Kansas outfielder Alex Jones talks about the Jayhawks' 2104 softball season, the last to be played on the current Arrocha Park at KU, before the team moves to their new home at Rock Chalk Park. The KU softball team had a media day event Thursday.

Last May 5, Kansas University’s softball team stunned top-ranked Oklahoma, 2-0.

Two weeks from the start of another season, the Jayhawks still talk about it.

Moments after losing to the Sooners, 4-2, during Game One of a doubleheader, the Jayhawks bounced back and sent their seniors out on the highest note possible.

“The Oklahoma win was awesome,” fifth-year senior Alex Jones said during the team’s annual media day Thursday. “We reflect on that win because you need games like that as recognition for what has happened and what’s to come. That game 100 percent gave us momentum heading into this season.”

For others, like sophomore ace Kelsey Kessler, who was the winning pitcher during that magical upset of OU, the gains from that victory come in a form other than smiles and happy memories.

“It crosses my mind all the time, but not in the way you would think,” Kessler said. “If anything, it adds more pressure. I mean, I was a freshman, and I don’t want that to be the highlight of my career.”

And therein lies the current state of Kansas softball: The Jayhawks feel good about what they built in the recent past but are in no way content with the memories. In beating the Sooners, the Jayhawks provided notice to themselves and the rest of the Big 12 Conference this was a program on the rise. Now, the focus entering the 2014 season is making sure it keeps rising.

“It’s something we’re building on,” said KU coach Megan Smith, who enters her fifth season at Kansas with a roster of 10 veterans and eight newcomers. “We’ve been waiting for a few years to be able to beat the big dogs in the Big 12, and last year we proved that we could do it. For us, it was one of those, ‘Finally,’ moments. And we’re really excited to build on that this year.”

In order to do that, the Jayhawks are going to have to approach games differently. Last season, behind a powerful offensive lineup that included four-year starters Mariah Montgomery and local twins Maggie and Rosie Hull leading the offense, the Jayhawks slugged their way to a 34-16 overall record and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12 at 9-8.

Offense figures to be tougher to come by this year, but Smith and the upperclassmen said they’re looking forward to the challenge of pushing runs across.

“We’ve worked a lot in the offseason about execution and making sure we don’t give up any at-bats,” Smith said. “That’s a fun way to play softball. And it’s going to be fun to see us work as a team to score runs.”

The strength of the team figures to be its pitching and defense, where Kessler returns from a dominant freshman season in which she earned second-team All-Big 12 honors with a 12-6 record and a 2.19 earned-run average.

Kessler said she improved in the offseason. She added a drop pitch to complement her rise ball and feels more consistent overall.

“I know the game mentally more and how to approach batters,” Kessler said. “And that’s huge. There’s so much more to the game than fundamentals, and I didn’t know that coming in.”

Joining her and Jones in leading this team on the field will be senior infielder Ashley Newman, junior utility player Maddie Stein, junior infielder Chanin Naudin and sophomore infielder Chaley Brickey.

“It is a completely new team,” Kessler said, “which is tough going into a new season, but the new girls are very excited to be here. They have a lot of talent, and we have great leadership, and I think we’ll mesh well.”

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New home coming: The Jayhawks’ 2014 home schedule will be a farewell tour of sorts for Arrocha Ballpark. Beginning in 2015, they’ll play their home games at the new field at Rock Chalk Park. A recent field trip to check out the progress proved to be mind-blowing.

“It’s ridiculous,” Kessler said. “It doesn’t even make sense. Just that they would invest that much money into us, is amazing. I’m unbelievably grateful for that. It’ll be really, really neat to play there. I would be shocked if this isn’t the nicest facility in the country. It’s amazing.”

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Preseason ranking: The Jayhawks enter 2014 picked fourth in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll. Asked about their highest preseason ranking since 2002, the Jayhawks saw the middle-of-the-pack placement two ways.

“The coaches have for sure kept up their end of the bargain,” Stein said. “They’ve put us in a position to get better, and we have. So it’s exciting to be at No. 4 because we have been ranked so low in the past. I would never take it as an insult, but I take it as motivation because those teams that are ahead of us, we played with, and we proved last year that if we do what we need to do, we can beat anybody.”