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OU Softball: Patty and Jim Gasso Reveled in 'Fun' and 'Nervy' Fall Ball Matchup

Patty Gasso's Sooners downed Jim Gasso's MACU Evangels 17-0 in a unique fall exhibition at Love's Field.

Ryan Chapman

Patty and Jim Gasso meet at home plate before Friday's exhibition between Oklahoma and MACU.
Patty and Jim Gasso meet at home plate before Friday's exhibition between Oklahoma and MACU. / Morgan Givens / Oklahoma Athletics

NORMAN — Oklahoma softball fans were treated to another first on Friday night at Love’s Field. 

OU coach Patty Gasso is a fixture in the third base dugout, but a familiar face commanded the opposite dugout. 

Jim Gasso led his MACU Evangels to take on the Sooners in a fall scrimmage, marking the first-ever meeting between Patty and Jim after over 38 years of marriage. 

“If you were here for the start of the game you would have saw a very handsome lion coming out to home plate which was, I had no idea that was happening,” Patty Gasso said after the game with a massive smile. 

Her Sooners won 17-0 across the nine-inning exhibition, but it was a night for the legendary OU coach to evaluate her husband’s coaching chops. 

“This was the first time I’ve ever seen Jim Gasso coach. I’ve seen him coach when he was a young coach,” she said. “It was like an assistant coach in football. I’ve never seen him coach a softball game. And I was really impressed. He has done a really great job with that program. 

“…  I really was impressed with him. I know Jim Gasso as fiery, thinking he’s coming after the umpires. He’s going to try to bow up with me at home plate. He comes out as a lion? OK. He was quiet, but still coaching. I was watching him a lot without him knowing I was watching him. I had fun.”

During a break in the action, both Gasso's were brought out for an Oklahoma version of the Newlywed Game, though the performances on the field overshadowed the showing from the softball power couple.

"It didn’t go very well," Patty Gasso said. "We’ve been married for 38 years, and we just don’t know much about – I thought his first job, that he was a bouncer. And he said he worked at a convenience store. When did you – you’ve never said that in 38 years, or 40 years. I learned a lot tonight about him and his team. It was fun. I enjoyed it. It was nervy, but it was really cool. It was really cool."

The players loved the experience too, as they tried to balance the contest while competing against Jim Gasso, who is a constant presence behind the scenes at OU with the team. 

“I felt like it was kind of a family game in a way,” OU redshirt freshman Nelly McEnroe-Marinas said after the game. “And I tried not to look at him as much as I could even though he was standing right next to me… I tried to stay focused on what was going on. But I think it was really fun and it was a good break from all of the little stressors that we have.”

Maya Bland also said the matchup with Jim Gasso helped break up the grind of fall ball. 

“It just brought a sense of joy, like a different sense of joy to the game,” Bland said. “Seeing him in a lion outfit at the start of the game, everyone was smiling for like the whole game. The crowd was invested. We were playing more free I think.”

McEnroe-Marians opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. 

She rocketed a no-doubted straight into the juniper bushes in dead-center field to put the Sooners on top 1-0.

OU busted the contest open in the fourth inning. 

Ailana Agbayani singled to double the led, and then Ella Parker’s sacrifice fly to left field brought Bland home. 

Isabela Emerling cleared the bases with a double, plating two and putting OU up 5-0.

Paytn Monticelli took over for freshman Audrey Lowry in the fourth. 

Lowry pitched three scoreless innings to start the night, allowing no hits while striking out four batters. 

Freshman Sydney Barker extended Oklahoma’s lead over MACU to 6-0 with a solo blast of her own in the bottom of the fifth inning. 

Bland doubled OU’s fifth inning haul when she scored on a throwing error from third.

Emerling added her third RBI of the night off a single into left field to keep the run going in the fifth, pushing the advantage to 8-0 and loading the bases with no outs. 

McEnroe-Marinas drew a walk to make the game 9-0, and Abigale Dayton’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in left field made it five runs in the frame with just one out. 

Hannah Coor then added a sacrifice fly of her own to put the Sooners on top 11-0, and Tia Milloy crossed home on a wild pitch before Bland hammered a three-run shot above the Women’s College World Series logo on the wall in right field. 

McEnroe-Marinas scored another with a squeeze bunt in the bottom of the sixth after a brief intermission. 

Cydney Sanders roped a single up the foul line in left field to bring the advantage to 17-0 after Agbayani reached base on a triple.

Oklahoma will close out the Battle Series on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Published
Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is deputy editor at AllSooners and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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