Oklahoma softball: What you should know about Sooners’ WCWS history
By Chip Rouse
The eight teams that started the 2019 Women’s College World Series is now half that many, with the Oklahoma softball squad leading the way as the high seed at No. 1.
The four remaining teams — OU, UCLA, Washington and Alabama — are all WCWS veterans. Between them, they have made 79 World Series appearances, played in 32 championship games and won it all 18 times.
The Sooners are the more recent of this year’s Final Four to have won a softball national championship, accomplishing the feat in back-to-back seasons in 2016 and ’17. UCLA, however, the No. 2 seed, leads all of college softball with a dozen WCWS titles to its credit.
Oklahoma, UCLA and the Huskies of Washington have followed form so far in the NCAA Softball Championship, coming in as the No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds. Alabama, who the Sooners defeated 3-2 on the opening day of the WCWS on Thursday and will face again in a semifinal round game on Sunday, is the overall No. 8 seed in the tournament.
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Of the four remaining teams, Oklahoma has the least WCWS history with UCLA, the Sooners’ likely opponents in this year’s championship series. I say this because for someone other than OU and UCLA to play for the championship, Washington would have to beat UCLA twice and, likewise, Alabama would have to defeat OU twice on Sunday. I rest my case.
To that point: The Sooners have not lost back-to-back games since March of 2017.
The Crimson Tide (59-9), the Sooners’ WCWS semifinal round opponent, blew out Florida 15-3 and shut out Arizona 2-0 on Saturday to earn the rematch with Oklahoma. Alabama owns a 9-7 record all-time against the Sooners. Seven of those games have been in the WCWS, where OU owns a 4-3 advantage, including the win on Thursday.
Interestingly, the Sooners owned .500 records against all three of the remaining teams in World Series competition coming into this year’s championship. They were 3-3 against both Bama and the Huskies and 1-1 versus UCLA.
Washington held Oklahoma scoreless twice in last year’s WCWS, including a 3-0 win to eliminate the Sooners in the semifinals.
Next. Sooners looking good for a shot at another WCWS title. dark
Oklahoma is hoping for a rematch with UCLA and the opportunity to reverse one of the Sooners’ three losses this season. The Bruins defeated OU 7-1 in a West Coast tournament in late February behind a four-hit pitching performance by National Player of the Year Rachel Garcia. Garcia struck out 15 of the 28 Sooner batters she faced.