Sooner Softball Streaks into the Postseason with No. 3 Overall NCAA Seed
By Chip Rouse
A two-city doubleheader sweep of Oklahoma State on Saturday sent Sooner softball streaking into the postseason and with a fifth consecutive Big 12 championship in its pocket.
Ranked No. 7 in the country last week, the Lady Sooners finished the regular season with an overall record of 47-7 and a record-setting 17-1 mark against Big 12 foes. And on Sunday night, they learned they had earned the No. 3 overall seed in the 2016 NCAA Softball Championship and will serve as a host site as long as they remain in the tournament.
The Big 12 champions on Saturday morning finished off a game that was originally started Friday night in Stillwater, winning 8-0 in a run-rule-shortened game. The Friday night contest was halted in the bottom of the second inning when severe weather hit the Stillwater area with Oklahoma leading 5-0.
The two schools agreed to continue the game on Saturday, but in Norman, where the second-game in the two-game series was scheduled to take place. It took just 58 minutes to complete the suspended game from Friday. The Sooners put three more runs on the board in the top of the fourth on Saturday, giving them their 15th run-rule victory of the season with the game going only five innings.
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The second game on Saturday was closer and went the full seven innings, but Oklahoma prevailed 5-2, again scoring five runs in the opening two innings.
The Sooners got off the fast starts in both games with Oklahoma State over the weekend. Getting on the board early in games has been a recurring trend throughout this season in Oklahoma softball. The Lady Sooners have outscored their opponents 122-15 in the first two frames this season. Meanwhile, OU’s opponents have come up empty in the first two innings over the last 48 games.
Sooner sophomore Paige Parker did not start the second game against Oklahoma State on Saturday, but the OU pitching ace still picked up the win, her 28th of the season against only three losses. Parker came on in relief in the fifth and pitched the final three innings. She earned her 27th victory with a two-hit shutout in the opening game of the two-game Bedlam showdown.
The win in Sunday’s second game was the 22nd consecutive victory for the OU softball squad and 29th in the last 30 games. The 22 straight wins is the fourth longest in Sooner softball history, and with one more it will tie the second longest in program history.
The Sooners’ impressive win streak no doubt impressed the NCAA Softball Selection Committee.
Oklahoma’s 22-game win streak is now the longest active streak in the nation. Fresno State also had won 22 consecutive games, but the Bulldogs lost 10-7 on Saturday to UNLV.
The Sooners will begin NCAA regional action as one of 16 host sites. Wichita State, Tulsa and Ole Miss are the three teams that will join Oklahoma in the Norman Regional, May 20-22.. Should the top-seeded OU squad win out this coming weekend it will get to remain home as one of the four Super Regional sites the following weekend.