American and the Johnny Bench Award winner as the nation's best catcher, has said she's coming back for the 2024 season, her final year as a Sooner. Ludlam, meanwhile, has one year of eligibility remaining, as she's been a four-year starter since beginning her collegiate career in 2020. The NCAA has granted an additional year of eligibility for athletes who competed in the 2020 COVID season.

Riley Ludlam
Riley Ludlam / Furman Athletics

Ludlam earned first-team All-Southland Conference in 2022, batting .279 with a team-leading 15 doubles, seven home runs and 35 RBIs. In 2023, Ludlam hit .372 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs. That included a game against Tulsa in which she hit two home runs with three RBIs. The Paladins' previous game against Gardner-Webb, she had two hits and five RBIs. As a junior, she also hit two home runs in a game against Charleston Southern.

Ludlam, a 6-foot senior from Fort Myers, FL, started at seven different positions as a freshman, and eventually had settled on catcher and shortstop, which means at OU — which also graduates All-American shortstop Grace Lyons — she could fill holes at two positions. 

It's OU's second pull from the portal in two days, as Gasso landed Wisconsin pitcher Paytn Monticelli on Wednesday.

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

Home/Softball