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Oklahoma softball: Sooners add another top talent via transfer portal

By Chip Rouse

Apr 29, 2022; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona State freshman infielder Cydney Sanders (1) walks back to first base while a player from California stands at bat at Farrington Stadium.Ncaa Softball Arizona State Softball Vs California California At
Apr 29, 2022; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona State freshman infielder Cydney Sanders (1) walks back to first base while a player from California stands at bat at Farrington Stadium.Ncaa Softball Arizona State Softball Vs California California At /
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The transfer portal has been a huge recruiting pipeline for the Oklahoma softball program in recent seasons.

Already a national power in Division I collegiate softball, have been able to reload with top-tier talent and easily compensate for any roster losses year to year.

Gasso always recruits some of the nation’s best players out of high school, but she has been able to supplement those top recruiting classes with top-line players out of the portal. Examples in recent years have been pitchers Gisselle Juarez, Paige Lowary and Shannon Saile, as well as pitcher Hope Trautwein and infielders Jana Johns and Taylon Snow from this year national championship Sooner softball squad.

The Sooners lose the best home-run hitter in college softball history in Jocelyn Alo, along with Trautwein, Johns and Snow after this season, but Gasso again is bringing in one of the nation’s top recruiting classes and has complemented that with marquee transfers Alynah Torres, an All-Pac-12 shortstop from Arizona State, and Alex Storako, a right-handed pitcher from Michigan, who was voted the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year this past season.

Add a new name to the incoming transfer list for Oklahoma. Another Arizona State player announced on Friday that she was transferring and will be playing softball next season at OU.

Cydney Sanders, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year is headed to Oklahoma. The star first baseman logged a .425 batting average last season along with 21 home runs and 63 runs batted in. She ranked 11th in Division I softball, three spots back of Sooner shortstop Grace Lyons.

Sanders was a top-three finalist for National Freshman of the Year, which was won by Oklahoma’s Jordy Bahl. The Arizona State transfer will slot right in at first base for the Sooners, replacing the departed Snow.

Arizona State has had six players entering the transfer portal this offseason after it was announced that head coach Trisha Ford was leaving to take the job at Texas A&M. Two of those players will be enrolling at OU for next season.

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