How Freshman Kendall Wells Has Impressed Oklahoma's Patty Gasso During Fall Ball

NORMAN — Kendall Wells is enjoying her first fall as a Sooner.

The freshman signed with Patty Gasso as a top 10 recruit and the nation’s top-rated catcher per Softball America, and she’s already making noise at OU. 

In Oklahoma’s first three fall scrimmages, one an in-house affair and a pair of contests against East Texas A&M and Oklahoma Christian University, Wells has already hammered four home runs. 

Wednesday night was especially exciting for Wells as she went 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of homers and three RBIs in front of a fall record 2,837 fans against OCU. 

“I’ve been really happy with the improvement of some of our freshmen, Kendall Wells being one of them, that's really setting off her power,” Gasso said. 

After losing Corri Hicks to the transfer portal, Wells will be tasked with battling returning starter Isabela Emerling behind the plate in 2026. 

Wells hasn’t needed much time to get acclimated, and she’s taking advantage of her opportunities already to grow throughout the fall. 

“It’s definitely been a really cool experience,” Wells said on Wednesday. “I think it’s really helpful and cool to be in this environment so early in my career.”

Gasso is pleased with how comfortable Wells looks, regardless of if she’s batting one of OU’s excellent pitchers or if she’s stepped into the box against another team this fall. 

“Easy, just looks easy,” Gasso said. “She just has a presence at the plate, that if I was a pitcher, I would think I got to be very careful here, and if you're making a pitcher think that just by the way you look at the plate, you've won. 

“She always gets her swing off. So it's been really impressive.”

The first bomb for Wells on Wednesday night might have been the hardest hit ball all night. 

She hammered the ball straight into a loge box in straightaway center field after the ball raced off her bat and onto the Love’s Field concourse. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, she looped a moonshot to right field to bring another pair of runs home. 

Wells enjoyed getting to celebrate her success with her teammates and the horde of OU fans as well, as she feels the fall environment in Norman will get her ready to enter SEC play for the first time next spring. 

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“To be playing in front of 2,800 fans in the fall is not something that all freshmen get to experience,” Wells said, “so I think that’s really cool helping all of us freshmen out a lot being able to experience this early on. But we have great teammates by our side that are there and have been in this situation before and help us get through it.”

The addition of Wells, as is the case with the rest of Gasso’s talented freshman class, only adds to the culture of competition that Oklahoma has cultivated over the past three decades. 

“There's just a chase going on here,” Gasso said. “Everybody is chasing each other, and so you better run fast, or someone's going to pass you, someone's going to get you. 

“… It's just a very balanced group.”