Oklahoma softball: Win and Sooners stay home all the way to WCWS

As long as the Oklahoma softball team keeps winning, the dream of a third consecutive national championship remains intact and the Sooners never have to leave their home state.

The Sooners open up NCAA Regional play hosting Boston University, Tulsa and Missouri in a double-elimination tournament that begins Friday at OU’s Marita Hynes Field.

Oklahoma comes into regional play as the NCAA No, 4 overall seed, which means if they win the Norman Regional, the Sooners will also host one of the four Super Regionals next weekend.

The stats for a regional victory certainly stack up on OU’s favor. The two-time defending national champions are 50-3 this season, boast the nation’s fifth-best offensive attack, the fourth-best pitching staff ERA and is the best fielding team in NCAA Division I, having committed just 15 errors all season.

And you can add to that the fact that they have won 29 consecutive games when playing at home, which they will be this weekend.

Sooner head coach Patty Gasso is in her 23rd season at Oklahoma and has taken the Sooners to the postseason every season she has been there.

OU is one of 16 regional sites hosting NCAA tournament games this weekend, and it may be the most intriguing. That is the way the ESPN softball experts described the Norman Regional in their selection show last Sunday announcing the field and the brackets for the 2018 NCAA Softball Championship. If you are a Sooner fan, it may also be the most challenging? Here’s why:

• One of Oklahoma’s three losses this season is to Boston University. The Sooners lost to the Terriers 4-3 in the Troy Cox Classic Tournament in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in mid-February. Head coach Patty Gasso and her team are not offering any excuses for that loss, but the truth is half of the team was suffering with the flu at the time the game was played. Oklahoma will get a chance at redemption on Friday night. The Sooners square off with Boston University (39-18), the Patriot League, in game two of the Norman Regional.
• Tulsa (33-23) plays Missouri ( 28-27) in the opening game of the Norman Regional on Friday. Oklahoma and Tulsa have played 53 times, with the Sooners winning 43, including a 1-0 road victory this season. The last two times OU and Tulsa have played, the Sooners have prevailed, but only by a 1-0 margin.
• Although Missouri is now a member of the Southeastern Conference, the Tigers are former members of the Big 12 Conference and have a longtime history with Oklahoma. The Sooners own a 51-41 record all-time against Missouri in softball. Moreover, two Oklahoma players, pitchers Paige Lowary and Parker Conrad, transferred to OU from Missouri.

Gasso doesn’t want the Sooners to get caught up in all of the storylines:

"“If you make anything out here bigger than it is, it’s gonna get you,” the OU head coach said in an article posted this week on the Oklahoma athletic website. “You’ve got to get lost in competition and not in who you’re playing…“They key to loving to win is not being afraid to lose.”"

The Friday winners will meet in the early game on Saturday, followed by an elimination game. The winner of the elimination game will play the loser of the Saturday’s first game in the late game on Saturday. The two remaining teams will play for the championship on Sunday, including a second game, if necessary.

The winners of the 16 regionals will square off the following week in Super Regional competition to determine the eight teams that will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.