OU Softball's Patty Gasso Faces Coaching Tree With Season at Stake: 'If It’s Not Us, I Want It to Be Them'

Credit: SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON www.si.com/onsi/softball

Facing elimination in a do-or-die game on Sunday, head coach Patty Gasso and the Sooners will have to end the season of her former associate head coach and lifelong mentor, Melyssa Lombardi, if they want to keep marching toward the goal of a fifth-straight National Championship. 

Going head-to-head with each other for the second year in a row, Oregon and Lombardi are seeking revenge, as the two squads met in the Normal Regional in 2024, where the Sooners swept the Ducks in the tournament final. 

The Sooners hold a 12-6 lead against the Ducks, with last year’s two regional games being the only times during Lombardi’s seven seasons at Oregon that she and Gasso have met, until Sunday night.

Lombardi helped Gasso coach to four national championships, including the program’s first in 2000. She spent 21 years with the program, including 11 seasons as associate head coach. 

But Gasso isn’t buying into any drama surrounding this meetup. With two highly successful and experienced coaches and programs like them on the field, Gasso believes it’s something to be honored. 

“It’s a celebration,” Gasso said in the post-game press conference after losing to Texas on Saturday. She has been with me for over 20 years, she is like a sister to me, an older sister to me. We’re both fighting for our teams, but at the same time, there’s absolute mutual respect, which feels good in this game. If it’s not going to be us, I want it to be them.” 

There’s even more Sooner blood that runs through the Oregon dugout. Assistant coach Sydney Romero won two national championships under Gasso, and Samantha Marder was a volunteer analyst in 2021 during that national title year. 

Oklahoma made its way to the loser's bracket after falling to Texas for the first time ever in the World Series on Saturday, while Oregon is coming back from a loss to UCLA and on a high from eliminating Ole Miss. Will Sooner Magic pull through on Sunday to save the season, or will Oregon shock the nation and eliminate the four-time defending champions?