NORMAN — OU softball coach Patty Gasso said earlier in the week she was looking forward to seeing how her second-ranked Sooners would respond to adversity with SEC play beginning.
OU succeeded with the first test, battling from behind then holding on late to beat 11th-ranked South Carolina 10-9 in front of 4,140 at Love’s Field.
“I didn’t know what to expect tonight,” Gasso said. “I didn’t expect that so many runs were going to be scored. But there is something special that this team showed me tonight that we can do a lot of good things with.”
OU fell behind 5-1 in the second, then had to withstand a three-run homer in the seventh to pull the Gamecocks within one before Isabella Smith got the last out to secure the victory.
With the Sooners trailing 5-3 in the third, Kasidi Pickering and Nelly McEnroe-Marinas started with back-to-back singles.
Whatever the sign was — neither Gasso nor Garcia would disclose after the game — it was missed.
“I just could not find it on my card,” Garcia said of the sign. “I’m not gonna lie. I kind of guessed.”
Gasso interjected.
“You guessed right,” Gasso said, laughing. It was the exact signal I gave you.”
Ailana Agbayani was 3 for 3 with a walk and three runs scored to help OU improve to 20-0 overall and 1-0 in SEC play.
Former Sooner Quincee Lilio was 0 for 4 in her return to Love’s Field with the Gamecocks (20-1, 0-1).
Lilio came into the game second in the SEC in hitting behind only Ella Parker.
Parker finished 0 for 2 with a pair of walks.
The series will conclude with a doubleheader beginning at 1:30 p.m. Sunday due to expected weather conditions Saturday forcing the series schedule to be adjusted.
Here are three takeaways from the Sooners’ win:
Isabela Emerling had a rough top of the second inning behind the plate.
Emerling wasn’t able to handle three Kierston Deal wild pitches, then was charged with a fielding error that allowed a runner to advance.
But Emerling more than made up for it.
“Just have a goldfish mentality and next play, next pitch and really just have my team’s back,” Emerling said of her mentality in the middle of the second.
In the bottom of the inning, Emerling jumped on a 1-1 pitch, delivering a towering 230-foot two-run home run down the left-field line to cut the Gamecocks’ lead in half and make the game 5-3.
“It was huge,” Gasso said. “Watching Bela swing the bat lately has been — she’s been working really hard, doing some things with JT (Gasso) and making adjustments. It’s like watching another level when she swings.”
Then in the fifth, Emerling once again delivered, this time driving a 1-0 pitch out to right field for a 217-foot two-run home run to untie the game after South Carolina added a run to tie it in the top half of the inning.
It was Emerling’s seventh home run of the season, tying the team lead, and gave her her first multi-home run game as a Sooner.
OU’s defense has mostly been impeccable this season, with just six errors in its first 19 games.
But the Sooners’ defense looked shaky in the conference opener.
Deal had no wild pitches in 27 2/3 innings coming into the game but made three in the second inning alone.
With runners on first and second and one out and the game tied, South Carolina’s Natalie Heath hit a hard grounder to first, which OU’s Cydney Sanders couldn’t handle, helping the Gamecocks take the lead.
The error helped South Carolina score three unearned runs in the inning.
Emerling’s error came later in the inning but didn’t hurt the Sooners on the scoreboard as Deal followed it by striking out Arianna Rodi to end the inning.
“I was a little concerned about that,” Gasso said of the second-inning defensive struggles.
Deal committed a throwing error in the fourth for OU’s third error of the game.
Gasso was considering defense first when she filled out her lineup card Friday, inserting Hannah Coor in center field with Kasidi Pickering in left, Abigale Dayton in right and Parker as the designated player.
In the sixth inning alone, Coor made Gasso’s decision pay off.
The junior, who has struggled with injuries throughout her college career including missing 16 consecutive games this season with an ankle injury, robbed former teammate Lilio with a diving catch to lead off the sixth.
“She’s our best outfielder right now,” Gasso said. “So it was like, well, we want to … ‘I don’t know what her offense is gonna look like, but we need defense out there.’”
Gasso pinch-hit Tia Milloy for Coor earlier in the game but after Coor’s diving catch, stuck with Coor in a crucial situation in the bottom of the sixth.
Coor delivered a two-out, two-run double down the right-field line to put the Sooners up 10-6.
“Coor has been waiting her entire career for these moments and I could not be more happy for anyone than her,” Gasso said.