Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma softball: Sooners chasing multiple NCAA records, including GOAT

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma celebrates the home run of Kinzie Hansen (9) in the third inning during a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Missouri Tigers at Norman Regional of NCAA softball tournament at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., Saturday, May, 20, 2023.
Oklahoma celebrates the home run of Kinzie Hansen (9) in the third inning during a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Missouri Tigers at Norman Regional of NCAA softball tournament at Marita Hynes Field in Norman, Okla., Saturday, May, 20, 2023. /
facebooktwitterreddit

A couple of weeks ago we posed the question: Is the 2023 edition of Oklahoma softball the greatest Sooner team ever, if not the greatest college softball team in history?

Heading into the NCAA Super Regionals, the Sooners are 54-1 and the No. 1 overall seed for the second consecutive year. They are also two-time defending national champions going for an extremely rare three-peat. Only one other college team (UCLA in 1988-90) has accomplished that feat.

Oklahoma is riding a 46-game winning streak and is just one win away from tying the all-time NCAA Division I record of 47 games. The Sooners will get the opportunity not only to tie the record but break it when they host No. 16 Clemson in the Super Regional round this weekend. Clemson is a very good team in its own right and has one of college softball’s best pitchers this season in Valerie Cagle.

Cagle isn’t just an outstanding pitcher, she also is one of the most dangerous hitters in college softball. That dual threat will certainly pose a major concern for the Sooners, not just in their quest to win the Norman Super Regional and keep their national championship three-peat hopes alive but also OU chances to set a new consecutive wins record. Both will be on the line in the Super Regional this weekend.

Softball history in the making

Oklahoma is chasing history on multiple fronts this season. The Sooners are on pace to set a record for the best winning percentage in college softball in a single season. The record is currently held by the 1992 UCLA team with a record of 54-2, which equates to a win percentage of .964. At 54-1, Oklahoma has a winning percentage of .981.

This is one year after posting an overall record of 59-3 (.951), the highest win percentage in Sooner softball history. Head coach Patty Gasso’s Sooner teams have also produced a 57-4 season (2013), a 56-4 season (2021) and a 66-8 season (2000), which stands as the most wins in a season by an OU softball team. It should come as no surprise that Oklahoma won the national championship as the Women’s College World Series winner in all four of those seasons.

OU’s No. 1 standing this season is further bolstered by the extraordinary fact that the Sooners lead Division I softball this season in hitting, pitching and fielding, the three most fundamental elements in the game. OU is No. 1 with a team batting average (.376, 40 points better than the next closest team) of, No. 1 in pitching ERA (0.88) and the best fielding team in the country (.989, with just 15 errors in 55 games).

And here’s the kicker: No team has ever led the nation in all three of those major categories in the same season in the history of college softball.

And those are just three of the statistical categories in which the 2023 Oklahoma Sooners stand above all of the rest. OU also leads the country in scoring (8.38 runs per game), home runs (104) and home runs per game (1.89), on-base percentage (.466), slugging percentage (.681), shutouts (32) and run-rule wins (27).

Is this Oklahoma team the greatest college softball team of all-time?

As Oklahoma heads into Super Regional weekend against a solid Clemson team, the Sooners are just two wins away from advancing to the Women’s College World Series for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons in which the WCWS has been played. OU has been crowned national champions in four of the last six seasons.

Getting to the WCWS is the goal of every Division I college softball team in America every year. Considering the historical record, it’s hard not to see the Sooners heading back to Oklahoma City again this year. Once there, they will have a minimum of five games in which to set in cement their claim not only as the greatest Sooner softball team in program history but the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) of college softball.

The two would be one in the same and a crowning fit to what has been yet another dream season of Oklahoma softball.

If this Oklahoma squad were able to run the table to the finish line, or even if they stumble one time along the way, it will be incredibly hard to deny that this isn’t the greatest Sooner softball team of the ages, and possibly the greatest Oklahoma athletic team of all-time.

Home/OU softball