Oklahoma softball closes out second straight undefeated Big 12 season
By Chip Rouse
Neither rain, nor the road, nor Bedlam series rival Oklahoma State can keep the 2019 Oklahoma softball team from its anointed mission.
The No. 1-ranked Sooners (48-2, 18-0), closed out a perfect 18-0 Big 12 season with a dominant three-game sweep of No. 12 Oklahoma State, sweeping a doubleheader, 7-1 and 6-1, in Stillwater on Sunday.
A 3-0 OU win on Saturday over in-state rival OSU clinched the Sooners’ eighth consecutive Big 12 regular-season championship.
A year after becoming the second team in Big 12 history to go undefeated in a season, the Sooners did it a second time, becoming the only team in conference history to do it in back-to-back seasons.
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The Sooners extended their winning streak to a remarkable 38 games, the longest active streak in a single season in NCAA Division I history. Equally impressive, OU is undefeated in its last 48 Big 12 games and is 50-0-4 in its last 54 Big 12 series.
"“They just impress me beyond belief,” said head coach Patty Gasso of her 2019 Sooner team to reporters after Sunday’s doubleheader. “They haven’t felt a loss in a while, and they don’t want to.”"
OU pitchers Mariah Lopez and Shannon Saile followed a one-hit, complete-game shutout by Sooner Giselle Juarez on Saturday with compete-game performances of their own on Sunday. The trio of OU pitchers held the Oklahoma State bats to just two runs on six total hits the entire weekend.
Oklahoma plated a quick run in the first inning of the opening game of the twin bill and followed that up with a three-spot in the third, highlighted by a no-doubt, two-run home run blast to left field by senior Sydney Romero, her Big 12-leading 17th of the season and 51st in her career. Romero was one of three Sooners to collect two hits in the game.
Oklahoma State scored its first run of the series in the fourth inning on a home run by Samantha Show to lead off the inning, and that was the extent of the Cowgirls’ offense off of OU’s Lopez, who allowed just one other hit, struck out nine batters and did not allow a walk. Lopez is now 17-1 this season.
The Sooners struck fast in the nightcap. With two out in the top half of the first inning, senior Caleigh Clifton drew a walk and sophomore Jocelyn Alo brought her home with a two-run home run to left field. The next batter up, freshman Grace Green followed suit with a long blast of her own to give Oklahoma an early 3-0 lead.
Oklahoma State scored its only run in game two on a solo home run by freshman outfielder Cheyenne Factor. OU’s Saile shutdown the Cowgirls’ offense the rest of the way. She gave up three hits total, struck out nine and walked two in picking up her 10th win to go with one loss.
Next stop for the eight-time defending Big 12 champions is the Big 12 Conference Tournament. The top-seeded Sooners will play No. 4 Texas Tech and No. 6 Kansas on Friday in pool play.
Oklahoma’s 48-2 record is the best 50-game record in the school’s history, eclipsing the teams 47-3 mark through the same number of games last season.