Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma softball: Sooners complete record-setting regular season

By Chip Rouse

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 22: General View of Easton Stadium during the game between the UCLA Bruins Softball team and the USA Softball team on April 22, 2008 at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 22: General View of Easton Stadium during the game between the UCLA Bruins Softball team and the USA Softball team on April 22, 2008 at Easton Stadium in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /
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Nearly 2,000 Oklahoma softball fans were in attendance for the regular-season and Bedlam series finale with Oklahoma State.

Related Story: Nos. 1 and 3 stand out for Sooner softball

Those in attendance not only witnessed another dominating Oklahoma performance, but also history in the making. The Sooners completed a season sweep over their in-state rivals, as well as the Big 12 in a 7-0 victory on Saturday in front of a record crowd at Marita Hynes Field in Norman.

No. 3-ranked Oklahoma ended its 2018 conference season with a perfect 18-0 record, the best league record in Sooner softball history and only the second time a conference team has gone undefeated in league play (Nebraska, in 1998, is the other, at 16-0). On three occasions (2000, 2016 and 2017), OU ended the season at 17-1 in the Big 12, and all three times the Sooners went on to win the national championship.

Seniors Paige Parker and Paige Lowary made certain their final home appearance in an OU uniform would not end in disappointment.

Parker started and went 5 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits and striking out eight. Lowary, the No. 1 overall pick in the recent National Pro Fastpitch League annual draft, came on in relief in the sixth inning and retired all five batters she faced. Parker was credited with the win, her 24th of the season and 116th in her brilliant Sooner career.

The No. 22-ranked Cowgirls of Oklahoma State ended the conference season in second place, six full games back of the Sooners, who have won seven consecutive Big 12 regular-season championships and 10 overall. OU will go into the Big 12 postseason tournament next week as the No. 1 seed.

Oklahoma ended the 2018 regular season with a record of 47-3, the best winning percentage over 50 games in program history and the 20th year the Sooners’ win total has exceeded 45 or more in a season. Patty Gasso has coached 19 of those OU teams.

Here are some other numbers that mattered from the Sooners’ regular season-ending sweep of Oklahoma State:

5 – Five Oklahoma players produced two or more hits in the Sooners’ 7-0 win over Oklahoma State.

6 – Six OU seniors were honored on Senior Night on Saturday (Paige Parker, Paige Lowary, Lea Wodach, Hannah Sparks, Nicole Pendley and Kelsey Arnold).

11 – Junior third baseman Sydney Romero blasted her 11th home run of the season, a two-run shot that cleared the left field wall, in the fourth inning of Saturday’s game.

15 – Oklahoma produced 12 hits in its 7-0 win on Saturday. That marks the 15th time this season the Sooners have recorded double digits in the hit column.

20 – The series sweep of the OSU Cowgirls gives Oklahoma 20 consecutive wins over its in-state rival.

24 – Two of the Sooners’ three victories this weekend over Oklahoma State were shutouts. Twenty-four of Oklahoma’s 47 victories this season have been by shutout.

25 – Oklahoma was 18-0 in the Big 12 this season, but the Sooners have won 25 consecutive conference games, dating back to last season. OU is also 25-0 at home this season.

1,828 – Listed attendance at Saturday night’s regular-season finale with Oklahoma State, the biggest crowd for a regular-season game in Oklahoma softball history.

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