What Oklahoma softball players said after falling to Texas Tech in WCWS

USA Today

2 days ago

What Oklahoma softball players said after falling to Texas Tech in WCWS
With the tears still fresh on their faces, five members of the Oklahoma softball season said goodbye to the 2025 campaign after the Sooners lost in the Women's College World Series semifinals Monday night against Texas Tech.
For OU pitcher Sam Landry and first base Cydney Sanders, the game was their last in an Oklahoma uniform, eligibility exhausted. The pair were joined by junior Abigale Dayton, sophomore Ella Parker and freshman Sydney Barker in the post-game press conference.
Here's what the players had to say following the loss.
Landry on final innings
I'm really proud of Abi. I thought she did absolutely amazing. I thought she was on NiJa (Texas Tech pitcher NiJaree Canady) all day. Hats off to NiJa. I thought she threw a very good game. As the game went on, I just kept telling myself to just to leave it all out there. That's what I did.
Landry on meeting with former coach after the game
It was bittersweet. I wished him luck going forward. I don't think either one of us wanted this to be where we met in postseason. Super happy for them. A lot of my old teammates, so I'm glad they're getting to experience. I'm glad I had the experience I did here at Oklahoma. It was definitely God's path for me.
Parker on the season and the future
I'm just so proud of all this team has accomplished. Especially just coming from the fall to now we've grown so much together. Just to see the amount of growth we've taken as a team, it's just so cool to see where we ended up. We're never going to give up without a fight.
Landry on looking back on the year
I agree with Ella. I think it's hard to get sad in the middle of a game when you know that God already wrote the story. Just relying on Him. We knew it was going to turn out exactly how He wanted and I think they're ready to go next season and I'm ready to take a break for a minute.
Barker on the season
It's hard to be sad when you have these girls next to you no matter wins or losses. We believe that the end is already written. Being here together is a blessing in itself.
Dayton on familiarity with Canady
I felt like I took a lot of it from the past two years. I've hit off of her a couple of times. Just being able to have my teammates' back and they have mine put a lot of confidence in myself. But, yeah, definitely understanding how she throws was, in my mind, I was able to kind of use that. But having these girls was behind me, it gives you all the confidence in the world even if you don't know who you're playing. So that's nice.
Sanders reflecting on her career
I honestly think it was like a very cinematic way to go out. God's presence was shown. Abi literally came up 0-2 and hit a ball. That was insane. I don't know. I'm still in shock. I think it was a great way to go out, honestly. I'm very proud of this team. Especially, we literally have 14 new players. That is something that you've never seen before. Coming to the World Series, everybody was against us. We ended up in the semifinals. I think this team is going to go a long way regardless if I'm not here or not. I'm very proud to end my career like this.
Barker on what she learned as a freshman
Like Cyd Sanders said, having 13, 14 new players on this team it was miraculous how we all came together and we were able to play together in such a way that we did and have the relationships that we did on and off the field. Regardless of what happened on the field, I think what me and my class and a lot of the young players on this team will remember is how well we all gelled together and how we used our differences and our superpowers to work together. I think it's awesome how we can learn from our older girls here and our veterans and our alumni and coaches and everything of the sort.
Landry on honoring Geri Ann Glasco
I met Geri Anne a few times when she was a volunteer coach at Louisiana under coach Glasco. I got to know her a little bit before she passed away. But I was very close with coach Glasco all those years. Just seeing how she was dealing with it. Wearing No. 12 was how I just helped, in my opinion, helped keep him going. That's why it was so important to me. Carrying on her legacy. She was an amazing person. When I got here No. 12 was taken. I knew that I had to figure out somehow to keep her going so I got on my glove.