The Oklahoma softball team was feeling really good about itself after taking two of three games from former No. 1 and chief rival Texas last weekend, and deservedly so. Perhaps the Sooners were feeling a little too good about themselves, though, when they took the field at Devon Park in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, and it ended up costing them in a 6-4 upset loss to Bedlam rival Oklahoma State.
The Sooners are going to have to quickly shake off all the residual doubt and disappointment associated with the Oklahoma State loss with an even stronger opponent, the Arkansas Razorbacks, paying a visit to Love's Field for a weekend SEC series beginning on Friday.
Arkansas comes to Norman ranked No. 6 in this week's ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll and winners of 12 of its last 14 games. The Razorbacks are 35-6 overall and tied with Texas for sixth place in the SEC standings with a 10-5 conference record.
While Oklahoma and Arkansas rank No. 1 and No. 6/5, respectively, in the two major human polls, they switch places in the NCAA RPI rankings, where the Razorbacks are the top-ranked team, and the Sooners are at No. 7. The disparity here is largely due to strength of schedule: Arkansas ranks No. 1 in that category, while OU is No. 36, but that will improve with the Sooners' remaining SEC schedule.
With the extra-inning loss in the Texas series finale on Sunday and Wednesday night's loss to Oklahoma State, the Sooners (40-5, 13-2), who moved into the No. 1 spot in the national rankings earlier this week, have lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. What hurts even more, the two losses were to Oklahoma's biggest rivals.
The silver lining in all of this is, while the loss to their Bedlam rivals is clearly disappointing, it does not count in SEC conference standings, and it occurred at a time in the season when there is plenty to learn from it and get corrected ahead of the postseason, where the Sooners' ultimate season focus is.
Everybody will be watching to see how this young Oklahoma team will respond to its first real test of adversity this season. Many fans may not be aware that over half of the Sooners' 2026 roster is comprised of freshmen and sophomores.
Friday night's game will be televised on ESPN2 beginning at 5:30 p.m. CT. The games on Saturday (7 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) will be available for streaming on SEC Network+.
Read more: Patty Gasso fueled an Arkansas program that can now threaten the Sooners
What to know about Arkansas
Arkansas is one of the more complete teams in the SEC, featuring both outstanding hitting and pitching. The Razorbacks rank third in the SEC in hitting with a team batting average of .365 (this compares to .412 for conference and national leader Oklahoma) and fourth in pitching with a staff ERA of 2.30 (OU's staff ERA is 2.88, 8th in the SEC).
The Razorbacks' best two hitters are Brinli Bain and Tianna Bell, who hit .415 and .405, respectively. Bell also has 12 home runs this season. Senior Raegan Johnson is the Arkansas career hits leader and ranks second in program history with a career batting average of .367. Another senior, Dakota Kennedy, wields the big power bat with 14 home runs and 43 RBI and 100 total bases.
In the pitching department, senior left-hander Robyn Herron is the ace of the staff with a 12-3 record and 1.44 ERA in 13 starts. She has 116 strikeouts in 73.0 innings and and a low .168 opponents batting average. The Sooners will also see right-hander Payton Burnham, who owns a 9-3 record and a 2.03 ERA over 62.0 innings.
Arkansas has been an excellent road team under head coach Courtney Deifel. Since 2020, the Razorbacks are 73-26 playing on the road, the second-best mark among current SEC members, behind only Oklahoma at 84-12.
What to know about Oklahoma
The Sooners have seven position starters hitting .400 or better and two more (Gabbie Garcia and Kendall Wells) hitting just below the .400 mark. The Sooners continue to lead all of NCAA Division-I softball in batting average, total runs, home runs, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and five other offensive categories. OU also has the nation's individual leader in home runs in Wells with 32 and six players with 10 or more home runs on the season.
Oklahoma's sophomore pitching duo of Audrey Lowry and Miali Guachino have a combined record of 30-2 this season. Lowry leads the team in innings pitched (90.0) and ERA (2.10), while Guachino, a transfer from Ole Miss, heads the staff in opponents' batting average (.196) and strikeouts (77).
Oklahoma has dominated the all-time softball series with Arkansas with a record of 30-2, including wins in 17 of the last 18. The Sooners have a 15-1 record against the Razorbacks when the teams play in Norman. This weekend will be the first SEC regular-season meeting between the two teams and the first time the game will be played at Love's Field, the largest college softball campus venue in the country.
The Sooners are 16-2 in night games this season. Friday and Saturday's games in the Arkansas series will be played under the lights.
Prediction
My initial thought entering this week and after last weekend's road series at Texas was that Oklahoma would win the upcoming series with Arkansas but drop at least one game. Now that the Sooners have backed themselves into a corner losing two consecutive games, I think they'll go into the Arkansas series with a chip on their shoulder and a little extra to prove. This is too good of an offense to be held down for more than a game or two. I believe a series sweep is a real possibility. If OU loses one of the three games, it will likely be on Sunday.
Oklahoma sweeps the series and extends its domination of the Razorbacks.
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