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Oklahoma softball: Sooners’ No. 1 in rankings supported by top ranking statistically

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Kinzie Hansen (9) celebrates after hitting a home run in the first inning of a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Auburn Tigers at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Saturday, March 18, 2023.Ou Softball Vs Auburn
Oklahoma's Kinzie Hansen (9) celebrates after hitting a home run in the first inning of a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Auburn Tigers at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Saturday, March 18, 2023.Ou Softball Vs Auburn /
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Oklahoma softball is the top-ranked team in the country heading into its Big 12 season opener this weekend at Iowa State.

The Sooners are a nation-best 27-1 entering the conference schedule and look to be every bit as dominant, if not more so, than they have been in winning back-to-back national championships the past two seasons. Since the beginning of the 2021 season, Oklahoma has put together an overall record of 142-8, and the Sooners are a combined 33-2 against Big 12 opponents.

While the weekly national rankings are more of a subjective evaluation of a team’s performance to date, Oklahoma’s team statistics as we near the halfway point of the 2023 season represent an objective measure of how good this team really is and serves as further endorsement of the Sooners’ No. 1 ranking.

Through 28 games, Oklahoma leads all of Division I college softball in the following seven statistical categories:

Scoring: 9.00 runs per game

Batting average: .399

On-base percentage: .481

Slugging percentage: .720

Earned run average: 1.02

Shutouts: 17 in 28 games

Fielding percentage: .992 (5 errors in 28 games)

If that doesn’t represent total domination and the definition of a dynasty, I don’t know what is.

The Sooners head into Big 12 play having not lost a conference series since 2011. OU is 62-0-2) in Big 12 series over that time.

Head coach Patty Gasso has built Sooner softball into a national juggernaut and that train is rolling along and over anything in its way with no sign of slowing down. In her 29th season at Oklahoma, Gasso’s Sooner teams have won 80 percent of their games (1,442-345-2) and five national championships in the last 11 years.

Ninety-two of the last 150 OU softball games have been decided by run rule with the Sooners winning in fewer than the full seven innings. And there is no let up on that front this season with 16 of Oklahoma’s 27 so far this season wins coming by run rule.

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