Though she still has the better part of two seasons of softball left at Wagoner High School playing for her father Johnny Hutchens, junior Juliana “Goose” Hutchens has her sights set on the future. In September OU coach Patty Gasso and Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco watched her play from the stands at Wagoner. Then she visited the Norman campus and verbally committed to playing softball for the prestigious Oklahoma Sooners starting in 2027. After missing a good part of her freshman year with a knee injury, Goose came back strong last year, tying the state single season home run mark with 23 while hitting .656 with 45 RBIs and 70 runs scored. She was a member of the 2021 Oklahoma team that won the Little League Softball World Series, and this past summer was selected for USA softball’s Under-18 team where she will compete in the WBSC World Cup. Softball America has rated her the number two pick and Extra Innings touts her as the top catcher in the nation in the class of ’27 though she can play several positions. Playing for the Sooners, winners of four of the last five College World Series titles, has been a dream of Hutchen’s for the past few years as she noted in her acceptance letter. “I really started picturing playing at OU when I was a freshman and I thought if I really work hard, I can play there. Words can’t describe how thankful I am for Patty Gasso. She’s helped shape me into the player I am and I’m grateful that she’s taking a chance on me.” Goose met Gasso for the first time at a summer camp when she was 10. “She was walking around and shaking everyone’s hand, and I remember how sweaty my hands were as I waited for her to get to me.” Former Sooner catcher Kinzie Hansen is one of Hutchen’s role models and she has tried to model her play after Hansen. And she wrote a homage to her parents in that letter.
“I owe my parents the world. They’ve traveled around taking me to all these games and camps and there’s nothing I could ever do to repay them.”
