Oklahoma softball: Sooners begin WCWS against No. 8 Alabama

By Chip Rouse | May 29, 2019

CHIBA, JAPAN - AUGUST 12: Valerie Ann Arioto #20 of United States in action during the World Championship Final match between United States and Japan at ZOZO Marine Stadium on day eleven of the WBSC Women's Softball World Championship on August 12, 2018 in Chiba, Japan. (Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images) /

Oklahoma softball is back in familiar territory for this time of year, in the Women’s College World Series in nearby Oklahoma City.

The Sooners (54-3) are the No. 1 overall seed, but they are going to have plenty of elite company among the other eight teams in this year’s WCWS field.

Oklahoma is making its eight appearance in the WCWS in the last nine seasons and 13th as a member of the Big 12 (16th all-time). The Sooners will open up their quest for a fifth softball national championship — and third in the last four years — against No. 8 Alabama in the second game of the night session on Thursday at USA Hall of Fame Stadium.

Also in the Sooners side of the bracket are No. 5 Florida and No. 13 Oklahoma State. The other side of the WCWS bracket features No, 2 UCLA, which owns one of Oklahoma’s three losses this season, No, 3 Washington, No. 6 Arizona and No. 7 Minnesota.

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Alabama (57-8) punched its ticket to this year’s WCWS, it’s 12th overall, by defeating Texas in the Tuscaloosa Regional. The Sooners and Crimson Tide have played each other a total of 15 times, 10 of those coming in the postseason and seven times in the WCWS. Alabama leads the all-time series 9-6, although the Sooners are 4-3 against the Tide in World Series competition

The most recent WCWS meeting was in the opening game in 2016. The two teams battled to a scoreless tie through seven innings. The Sooners’ Shay Knighton, then a freshman, hit a walk-off, three-run home run in the eighth to give Oklahoma a 3-0 win. OU went on to win four more games and capture its second WCWS crown.

The Sooners put together a 41-game winning streak this season, which was snapped when Wisconsin handed Oklahoma a 2-1 defeat in the Norman Regional. OU has dominated its opponents all season long, outscoring them by a whopping 437 to 61. The Sooners’ average margin of victory has been by over six runs (7.7 to 1.1).

Twenty-eight of Oklahoma’s 54 wins this season have been shutouts and 25 by run rule (an eight-run advantage after five innings).

In addition to being the top seed in the WCWS, Oklahoma ranks No. 1 in the country in at least 10 statistical categories tracked by the NCAA:

The Sooners have played three of the WCWS teams this season. They lost to UCLA and the Bruins’ All-American pitcher Rachel Garcia, 7-1, and defeated Arizona 2-1, both games in late February in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs. OU swept three games from Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State by a combined score of 16-2.

Oklahoma is right at home playing at the USA Softball Complex. The Sooners are 23-3 all-time playing there, approximately a 30-minute drive from the OU campus in Norman. OU defeated Texas Tech there, 8-0, in its opening game of the Big 12 Championship just a two weeks ago.

If the Sooners get past Alabama in their opening game of the 2019 WCWS, they will advance to the winner’s bracket and play at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night against the winner of the Florida-Oklahoma State game. The losers of those two games will play Saturday night in an elimination game.

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