Oklahoma softball: Sooners go after 2nd 2018 championship this week
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball begins its second season this weekend as one of six teams that will slug it out in the Big 12 Championship.
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The top-seeded Sooners won’t have to go far to play in the conference postseason tournament. It is being staged at Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in nearby Oklahoma City. Head coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners are hoping they will be right back there in a couple of weeks as they go for their third consecutive national championship in the Women’s College World Series.
First, however, OU must take care of business in the Big 12 Championship. Day one of the conference tournament will involve pool play. The six teams (out of seven total) that qualified for the championship have been divided into two pools of three teams each.
Texas (30-23, 10-8) and Iowa State (23-20, 4-14) are the two teams in Pool A along with the Sooners. Pool B consists of No. 2 seed Oklahoma State (36-19, 12-6), No. 3 seed Baylor (35-14, 12-6) and No. 5 seed Texas Tech (28-24, 5-13).
Each team will play twice of Friday. OU will go up against No. 4 Texas in the afternoon, and will return to the diamond for a night game against No. 6 Iowa State.
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The Sooners are the reigning postseason tournament champions and are seeking their sixth conference tournament crown. Oklahoma’s perfect 18-0 record in conference play this season is the best Big 12 finish in program history and only the second time in the 22 seasons the Big 12 has been in existence that a team has gone undefeated through the league schedule.
The No. 3-ranked Sooners finished the regular season with a record of 47-3, the best record through 50 games in school history. OU outscored its opponents this season by a whopping 354-58. Moreover, 24 of the 47 wins were by shutout and 18 games ended early because the Sooners held an advantage of eight runs or greater after five innings.
This may be OU’s best softball team in program history. Statistically, it would be extremely difficult to argue otherwise. This year’s team has been dominant in every aspect of the game. The Sooners lead the Big 12 in nine offensive categories, three pitching categories and are the best defensive team in the conference, based on fewest errors committed and fielding percentage.
Oklahoma not only is head and shoulders above every team in the Big 12 this season, but ranks No. 1 in the country in on-base percentage (.433), slugging percentage (.543) and is second in scoring, averaging nearly seven runs per game. The Sooners also owns the best staff ERA (1.09) in the pitching department.
The Sooners have defeated 28 consecutive Big 12 opponents, including three consecutive shutout on the way to winning the Big 12 Championship tournament last season.
The 2018 Big 12 Championship will wrap up on Saturday, with the winner of Pool A facing the winner of Pool B for the tournament title. Similarly, the two third-place teams will go against each other, as will the two teams that finish second in Friday’s pool play.