Sooner Sports: It’s a Bedlam Weekend on the Diamond for OU Men, Women
By Chip Rouse
The Sooner sports year is rapidly drawing to a close, and it doesn’t get much more special than capping off a Big 12 regular season with a pair of Bedlam series battles in both baseball and softball.
It may be called the Sooner State, but when it comes time for what they call Bedlam in the state of Oklahoma, everything is up for grabs. The popular term signifies athletic competition – or any competition, for that matter – pitting the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
This weekend, the competition between the two schools will take place in two different sports in four different locations.
The Sooners baseball team opens a three-game weekend series on Friday against the rival Cowboys of Oklahoma State. The opening game of the series will take place at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City on Friday, with games two and three moving to Tulsa.
Meanwhile the Big 12 softball-champion Sooners will go up against the OSU Cowgirls in a two-game home-and-home set on Friday-Saturday. On Friday, the teams will play in Stillwater, and on Saturday the scene shifts to Norman.
A pair of win streaks are on the line in the Bedlam softball series this weekend. The No. 7-ranked Sooners have won 20 consecutive games and 27 of their last 28 in running their season record to 45-7. Oklahoma’s three-game series sweep over Texas Tech last weekend earned the Crimson and Cream an outright fifth consecutive Big 12 crown in softball.
Oklahoma State (29-22, 6-9) is on a roll of its own heading into Friday’s Bedlam contest, having won its last seven games. Moreover, in the last two OSU wins, the Cowgirls did not allow a run.
Asked about her teams 20-game win streak, OU head coach Patty Gasso told Ryan Aber of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman this week: “We really don’t talk about streaks or numbers or records of anything like that. That’s not what this program is based on. We’re here to win championships. That’s one thing we do talk about.”
The 20 consecutive OU softball wins is currently tied for the fourth longest in program history. The Sooners had a 23-game consecutive-game streak in both 2007 and 2001 and reached 29 games in 2005.
“We really don’t talk about streaks or records…We’re here to win championships. That’s one thing we do talk about.” —Patty Gaso, OU head coach, on the Sooners 20-game softball win streak
The Sooner baseball team may have an even tougher challenge ahead in its series this weekend with its in-state rival from Stillwater. The Cowboys (31-15, 12-6), ranked 15th in the most recent USA Today College Baseball Top 25, are still in the chase for the Big 12 regular-season title. To catch league-leading Texas Tech, however, OSU is probably going to have to take all three games against the Sooners.
OU is hoping it can continue to offensive momentum displayed in winning the final two games of its weekend series with Kansas State a week ago. The Sooners exploded for 22 runs on 24 hits while holding the Wildcats to just one run total in the two games.
The two Sooner pitchers credited with the wins over K-State, freshman right-hander Jake Irvin and junior right-hander Alec Hansen, are scheduled to take the hill on Friday and Saturday, respectively, against the Cowboys.
Oklahoma has pounded out 54 hits in its last five games, scoring in the double digits in winning four of the five games.
Former Sooner backup quarterback Cody Thomas has been on an absolute terror. Over his last 15 games, the OU outfielder and sometimes DH is hitting a team-best .469, going 15 for 32 at the plate.
Oklahoma State has struggled at the plate this season, hitting a Big 12-worst .260 as a team for the year, but its pitching has been outstanding. The Cowboys lead the conference through all games with a collective 3.01 staff ERA and Big 12-best four complete games.
The Sooners will face two of the best pitchers in the conference in the opening two games of the series. On Friday, it will be OU’s Irvin (4-1, 4.54 ERA) going up against Thomas Hatch, who is 5-1 this season and leads the Big 12 with a very stingy 1.36 ERA. Saturday’s mound matchup will be Hansen (1-4, (5.06) for OU and Jensen Elliott (7-2, 3.18) for the Cowboys.
The Sooners and Cowboys have already met once this season on the baseball diamond, with Oklahoma State pulling out a narrow 4-3 win in Norman on April 20.
Oklahoma State leads the all-team series between these two longtime in-state rivals in baseball,153-136. Eleven of the last 16 meetings (since 2013) have been decided by three runs or less, and five of those games have been by one run.