You can't keep a good player down, and Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso has had unwavering confidence that Kasidi Pickering would find her way back from a prolonged hitting slump and return to her rightful place as one of the most productive and feared hitters on the team.
The 2025 NFCA First-Team All-American has wielded a potent bat in the Sooners' starting lineup the past two seasons, hitting just shy of .400 in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, along with 12 and 18 home runs, respectively, and a combined 108 runs batted in.
Kasidi Pickering beats slump as Oklahoma starts NCAA Softball Championship
OU junior outfielder and designated player Pickering was being counted on again this season to be a main cog in an Oklahoma lineup that is looked upon as one of the most, if not the most, dangerous top to bottom in all of NCAA Division I softball.
Pickering started out the 2026 season strong, right where she left off the previous campaign, batting .506 (40-for-79) through the first 29 games combined with 12 home runs and 39 runs driven in. Then, following the Auburn series in mid-March, her offensive production began to tail off considerably, to the extent that over a three-week period from April 10 to May 1, Pickering went a collective 3-for-31 at the plate (.097) with one home run and one RBI.
Going into the Texas A&M series two weekends ago to close out the regular season, Gasso said her confidence in Pickering's turnaround remained very high.
"You don't forget in two days how to be an elite hitter, and she is," Gasso said then. "It's just getting her confidence back and getting her those opportunities."
OU and A&M played a doubleheader on Saturday, May 2, after the Aggies had taken the series opener 8-4 the Friday before. Pickering backed up the faith her head coach had in her, driving in a run with a single in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the twin bill. Then in the nightcap, she delivered a three-run home run off the top of the right-field fence for her first four-bagger in a month.
"I could just see a big exhale and a little celebration," Gasso said after the homer. "I think she's found her groove. You could feel it. You could see it in her body language. There's just a joy that has just come back."
"She's Kasidi Pickering," teammate Ella Parker, who came to OU in the same 2023 recruiting class as Pickering, said last week. "You have to keep swinging. That's the only way you can get out of a sort of funk or whatever."
On Friday, in the opening game of the Norman Regional, Pickering came through again. She crushed an opposite-field three-run home run to left field in the first inning against Binghamton to help stake Oklahoma to a 4-0 lead. She also singled to right field her second time up in the third, recording her first multi-hit game since March 31.
Then on Saturday in a 9-0 win against Kansas, Pickering went 1-for-2 with another home run, this time for two scores to put OU on the board in the second. She also scored another run in the fourth.
"She's completely fine," Gasso said after Pickering's performance on Friday. "She is right where she needs to be. She is the kind of player that can set herself back up and reset."
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In her previous 12 games before the NCAA Softball Championship, Pickering was 5-for-36 at the plate with a batting average of .139. In her five most recent games, however, including the two in the Norman Regional, the OU junior is 5-for-12 (.417) with three home runs and eight RBI. Pickering has homered in three of her last four games.
"I mean, it was a long drought," Pickering said Friday. "Just knowing that you can't change the past. So whatever happens, just work on the next at-bat."
The Sooner All-American should get plenty of those over the next couple of weeks.
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