OU Softball: Why Oklahoma Coach Patty Gasso Says Tiare Jennings Will Open at Shortstop

As the Sooners try to replace three-time Big 12 defensive player of the year and All-American Grace Lyons, Gasso has already developed her defensive plan.

Tiare Jennings, you’re up next.

As Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso searches for a replacement for five-year starter and tw-time All-American Grace Lyons at shortstop, the job has fallen to the Sooners’ other All-American middle infielder — Tiare Jennings.

"Right now, I think Tiare's gonna be working over at shortstop," Gasso said Monday at OU Media Day.

One line of thought was that Gasso would slide Alyssa Brito over from third base to replace Lyons, but Gasso said Brito brings too much value at third.

"Alyssa Brito's so good at third," Gasso said. "It's hard to move her out of there, her experience is something else."

Lyons was last year’s Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was the 2023 Rawlings Gold Glove winner at shortstop. She’s also a two-time first-team All-American and a three-time Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year. A career .354 hitter with 59 home runs and 206 RBIs, including plenty of clutch hits, the difficulty in replacing Lyons is obviously two-fold.

But Jennings is the Sooners' strongest candidate.

In her three seasons as the Sooners’ starting second baseman, Jennings is a three-time All-American (twice unanimously), was the National Freshman of the Year, set an NCAA freshman record with 92 RBIs (10th all-time), ranked third all-time with 27 home runs by a freshman and holds College World Series records for RBIs (career and single series) and home runs (series) plus a single-game WCWS record for total bases.

Like a lot of future Sooners, Jennings played shortstop in high school and travel ball, so the adjustment should be minimal for her.

With the glove, Jennings’ defense has been as good as her offense.

She committed just one error last season for a career-best .992 fielding percentage. As a sophomore, it was .977 (three errors) and as a freshman its was also .977.

In fact, Jennings’ .982 career fielding percentage at second base (just seven errors) is higher than Lyons’ .962 at short (14 errors the last three seasons).

Of course, if Jennings is moving over, that creates a crater to try to replace her three years of excellence at second base.

"I've got three vying at second," Gasso said. "Avery Hodge, Quincee Lilio and Alynah Torres, but Alynah Torres can do a lot of things. Avery can also play shortstop. Q can also play the outfield. So there's opportunities for all of them."