Patty Gasso’s Oklahoma still feels inevitable after dramatic season opener

Just as fans started to Google when the last time Oklahoma softball lost a season opener was, it didn't matter.

On the verge of getting shut out for the first time since 2019, the No. 3 Sooners used one swing of the bat in the sixth inning to win 2-1 and avoid an upset to Arizona State in their 2026 season opener on Thursday night in Tempe, Arizona.

Sooners avoid season-opening upset to Arizona State thanks to Kendall Wells' heroics

Freshman catcher Kendall Wells loudly introduced herself in her college softball debut with a two-run home run in the top of the sixth inning to create the 2-1 final that the Sooners clung to the next two innings. Junior right fielder Ella Parker started the inning with a walk to get on before Wells ultimately won the game two batters later.

OU's pitching staff did the rest of the work as starter Audrey Lowry gave up just one walk and a hit that was a home run in 5.2 innings of work. Miali Guachino, a sophomore transfer from Ole Miss, took over in the sixth to finish the game and get the save in her OU debut.

It was a quick and blunt reminder of what OU softball has become as Patty Gasso enters her 32nd season in charge.

The last time fans watched the Sooners, they lost to Texas Tech in the semifinals of the 2025 Women's College World Series to end a streak of four national titles in a row. But to even get to that point, OU needed a walk-off three-run homer from Parker in the opening game of the WCWS against Tennessee, which had taken a series from the Sooners earlier in the season.

Whether last season or this season, or the beginning or the end, the Sooners are always the same under Gasso. Oh, and by the way, the Sooners haven't lost a season opener since dropping the first two games of the season in 2016, which ended with OU as national champion. A decade later, nothing has changed.

Next, the Sooners take on No. 17 Arizona for a three-game series this weekend after starting 1-0.