Oklahoma Softball: Sooners Set to Begin Final Ascent on 2016 Summit
By Chip Rouse
For the fifth time in the last six seasons, the Oklahoma softball team is making an appearance as one of the eight teams competing in the Women’s College World Series.
Let’s be crystal clear, though. The Sooners’ sights are set much higher than simply being a participant in the 2016 WCWS. They are intent on bringing home the program’s third national championship and its second in three seasons.
Just getting there isn’t enough for this determined group of young women. Not by a long short. They won’t be satisfied unless they are the last team standing, and there is a very good chance that could come to pass.
“They have great spirit,” head coach Patty Gasso told Scott Wright of the Oklahoma City Oklahoman following the Sooner’s Super Regional-clinching win over Louisiana Lafayette this past weekend. They don’t like losing, and they haven’t felt it for quite a long time.”
The Sooners are in the midst of a 27-game winning streak, the longest active streak in Division I college softball. Their last loss was back on April 2, and they had won seven consecutive games before that.
Third-seeded Oklahoma will take its 52-7 record into its opening WCWS game Thursday night against No. 6 Alabama. The Lady Sooners have some unfinished postseason business against the Crimson Tide.
The two teams opened against one another in the 2014 WCWS, won 6-2 by Alabama, and they also met in the WCWS championship finals in 2012, with the Crimson Tide winning the title over OU. Bama also knocked Oklahoma out of the NCAA Tournament last season, winning two of three over the Sooners in the Super Regionals.
The two teams also faced each other earlier this season in Fullerton, Calif. Sooners got the best of Alabama in that game, winning 2-0 on a walk-off home run by freshman Shay Knighton.
Should Oklahoma get by Alabama Thursday night at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, they would play again on Friday night against the winner of the contest between No. 2 Michigan (51-5), the highest-seeded team in the WCWS field, and LSU (50-16).