Oklahoma softball: Sooners have stellar WCWS history

The Women’s College World Series is the season-ending prize that every college team shoots for, and the Oklahoma softball team is making its ninth consecutive appearance and 18th overall.

The Sooners’ 18 WCWS appearances is tied for third among NCAA Division I schools. Only UCLA with 13 and Arizona with eight have more national titles in the sport than Oklahoma, which is tied with Arizona State, each having four national championship trophies.

Oklahoma has advanced to the WCWS 14 times since winning its first national championship in 2000. Over that 22-year span, the Sooners have posted an overall record of 32-21 (.604) in WCWS competition, including four WCWS championships (2000, 2013, 2016 and 2017).

The Sooners were 14-1 in WCWS play in their four national championship seasons.

OU’s loss to James Madison on Thursday was the sixth time the Sooners have lost in their opening game in the WCWS. The last time this happened was in 2018 as Washington handed the the two-time defending national-champion Sooners a 2-0 loss. Much like this season, that loss was just the fourth time Oklahoma had lost all season.

Oklahoma bounced back from that opening-game WCWS loss in 2018 with wins over Arizona State and Florida before succumbing a second time to Washington, 3-0, in the semifinals.

The Sooners have made it to the best-of three WCWS championship series five times since 2000 and have won it four times. Their only loss after making it to the championship final was in 2019, when they lost twice in two games to UCLA.

If Oklahoma advances as far as the championship series this season, it will mark the fifth time they have done so in the last eight WCWS.