Women’s College World Series: Oklahoma Sooners Enter as No. 1 Seed
The race for the Women’s College World Series starts this weekend.
The Oklahoma Sooners softball team finished one of the best seasons in school history, winning their 10th Big 12 title and finishing as the number one ranked seed heading into the 2013 NCAA Division I Softball Championship. The Sooners (47-4, 15-2 Big 12) will host an NCAA Regional in Norman on Friday, May 17.
The Sooners also enjoyed some individual honors as the regular season rolled to a close, by sweeping the Big 12 awards honors. Patty Gasso won Coach of the Year, Keilani Ricketts was named Pitcher of the Year and Shelby Pendley was named Player of the Year. Big 12 coaches voted on these honors, with the rules stating they can’t vote on their own players.
Ricketts finished the season with a 25-1 record, a 1.14 ERA and 264 strikeouts in 172 innings. She is the Sooners’ all-time leader in wins and strikeouts. Pendley, a sophomore, hit .376 with 18 homers and 61 RBIs. Five other Oklahoma Sooners softball players joined them on the All-Big 12 teams, with Brianna Turang, Destinee Martinez and Lauren Chamblerlain rounding out the five Sooners who earned first team honors. Michelle Gascoigne and Georgia Casey earned second team honors.
Ricketts, Turang, Casey and Jessica Shults also made the All-Big 12 defensive team.
They now head into the race for the Women’s College World Series and the Sooners’ Regionals will be a three-day event with four teams involved. Joining the Sooners are Fordham (35-21, 15-7 A-10), Arkansas (34-18, 12-10 SEC) and Marist (30-24, 10-6 MAAC). Fordham takes on Arkansas at 5 p.m. CST on Friday while the Sooners take on Marist at 7:30 p.m.
The winners from Friday will play in the first game on Saturday morning and the two losers from Friday play in an elimination game following that. A third game on Saturday will pit the loser of the first game against the winner of the second in another elimination game. On Sunday, the undefeated winner of the first Saturday game will take on the one-loss winner of the third Saturday game, and if needed, the two teams will play again in a second game later on Sunday to determine who wins the Regional.
Whoever wins the Regional will go on to play in the NCAA Super Regional round the following weekend, and the winner of that will move on to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.