Oklahoma Softball, Baseball Enjoy Weekend Sweeps

As a winter storm was bearing down on the Midwest plains over the weekend, Oklahoma softball and baseball were storming on their own, completing weekend sweeps in their respective sports.

With the Lady Sooners in basketball waiting to learn their seeding and where they are headed to begin postseason play in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, the Oklahoma baseball and softball squads continued on winning streaks over the weekend.

The reigning national champion OU softball team has won10 consecutive games and the Sooner baseball team completed a 19-game home stand to begin the 2017 season, going 17-2 over that stretch.

Both teams head out on the road this week, and for the baseball team it will be their first road trip of the now month-long college baseball season.

The Softball team is off on what could be called a California spring break, fresh on the heels of two games each against Omaha and Illinois Chicago, each decided by run-rule. The Sooner women allowed a total of just two runs in the four games, outscoring the two opponents by a combined run total of 41-2.

The four softball wins over the weekend at Marita Hynes Field extended OU’s home win streak to 25 games.

That raises the number of softball games this season decided by run-rule in favor of OU to eight out of 24 games.

The ninth-ranked OU softball squad, which stands at 20-4, will play seven times in Los Angeles over the next seven days, including doubleheaders are both Tuesday and Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Lady Sooners will take on Arizona and Long Beach State. On Thursday, theyt will play two against California State-Bakersfield and Loyola Marymount. OU will complete the seven day spring break road trip with three games against Cal Poly over the weekend.

More from OU softball

• Oklahoma softball: Sooners add a fourth top-ranked 2025 commitment
• Oklahoma softball: Sooners pick up three elite 2025 commitments this month
• Oklahoma softball: Sooner star Grace Lyons is Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year
• Oklahoma softball: Sooners add Oklahoma State ace pitcher via transfer
• Oklahoma softball: Sooners add veteran starting pitcher via transfer

Sophomore second baseman Caleigh Clifton leads the Sooner softball squad in hitting with a .433 batting average, third best in the Big 12. Junior center fielder Nicole Pendley is providing a power bat, leading the conference with eight home runs, 55 total bases and a league-best slugging average of .705.

Turning to the baseball diamond, 13th-ranked Oklahoma (according to Collegiate Baseball News), which began the 2017 season unranked, leaves the friendly confines of L. Dale Mitchell Park for a southern swing to Georgia, with game this week against Georgia Tech, Georgia State and a three-game weekend series against Kennesaw State.

After allowing 10 runs in a 16-10 series-opening win over Buffalo over the weekend, Sooner pitching locked down the visitors over the next three games, yielding just one run and posting back-to-back shutouts on Friday and Saturday.

Oklahoma leads Big 12 baseball with a team batting average of .328 and an league-leading 2.24 earned run average. Center fielder Steele Walker leads the conference with 29 hits through 19 games, and starting pitcher Jake Irvin is 4-0 with the Big-12’s fourth-best ERA, a stingy 1.08. Both are sophomores.

OU baseball does not play at home again until March 31, when the Sooners open a three-game home series against Texas Tech. After the five games this week in the state of Georgia, Oklahoma heads to Stillwater for a midweek Bedlam battle with Oklahoma State and the weekend after next travels to Waco, where the Sooners will take on Baylor.

Picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll, the Sooners currently sit atop the league standings with their 17-2 record. Over the next couple of weeks, we will get a reality check on just how good this year’s baseball squad is and whether they are a contender or a pretender.

So far, so good, however.