Oklahoma softball: Sooners are champions even without the trophy
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma softball fell just short in its bid to become only the second team to win three consecutive national championships.
The Sooners’ 3-0 loss to Washington in a WCWS semifinal contest on Sunday brought to an end the chance for a national championship three-peat. This Oklahoma softball group didn’t reach its ultimate season goal, but it still managed to record the second best season, by winning percentage, in OU softball history.
Oklahoma posted a record of 57-5 in 2018, a winning percentage of .919. That is second only to the 2013 Sooner team, which won 57 games and lost only four, good for a .934 winning percentage.
The Sooners were making their seventh appearance in the Women’s College World Series in the last eight seasons. That is the most of any school in that time period, and it includes three national championships. And for six seniors on the OU team, it was their third trip up I-35 to the WCWS in Oklahoma City, but sadly the first time they haven’t walked away with the championship trophy.
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In four highly successful years playing softball for the University of Oklahoma, these half-dozen seniors have been part of OU teams that produced a combined record of 224-31 (.878).
Here are some other numbers that mattered from Oklahoma’s exceptional 2018 softball season:
.220 – Oklahoma batted .326 as a team this season, sixth best in the nation, but in the Women’s College World Series they batted just. .220 and collected only 16 hits total in four games.
.424 – Freshman Jocelyn Alo’s team-leading batting average. Her slugging percentage of .958 was fourth best in the country.
1 – Oklahoma was 30-0 at home this season. The Sooners’ two losses to Washington in the WCWS were the first time they had lost in the state of Oklahoma in the 2018 season.
2 for 14 – OU junior third baseman Sydney Romero batted over .400 for the season, the second best hitter for the Sooners and fifth best in the Big 12. But she was just 2 for 14 at the plate in the WCWS.
11 – In the first 49 games of the season, Oklahoma committed just 11 errors, the fewest of any team in the country. The Sooners committed 11, however, in the final 13 games of the season.
25 – In four WCWS games, the Sooners stranded 25 base runners.
30 – OU freshman Jocelyn Alo leads the nation with 30 home runs this season. That ties an NCAA Division I record for the most by a freshman in a single season. The record is shared with two other former players, one of which was a former Sooner (Lauren Chamberlain).
123-18 – Paige Parker’s career record in four seasons as the Sooners’ starting pitcher.