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Oklahoma softball: Sooners drop from No. 1 in polls but with chance to reclaim it this week

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Tiare Jennings (23) celebrates turning a double play in front of Texas' Isabella Dayton (6) in the during the second game of the championship series in the Women's College World Series between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Thursday, June 9, 2022.Wcws Ou Texas Champ
Oklahoma's Tiare Jennings (23) celebrates turning a double play in front of Texas' Isabella Dayton (6) in the during the second game of the championship series in the Women's College World Series between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Thursday, June 9, 2022.Wcws Ou Texas Champ /
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It’s rare to have the chance to regain what you’ve lost just a few days after you’ve lost it, but that’s what the Oklahoma softball Sooners have immediately in front of them this weekend.

The Sooners dropped from the No. 1 spot in the polls this week after suffering a 4-3 nonconference loss to Baylor on Sunday after eight straight wins to open the 2023 season. Oklahoma fell to No. 2, replace in the top spot by UCLA, which has defeated eight consecutive opponents to begin the new season.

As scheduling fate would have it, Oklahoma and UCLA will meet head on this weekend in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in the Palm Springs area in Cathedral City, California.

The No. 2 Sooners and No. 1 Bruins will meet in the tournament finale on Sunday.

These same two teams played each other in this tournament four years ago, with then-No. 2 UCLA defeating 4th-ranked Oklahoma 7-1. OU and UCLA met three times last season, once in the regular season and twice in the Women’s College World Series. The then top-ranked Sooners won the regular-season matchup 4-1 over the 3rd-ranked Bruins. The two teams split the two WCWS games. UCLA won 7-3 to stave off elimination, but OU came right back in the second of two games that day and won 15-0 in five innings to knock UCLA out of the College World Series.

Oklahoma and UCLA have played 20 times over the years with the Bruins owning a 13-7 all-time record.

Before the top two teams in the country meet up on Sunday, however, Oklahoma and UCLA must both work their way through a series of contests against Cal State Fullerton, Texas A&M and Loyola Marymount.

The Sooners have not lost back-to-back games since the 2020 Covid-shortened season. Ironically, both losses came in the Mary Nutter Classic. OU dropped consecutive games to Washington and Wisconsin.

Sooner head coach Patty Gasso isn’t worried about the early season defeat as long as the team takes a lesson from it and comes back even stronger from it.

"“What’s happened is extremely valuable,” she said after the loss to Baylor last weekend. “What’s valuable is the response, the rebound and the extra work that is going to be put in to make us better.”"

Through the first two weeks of the 2023 season, Oklahoma ranks seventh in the NCAA Division I softball in scoring (8.1 runs per game), 13th in team batting average (.361) and tied for ninth in pitching (1.17 ERA). UCLA is 12th, 12th and 7th in those same three categories.

It shapes up as a marquee matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2 and an early season preview of what we could see in June in the 2023 Women’s College World Series. Between them, UCLA (13) and Oklahoma (6, including the last two consecutive WCWS titles) have won 20 national championships in softball.

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