Oklahoma softball rewind: Sooners off to best start in sport’s history

Four games and four commanding wins…all in another record-setting week of Oklahoma softball

The No. 1-ranked Sooner softball team took on Tulsa on Wednesday at home, then headed to West Texas for a weekend series against Texas Tech in Lubbock.

The Sooners swept all four games, scoring a combined 52 runs and not allowing a single opponent run to cross home plate. The four wins improve Oklahoma’s record to 36-0 and a new all-time record for consecutive wins to the start a college softball season.

Overall Oklahoma has now won 38 consecutive games, including the two wins over Florida State in the Women’s College World Series ending last season. That is three wins shy of the OU program record and nine from trying Arizona for the all-time record at 47 straight wins. than the school record, and 9 less than Arizona’s record of 47.

On Wednesday the Sooners hosted the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and turned in a 9-0 shutout win in a game shortened to five innings by run rule. Nicole May pitched a complete game, striking out six. Jana Johns led the team with two ground-out RBIs.

The long ball was uncharacteristically absent from the Tulsa game, but the Sooners found a way to put nine runs on the board with small-ball tactics, demonstrating their ability to find different ways to win. OU stole five bases in the contest. Hannah Coore had a highlight-worthy play on the bags, with this subtle move to slide safe into home plate:

At Texas Tech on Friday evening, the Oklahoma power bats that had been silenced earlier in the week came to life and in a big way.  Jocelyn Alo, the NCAA career home run leader, blasted three home runs, the first time she had accomplished that feat in her record-setting career.

Senior shortstop went yard twice on her own and sophomore second baseman Tiare Jennings also knocked one over the fence. The Sooners scored 11 runs on nine hits — six of which left the yard — and went on to an 11-0 shutout win over the Red Raiders.

Freshman pitching sensation Jordy Bahl got the start. and went the distance, allowing just two Texas Tech hits while striking out five. It was her 15th win of the season. The Sooners led just 5-0 heading into the fifth inning but scored six times in the top half of the inning to put the game out of reach.

Saturday was almost a repeat of Friday night as the Sooners won 11-0 again. Hope Trautwein got the start in the circle and pitched another OU gem, shutting out Texas Tech on just one hit, striking out seven Red Raiders and yielding a pair of walks.

Trautwein, a North Texas transfer, improved her nation-leading earned run average, which entered the weekend at a near unbelievable 0.13. She has given up just one earned run in 59 2/3 innings.  On the flip side of the ledger, Texas Tech pitcher and former Oklahoma Sooner Olivia Raines struggled to hold down her former teammates. Rains, who played two seasons at OU, started at went the first three innings, giving up five earned runs on five hits.

Oklahoma blasted four home runs in the game, two coming off of Rains, and junior outfielder Riley Boone went two for three at the plate and chipped in this epic web gem:

The third time was not the charm for the Red Raiders. As Sunday rolled around, Oklahoma was not of the temperament to offer up a Sunday clunker like they’ve had a couple of times this season. The Sooners knew they were chasing history, and played like it.

Jordy Bahl and Nicole May combined for a no-hitter, the sixth of the season by Sooner pitchers, and Oklahoma’s lethal lineup peppered five Texas Tech pitchers for 21 runs and 19 hits, including seven round-trippers.

Jocelyn Alo added a couple more home runs, giving her an NCAA best 21 for the season, while Tiare Jennings, Kinzie Hansen, Grace Lyons, Jana Johns and Alyssa Brito also registered four-baggers in the game. The Red Raiders were hit with an absolute perfect storm by Oklahoma. The Sooners also helped their cause with an outstanding game defensively as played a complete game as demonstrated by this epic double play:

All four Oklahoma wins last week were recorded by run rule. Twenty-eight of the Sooners 36 wins this season have been by run rule and 21 by shutout. Oklahoma has outscored its 36 opponents 354-27, and only 17 of those runs are earned.

Next up on the schedule for the Sooners is a Red River Showdown with No. 19 Texas (30-10-1), which is tied with Oklahoma atop the Big 12 standings, both with 6-0 records. The two bitter rivals will play three games in Austin Thursday through Saturday. The Lady Longhorns are red hot, having won 19 of their last 21 games. and the series is on their home field.