Oklahoma softball: Sooners three wins away from national title three-peat
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma softball team is three wins away from making history in multiple ways but most importantly as national champions for a third straight season. Can anybody stop this softball juggernaut?
Of course, nothing is over till it’s actually over, as legendary New York Yankee Hall of Famer famously once told us. But this Sooner team is definitely on a mission and once again in 2023 appears to be a team of destiny.
Eight teams started out as the 2023 Women’s College World Series commenced last Thursday. By the end of the day on Sunday, the field will be down to four teams, with two of the four facing elimination in the national semifinal round on Monday.
Unless something totally unexpected transpires, the odds are great that Oklahoma and Florida State, the No. 1 and 3 seeds, respectively, in this season’s NCAA Softball Championship will meet up in the best two of three WCWS championship series beginning on Wednesday. It is a stage both teams have been on before.
The two-time defending national champion Sooners are on an incredible, record-breaking journey this season. Since losing to Baylor on Feb. 19, Oklahoma has run off 50 consecutive wins and set a new NCAA record, eclipsing the old mark of 47.
If you are going to beat Oklahoma, which has been ranked No. in the country in 43 of the past 47 weeks, you’re going to have to outscore the Sooners, and they average nearly nine runs a game and have outscored 59 opponents by the combined score of 489 to 56.
The Sooner starting lineup is easily the best in college softball this season, which is reflected in their 58-1 season record. There isn’t a player in the Oklahoma starting lineup hitting below .300 and four players who hit above .400. What OU has that no other college team has right now is a roster of 20 players with six bench players who could probably start for most every other team in the country. That’s unparalleled depth that makes the Sooners exceptionally difficult to beat.
The top-seeded Sooners will get a rematch with No. 9 Stanford, which held OU to just two runs on four hits in a 2-0 Oklahoma win in the opening round of the WCWS, in the national semifinal contest on Monday. The Cardinal staved off elimination beating No. 7 Washington 1-0 on Sunday.
Stanford freshman sensation NiJaree Canady had the OU hitters on their heels in the earlier WCWS game and pitched a one-hit shutout in going the distance against Washington. She threw 95 pitches in the win over the Huskies on Sunday, 75 of which were for strikes. She threw 99 pitches in the loss to Oklahoma, just her second of the season to go with 16 wins.
Whether Stanford head coac Jessica Allisterh will elect to start Canady against the Sooners in the semifinals on Monday is yet to be determined. The Cardinal will have to beat Oklahoma twice on Monday to advance to the championship series.
Stanford faces a major uphill challenge in that OU has not lost back-to-back games since February 2020.
The other national semifinal will feature No. 3 Florida State against No. 4 Tennessee. As is the situation with Stanford, Tennessee, which remained alive in the WCWS with a 3-1 win over No. 6 Oklahoma State in an elimination game on Sunday, will have to defeat Florida State twice on Monday to avoid elimination.
The Oklahoma-Stanford semifinal will be aired on ESPN beginning at 11 a.m. CT on Monday.