The Tulsa Golden Hurricane are quietly one of the best mid-major programs in the nation on an annual basis. Not only has the program been home to some of the nation’s finest players, but John Bargfeldt seems to have his club right on the cusp of vaulting to another level entering 2018.
“One thing that I really thought our team did last year was find different ways to win,” Bargfeldt said about his team’s 2017 season. “We had some deficiencies, but the neat thing about this game is that there are different ways to win and we found a way. I was really impressed by the fact that we hung in there with some really good teams and found a way to compete with the best teams in the country.”
Bargfeldt’s squad is led from the circle, where standout senior Emily Watson has taken up residence over the last season-plus. With her team’s fate firmly on her back, Watson shouldered the load last season, throwing close to 250 innings of work in the circle and posting 348 strikeouts.
“Emily just clicked in terms of being able to locate more consistently and that just had her take off,” Bargfeldt said. “She’s got enough in her arsenal where she can get people off balance and that’s all she has to do… Emily is unique in that she has the ability to be a different type of pitcher as the situation calls for.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Golden Hurricane lost a double-trouble pair of bats in Maggie and Maddie Withee. “Those are two very important hitters that we have to replace,” Bargfeldt said. “One of the things that we hang our hats on here is developing and helping our hitters improve throughout their careers… we had five sophomores in our lineup last year, and those sophomores are juniors now and are going to be key components to our offense.”
The Golden Hurricane showed out in the Norman regional, beating SEC foe Arkansas and North Dakota State before facing off against Oklahoma. Bargfeldt’s squad held a tight lead over the Sooners for much of the game before four runs in the bottom of the tenth gave Oklahoma the win, and they cemented their Super Regional berth a day later.
“It was obviously a tough situation, tough pill to swallow in terms of where and how close you were, but then you also have to look back and see how they just rolled through the World Series. We can take some pride in that, in ‘hey, we’re one of the best in the country.’
“This is a sport where there are so many different abilities and shapes and sizes,” Bargfeldt said, musing. “If you can hit, there’s a place for you. If you can defend, there are so many things you can do there. And if you can pitch, you can control a game. That’s the thing about Tulsa; we have had that hope and with that challenge ahead of us, we just don’t go into the season thinking, ‘boy, this is gonna be a tough one.’ What’s really great about this program is that I’m able to go into every year knowing there’s a legitimate chance that we can go deep into the postseason… I think we have the ability to compete with any team in the country.”
