Legend Kasidi Pickering break silence after inking new two-year contract with…

The sophomore outfielder has taken on a much larger role both on and off the field as the Sooners prepare to open SEC play this weekend at Love’s Field

Last weekend, any Oklahoma fan could have chalked Kasidi Pickering’s performance up to getting more of the same out of the star sophomore outfielder.

In two games on Saturday, she crushed a trio of home runs — two against Kansas and one against Marshall — a continuation of her excellent start to the season.

And while she’s been a leader in the field and productive at the plate, fans of the No. 2-ranked Sooners are actually seeing a much different version of Pickering.

“(I’ve been) trying to pick up where I left off at the World Series but knowing that I’m not the same person or the same body that I was back then,” Pickering said during OU’s weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Just knowing that, find things that worked. Find things that are new that I have to change to make work, figure out how to make it work and then just pick and choose what I want to do. Not try to be the same player.”

Part of those changes have come with trying to eliminate weaknesses by working closely with associate head coach and hitting coach JT Gasso.

But Pickering has taken on a much larger role off the field, something that’s been made necessary by the influx of new faces into the program.

“I felt my freshman year I had to be more of a sponge,” Pickering said. “The people who played above me were gifted. All those seniors, you’re not going to have a class like that again. So last year it took a lot of listening and asking questions and all of that.

“This year I’m more, ‘What questions do you all have? Can I be the one to answer those questions?’ So it’s just giving the information now where last year I was receiving it.”