Ricketts Continues to Improve Game

By Andrew Gilman | SoonerSports.com

NORMAN, Okla. -- Maybe it was the expectations coming off a season where the Sooners made the Women's College World Series.

It could have been that, or maybe the pressure of being selected to the USA Softball team again.

It could have been, too, or maybe it was just the idea of wanting to be perfect. All the time. Every time.

Whatever it was, Keilani Ricketts was feeling stressed. Often.

"We just like to tell her to exhale," coach Patty Gasso said. "If she's not at her best all the time, it's OK."

Thing is, Ricketts very well may be as she is pitching at maybe the highest level of her career.

Why now?

"I'm just starting to realize, there's so many games and it's impossible to be perfect," Ricketts said. "That's OK with me now. I've learned that. When I give up a hit or a run or something, that's OK. When I can let it go, that's when I'm at my best."

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This new state of Zen may have something to do with Ricketts being named the National Player of the Week. She went 4-0 this week and improved to 8-3 on the season. Ricketts also recorded her first save of the season. For the week, Ricketts threw back-to-back one-hitters against North Texas and LSU. She had 10 or more strikeouts in all four of her starts and had 54 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings.

"In the past, she has let outside influences affect her," Gasso said. "Weather, the other team's adjustments and things like that. Now she's taking a much more mature approach about controlling the controllables. She came in feeling the high expectations, not just for us, but with USA Softball. She knows a lot of people are paying attention and she tries to be perfect. It's just hard to live like that."

Well, Ricketts is living right now. A year after going 29-15 and being named First Team All-American, Ricketts is is sporting a 1.12 ERA and has 132 striekouts in 75 1/3 innings pitched.

Sometimes the pressure gets the best of you, but I play my best when I have fun," she said. "I'm starting to do that now."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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