If “attitude reflects leadership,” as Julius Campbell from Remember the Titans once coined, then the Oklahoma Sooners were a reflection of one of their captains in 2024.
[autotag]Kinzie Hansen[/autotag]’s career had some ups and downs. She dealt with injuries in the 2022 season before getting healthy enough to play a huge role in that year’s title run. The Sooners’ catcher has been the epitome of toughness and resilience over her five seasons at Oklahoma.
She played in 243 games for the Sooners. After playing just 24 as a true freshman, Hansen averaged 54.75 games a season and started 49.5 games each of the last four years. In her career, Hansen hit .390 with 60 home runs and 268 RBIs.
If you take out the 2022 season, where she battled injuries throughout, Hansen hit .416. In four of her five seasons at OU, Hansen hit over .400. Statistically, 2021 was the best of her career, hitting .438 with 24 home runs and 66 RBIs.
While the power numbers might not have returned, Hansen’s proclivity for clutch hitting and heroics remained. She was as good as anyone in the country with two strikes and earned a reputation for coming through when the count was stacked against her.
There’s no greater example than Hansen’s game-tying home run against Clemson in the 2023 super regionals.
Chasing history, the Oklahoma Sooners were down 7-4 to the Clemson Tigers. At one point, OU was up 4-0 before the Tigers rattled off seven unanswered runs.
Valerie Cagle, one of the best players in the game, was on the mound, battling to tie up the super-regional series with Oklahoma. It was the moment that every kid playing diamond sports daydreams about. Oklahoma had two on with two out, and Hansen dug in at the plate as the tying run.
After falling behind in the count 0-2, Hansen connected on a pitch up and away and pulled it deep to left field and beyond the bleachers of Marita Hynes Field.
πππππ πππ ππ πππππ. @KINZIEHANSEN pic.twitter.com/MmncgxBI24
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) May 27, 2023
With one swing of the bat, Hansen tied the game to send it to extra innings, where [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] put OU ahead in the ninth to win the game. The win gave the Sooners their 48th straight victory, passing Arizona for softball’s longest winning streak. It’s a streak that extended into the 2024 season and finished at 71 games.
The game doesn’t get there unless Hansen comes through in the seventh. It was an at-bat that Sooners fans and the softball world will remember forever.
That was Oklahoma’s final game at [autotag]Marita Hynes Field[/autotag], a place they called home for more than 20 years. In a poetic moment, Hansen also had the walk-off home run to beat Miami (OH) in Oklahoma’s first game inside Love’s Field.
And while her work at the plate will be remembered for years to come, it’s important to acknowledge her role in managing the pitching staff over the last five years. In each of the Sooners’ four national titles, Hansen caught a different frontline starter to win the national championship. In 2021, it was [autotag]Giselle Juarez[/autotag]. In 2022, [autotag]Hope Trautwein[/autotag] took the ball in key moments. 2023 was [autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag]’s season of dominance. And in 2024, it was [autotag]Kelly Maxwell[/autotag].
In 2023, Hansen was named a first-team All-American. She was also a first-team All-Big 12 selection each of the last two seasons and has been selected for multiple national team appearances. In 2024, she was the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Big 12 selection.
Hansen’s toughness, resiliency, and propensity to come through in clutch situations made her a fan favorite over the last five years. And with the announcement that she’ll continue her softball career locally with the WPF’s Oklahoma City Spark, Sooner fans have the opportunity to continue to watch K-9 do her thing on the diamond.