NORMAN — Love’s Field collectively held its breath in the third inning of Sunday’s battle between Oklahoma and Mississippi State.
Freshman star Kendall Wells was hit in the head, right on her helmet’s C-Flap. The game was stopped as OU’s medical staff checked on the catcher, and she was replaced on first base by pinch runner Tia Milloy.
Wells was checked out by Oklahoma’s medical staff, and she re-entered the game to catch in the fourth inning, but it was a scary moment for the entire Sooner dugout.
“That was really hard, because it looked like it busted her helmet,” OU coach Patty Gasso said on Sunday. “And she’s a tough young lady, that is for sure, and wanted to come back into the game. But I could see that she was a little bit woozy there for a minute, so that’s why we brought in the runner.”
Wells finished the day 0-for-2 after lining out in her final at-bat, but she caught the rest of the game.
Gasso said that the medical staff would continue to monitor Wells.
“She’s very hard-headed, and she’s (like) ‘I’m coming back, I’m coming back in,’” Gasso said. “And she doesn’t even wait for me to say something, she just takes her stuff and goes. So I think at the end of the game she started to really feel a little bit woozy a bit, and she definitely is gonna have to get checked out.”
Oklahoma catcher Kendall Wells reacts after getting hit in the helmet by a pitch in Game 3 of the Norman Super Regional against Mississippi State. | Carson Field / Sooners on SI
Wells finished her historic freshman campaign with 39 home runs.
She set the NCAA freshman home run record, OU’s single-season home run record and the SEC single-season home run record.
Wells also hit three more home runs than Arizona star Laura Espinoza did in 1995, which was the NCAA single-season record entering the season. UCLA slugger Megan Grant has already hit 40 home runs this year, and she could add to her total at the Women’s College World Series.
Wells also ended the year with a .358 batting average and she led the team with a 1.508 OPS and 88 RBIs.
With the season now over, Oklahoma will prepare for the next phase of the offseason: the transfer portal.
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The portal will officially open on June 8 and stay open until June 22.
Players can declare their intention to open the portal at any time; their paperwork just has to be submitted by June 22.
Those who opt to enter the portal also do not have to be committed to their new school by June 22; those decisions can run deep into the summer.
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