Three Sooner softball players leave via transfer portal.
The national champion Oklahoma softball programme had already said goodbye to ten seniors. Add three more players to the total who have chosen to use the transfer site.
Everyone knows that the transfer portal can both give and take. Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso has led the Sooners to a record four consecutive national championships, and her use of the portal to augment an already strong recruitment funnel attracting top players has played a significant role in that accomplishment.
Pitchers Giselle Juarez, Hope Trautwein, Alex Storako, and Kelly Maxwell are great examples of Oklahoma transfer portal acquisitions who have made significant contributions to the Sooners’ four-year title streak. This year’s national champions include Alyssa Brito, Alynah Torres, and Cydney Sanders. Juarez and Maxwell were selected the Women’s College World Series’ Most Outstanding Players in 2021 and 2024, respectively.
That is the positive side of the transfer portal discussion. However, there is a drawback, and the Oklahoma programme experienced the first and perhaps final wave of it this week. According to a social media post by D1Softball.com staff writer Justin McLeod, three players from the 2024 Sooner roster will be transferring out.
The most famous of the confirmed departures is sophomore Avery Hodge, who stepped in well at second base in the Women’s College World Series for the injured Alynah Torres, who was hit in the face by a ball lost in the sun during OU’s victory against UCLA. S.J. Geurin, a redshirt freshman pitcher, and Quincee Lilio, a redshirt sophomore utility player, will also enter the gateway.
Hodge has a career.278 batting average from two seasons at OU, and he went 4 for 12 (.333) in WCWS games versus Florida and Texas. She also made some good plays on the pitch. Lilio has appeared sparingly for the Sooners this season. She batted 31 times, averaging.129. Coming out of high school in Richmond, Texas
This is an inherent challenge of being able to recruit some of the finest athletes in the country and maintaining such a deep and strong team year after year. All of these players are good, but they may not get to play as often as they want. They may have to wait their turn at a programme like OU, but they could likely begin elsewhere.
Hodge has a career.278 batting average from two seasons at OU, and he went 4 for 12 (.333) in WCWS games versus Florida and Texas. She also made some good plays on the pitch.
Lilio played sparingly for the Sooners this season. She batted 31 times with a batting average of .129. She was used mostly in pinch-hit roles and has a career batting average of .211. Coming out of high school in Richmond, Texas, Lilio was ranked as a top-five overall prospect by Extra Inning softball.
Transfer departures is an inherent problem of being able to recruit some of the best players in the country and having such a deep and talented roster virtually every year. These are all good players who may not have the opportunity to play as much as they would like to. At a program like OU, they might have to bide their time, while they could probably start somewhere else.
Oklahoma has another outstanding recruiting class coming in, but with the high number of departures from the senior-heavy 2024 roster, you can expect Gasso to be especially active in the transfer portal again this offseason.