NORMAN — Karlie Keeney was in a difficult position.

Less than two years after her college career ended, Keeney found herself not only taking over as an interim pitching coach but doing it at Oklahoma, where she’d be taking over the Jennifer Rocha — one of the most well-respected pitching coaches around.

The Sooners had a staff with little experience pitching for OU, with transfers Sydney Berzon and Miali Guachino, freshmen Allyssa Parker and Berkley Zache playing roles.

Only Kierston Deal and Audrey Lowry had pitched at all for the Sooners entering this season.

It wasn’t a great start to the season pitching-wise for Oklahoma but the Sooners had clearly taken a turn in recent weeks under Keeney.

They’d moved into the top 25 nationally in team ERA.

Now that Rocha is back, having been declared cancer-free after a cervical-cancer diagnosis led to her stepping away from the team for the first seven weeks of the season, Sooners coach Patty Gasso continued to heap praise on Keeney.

“She really allowed this team to stay together,” Gasso said.

Before Rocha’s return, Gasso praised Keeney’s growth as a pitching coach.

“I think she has really improved on her pitch-calling as we’ve gone along,” Gasso said. “She does a really good job of communicating with pitchers, asking them, ‘What do you want here?’, ‘What kind of combos are you looking for?’, what have you. So she’s gotten better and I’ve gotten better.

“We’ve gotten better together as we’ve gone along.”

OU allowed just five runs during its three-game sweep of Kentucky, which wrapped up with a 12-2 five-inning win Saturday.

“I’m happy that she was available,” Rocha said of Keeney after Tuesday’s 12-3 win over Wichita State, Rocha’s first home game since returning March 27 against LSU. “I don’t know, only God knows why her name was the first one that was thrown out, but she certainly stepped in and was readily available. She’s done, really, an amazing job under the circumstances. To bring a former player one year out to come in and just take over a top Division-I softball program, it’s hard for anybody to do. And so I commend Karlie on the job that she’s done with our pitching staff. It’s a young pitching staff, and she really did her best to manage it, and she got us to this point. So I’m just forever grateful for what she’s done.”

Even though Rocha has returned, Keeney will remain part of the staff for the remainder of the season, serving as a bullpen coach.

“Just having someone that was here only two years ago so getting her point of view and then also having Coach Rocha’s, who has been doing this forever, so it’s like just having them two is great for my mentality,” Guachino said of her relationship with both Keeney and Rocha.