This has been a historic offensive season in college softball for the top-ranked and eight-time national champions Oklahoma Sooners. The news all season has been about the Sooners' incredible assault on the NCAA home run record for a single season and how they not only were going to break the existing record that Oklahoma already held, but run away and hide with it.
Well, don't look now, but with the regular season coming to an end this past weekend, Oklahoma is tied with UCLA, with both at 173 home runs for the season and a dozen past the old record (161) that was held by the 2021 Oklahoma national championship team.
Sooners tied with UCLA in dramatic record race
As the popular saying goes, "records are made to be broken." Less than two weeks ago, Oklahoma set a new record for home runs in a single season when Kendall Wells blasted her 35th of the season and the 162nd by a Sooner lineup containing seven different players with double-digit home runs this season.
Oklahoma and UCLA are two of just four teams that have even reached 100 home runs this season and the only two teams in NCAA Division I with more than 118 on the books. While the Sooners' apocalyptic home-run explosion has been widely distributed throughout the team, UCLA's has been largely concentrated around two players, seniors Megan Grant (35) and Jordan Woolery (33), although the Bruins also have seven players who have hit double-digit home runs this season.
The national focus this season largely has been on OU's sensational freshman Wells, who has already broken the Oklahoma and SEC records for home runs, and is just one away from tying and two from eclipsing the NCAA record for home runs in a season (37 by Lauren Espinoza of Arizona). But UCLA has been lurking and challenging in the department all along.
UCLA has been a clear second in the home-run record chase this season. It should also be noted that UCLA's Grant is just one home run back of Wells and likely will also bypass Espinoza's 31-year-old record before the season is over. Two weekends ago, the Bruins trailed Oklahoma by seven home runs, but they were able to close the gap by out-homering the Sooners 19-12 over the past six games.
This past weekend alone, UCLA collected 10 four-baggers playing at home against Oregon, while Oklahoma managed to hit just four out of Texas A&M's Davis Diamond.
An interesting factor in considering the home softball venues at UCLA and Oklahoma is the difference in the outfield distances. UCLA's 32-year-old Easton Stadium is smaller and known to be more favorable than most to home runs.
OU's much newer Love's Field, and most every softball diamond in the SEC, is larger with greater outfield dimensions. For example, the distance down the foul lines at Easton Stadium is 190 feet. It's 200 feet at Love's Field. The center-field distance at UCLA is 210 feet from home plate. The distance to dead center at Love's Field is 225 feet.
During her weekly press conference a couple of weeks ago, OU head coach Patty Gasso said record-breaking offensive numbers are not what this team is about or what she and her coaching staff is concerned about.
"We're trying to win championships and put another trophy up on that (outfield) wall, and that's what we're fighting for,' Gasso said then.
Read more: Patty Gasso won’t celebrate but Oklahoma fans have every reason to
That focus has paid off nicely for the Sooners in recent times. Over the past 10 seasons, Oklahoma has won six national championships and was the runner-up on two other occasions. Oklahoma also owns six of the top 25 best home run seasons in NCAA history. Not counting this season, the Sooners rank 2nd, 5th, 10th, 11th, 15th and 18th on that list.
Both Oklahoma and UCLA have their conference tournaments this week, and then both teams will be heading off to the NCAA tournament, hoping to make it to the Women's College World Series. Meanwhile, the home runs will continue flying out of the park, and whichever team ultimately comes out on top in the home-run record chase, the mark set by both teams will likely be very hard to top.
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