Goode start: Texas' young softball team prepped for the test as it visits No. 1 Oklahoma

Whether it's solving a new level of pitching or deciphering the formula for surviving the long season, Texas freshman Leighann Goode has aced every test so far.

But Goode and her teammates will face their sternest exam of the year this weekend, when the Longhorns visit top-ranked, defending national champion and eternal blood rival Oklahoma.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Goode, an infielder from San Antonio who has become one of the elite leadoff hitters in the country. “Playing them in any game is like a World Series atmosphere with just all the fans that want to come out, watch them, watch you play.”

More: No. 21 Texas maintains its winning ways with a dramatic victory in College Station

Many of Goode’s older teammates know all about a World Series atmosphere, considering that the Sooners swept Texas for the College World Series title a year ago. Those same players also helped hand Oklahoma its lone loss in Big 12 play a year ago, and that adds even more spice to this season's first meeting between the teams.

“They just said, ‘It's just another game,’” Goode said about the advice from her older teammates. “They said, ‘They (the Oklahoma players) put on the uniform the same way you do, so just play it like another game.’”

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Goode knows that upward of 6,000 fans will cram into the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex on Friday. Though the opener is not on the Oklahoma campus in Norman, it counts as a home game for the Sooners, and it will certainly give Oklahoma a home-field advantage in a crucial Big 12 series between two teams ranked in the top 10 nationally.

And No. 8 Texas (30-5-1, 3-0 Big 12) wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I think you want to embrace that,” first baseman Katie Cimusz said. “It's such a big game and such a big rivalry. Knowing that there are going to be some rowdy people out there, you know, yelling at us and saying things, it’s just keeping your emotions within the field and keeping the fans separate from it.”

Texas' freshmen are about to grow up quickly

Win or lose, Texas coach Mike White says this weekend can only help a precocious team become even better. Despite leaning heavily on Goode and several other freshman starters, the Longhorns are almost on the same pace for wins as last year’s national finalist team.

Goode leads the team with a .413 batting average and 40 runs scored, and she leads all national freshmen with 52 hits. She ranks second on the squad in RBIs (33) and third in home runs (six). She’s got plenty of company from her freshman classmates among the Longhorns’ stat leaders; infielder Viviana Martinez is third in hitting (.396) and first in RBIs (34), catcher Reese Atwood is tied with Courtney Day for most home runs (seven) while hitting .315 with 23 RBIs, and pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez (10-1, 1.75 ERA, 53 strikeouts) is part of a four-pitcher staff that has a cumulative 1.89 ERA.

White says his program doesn’t handle the team’s newest players any differently from the veterans, especially after a fall semester of adapting to schoolwork, practice sessions and the other demands for a student-athlete.

“We don't want to treat them like freshmen,” he said. “OK, they’re freshmen when they first come in in the fall, then you hope they transform very quickly, but we also know that they're going to go through ups and downs. Sometimes it seems easy, but things get a little tough. And you can see it mentally grinding on them. And they're not used to practicing five days a week, you know, so along with the games and everything else, it is a grind.”

No one has embraced that grind more than Goode, who credits the Texas staff — from the coaches to the trainers and the nutritionists who spent a few minutes before a recent practice emphasizing the need to have enough iron in a diet — for keeping her and the other freshmen refreshed. Goode played 33 games last year for San Antonio O’Connor High School, which won the Class 6A state championship in the final high school game of the school year.

Texas has already surpassed that game total just one series into conference play.

“I think it's new to me, being a freshman,” Goode said. “I mean, it is a big adjustment, but being able to take advantage of my strength and conditioning coach — and our trainer is great about meeting with us at any time in the day just to get recovery — I feel like they do a really good job of trying to meet our needs.”

Learning the nuances of playing college softball

Goode said adapting to college ball also means adapting at the plate.

“I know I can put a few over the wall, sure,” she said. “But I’m just really trying to get on base for the team. They told me that it's really good just to be on base, considering the type of player I can be. It’s just nice to know that I can just do ‘See ball, hit ball.’ ”

According to Cimusz, Goode’s mental approach matters more than bat speed, making contact or any other measurable.

“I think it's just the way she's so calm in the box and on the field,” Cimusz said. “I mean, she could take a strike down the middle and she’s like, ‘So what? I got the next one.’ She just keeps that confidence and calmness in the box. And I think all of them (the freshmen) have done that really well.”

Whether the Longhorns can keep calm in the cauldron of Oklahoma City will give White an idea of his team’s potential for another deep postseason run. The Sooners (30-1) have outscored opponents 278-27 and look statistically superior to the squad that went 59-3 and won the 2022 title, and they’ll provide the ultimate test for a Texas team on a seven-game winning streak.

“Every time you have an opportunity to get them out, you better take it,” White said. “Otherwise, they're going to make you pay. You're looking at pretty much as close to a professional softball team out there in Oklahoma, (so) what’s going to be big for us is if we take it the right way, win or lose. What do we learn from the game?”

Texas at Oklahoma

No. 8 Texas (30-5-1, 3-0) at No. 1 Oklahoma (30-1, 3-0),; 6 p.m. Friday, USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex, Oklahoma City, ESPN+; 11 a.m. Saturday, Norman, Okla., ESPN2; 11 a.m. Sunday, Norman, Okla., ESPN2

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Young Texas softball team visits No. 1 Oklahoma this weekend