FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas fans may be anxiously awaiting the start of Razorbacks baseball season as a palette cleanser for a bitter basketball season, but another nationally ranked team on the diamond provides an opportunity even sooner.
The No. 12 ranked Arkansas softball team gets its season started with a pair of games Thursday in Boca Raton as part of six games over three days, and a pair of hires in the offseason by coach Courtney Deifel indicate it could be an explosive affair at the plate. The Razorbacks picked up a couple of assistants whose names should be very familiar to college softball fans – DJ Gasso and Danielle Gibson.
Even if they aren’t familiar with the work of Gasso, any softball aficionado is aware of the legacy from which he comes. He is the son of legendary Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso, who has led the Sooners to the last three national championships and six of the past 11. His brother, JT, is an assistant on the Sooners' staff and his father is the head coach at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, so the roots run deep.
Gasso is part of a move to beef up the hitting production, and his history suggests he will be able to do exactly that. He was a major reason Utah was able to win the Pac 12 Tournament championship last year and earn its first Women's College World Series appearance in 30 years.
In 2022, Gasso raised the Utes' batting average by 22 points. He doubled that feat the following year as Utah jumped from .289 to .327, good enough for fifth in the country. His hitters' 47 home runs were the most since 2006 as they set program records for runs (351), RBI (316), slugging (.483), doubles (84) and steals (99). They were also No. 15 in the country in runs per game at over six per contest.
“DJ brings an incredible understanding of mental preparation and offensive strategy, along with an infectious passion for the game that our players will love," Deifel said as part of Gasso's introduction back in June. "He has learned from and worked alongside some incredible coaches in his career. He will deliver an aggressive and exciting style of Razorback softball that I can’t wait to see in action.”
However, the true indication as to whether he's hit the ground running is whether he was able to impress senior third baseman Hannah Gammill eight months after arriving on campus. After all, she has lofty goals in her final season as a Razorback, including hitting .400 with 20+ home runs and no errors.
"He is just electric and making sure that, you know all of our coaches are, but you know, he's really just homed in on our offensive piece and just making sure that we're ready early in the count," Gammill said in her first weekly appearance on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock. "That we're aggressive."
If Gammill reaches .400 as a hitter, she will still have a long way to go to catch the other coaching hire, Gibson, for the record as the Razorbacks' most prolific hitter in a season. Still, both already dot the Arkansas record books all over the place.
Gibson currently holds school records in career batting average (.361), career RBI (220), career total bases (419), single season batting average (.445), single season hits (81), single season RBI (70), and single season total bases (155). If Gammill hits 20 home runs, she will tie Gibson's career mark which she set in 2022 as the third most by any Razorback. Gamill sits at No. 4 with 18, which she hit the same season.
Still, while Gibson wanted to come home, she didn't want it to be as a favor, part of a nostalgia act or simply a coach turned friend throwing her a bone. She returns to Fayetteville after a stint playing professional softball and serving as an assistant at Georgia and wanted to make sure she felt like she earned it before coming back to her old stomping grounds to work for Deifel.
"I didn't want Courtney to just hire me based off of my alum, my stats," Gibson said in an interview with CBS Northwest Arkansas affiliate 5News. "That was really important to me, is I'm not coming back to to sit and dwell on my glory days this point moving forward. I am here to better the program going forward, And I needed her to know that that was my intention."
And while Gibson now returns with a major adjustment as the married Mrs. Gibson-Whorton, nothing else seems to have changed. She still feels the support of the fans and gets lost in the feel of being in a town obsessed with the Razorbacks.
"I feel like I'm the luckiest person on the planet with just the support and all the amazing comments," Gibson said. "Moving on was hard, and so the welcome back has just made everything so worth it ... I'm now building a relationship with [Deifel] outside of player-coach and then friend-coach and then now coach to coach. It's just something that I couldn't even imagine. I'm just happy to be back. It does definitely feel surreal. I mean, it's driving around and being here and getting to wear the Hogs stuff again. It's really fun."
So, as two Arkansas coaching careers begin, Gammill is counting on them to play a key role in how her time as a Razorback ends. She enters the season bullish on the impact of a proven hitting coach from a storied family in Gasso, and a trusted friend who assaulted the record books during their time on the diamond together in Gibson.
"If we do the little things, right, everything else falls in place," Gammill said. "I think our offense is going to be lights out this year, so we're really excited. You know, our goal is not just to make it to the World Series, but we're competing for a national championship."
That all begins with six games over three days at the end of this week. A welcome start filled with hope, not just for Gammill, but Razorbacks fans all over Arkansas looking for something positive to cling to in this latest sports cycle.
Boca Raton (Feb. 8-10)
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