Oklahoma softball is off to another strong start at 13-2 through the first three weeks of the season, powered by a lineup that is scoring runs and hitting balls out of the park at a record pace.
While most softball programs, even in the uber-talented SEC, would be thrilled to be where the Sooners are in the final week of the first month of the season, this is an atypical start to the season for an OU program that has dominated the sport over the past decade. In the past 10 seasons, no college softball team has won more games than Oklahoma at 539-56, a legendary run that also includes six national championships and a runner-up finish.
The common thread that runs through all the Sooner teams of the past 10 years is great hitting combined with great pitching and near flawless fielding. Oklahoma appears to have two of those three fundamental pillars down pat again this season. But the pitching staff doesn't appear to be as deep or as dependable as the championship Sooner teams of recent vintage, and that could be highly problematic as the season goes along, especially when SEC play begins.
Oklahoma's two losses this season were 11-6 to No. 18 Arizona on opening weekend and 6-4 to Long Beach State in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic last weekend.
OU softball pitching surprisingly problematic to start 2026 season
Outside of sophomore Audrey Lowry and Ole Miss transfer Miali Guachino, Sooner pitchers so far this season have been underwhelming at best and highly uncharacteristic of an Oklahoma pitching staff in the Patty Gasso coaching era. Lowry and Guachino have accounted for 59 of the total 87 innings pitched in the 15 OU games, and 12 of the 13 wins. Senior Kierston Deal and LSU transfer Sydney Berzon were both expected to be major contributors to the staff this season, but have struggled mightily in the early going.
Deal, who has a 27-3 career record in three seasons at OU and a 2.05 career ERA, has made it through just 4.1 innings in five appearances this season with a 16.15 ERA. Berzon made 44 starts for LSU the past two years and posted 38 wins with a 2.12 ERA. The senior right-hander has appeared in six games in 2026, including two starts. She is 1-1 in 12.0 innings pitched with a career-high 2.92 ERA.
As a full staff and rotation that goes six deep, the Sooners have a collective ERA of 3.20 through 15 games, higher than it has been for a full season in any of the past five. The staff strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.21) and opponents' batting average (.246) are also substandard from past seasons, and this is against competition that is inferior to what the Sooners will face when the SEC schedule rolls around in a couple more weeks.
Part of the reason for Oklahoma's inconsistency in the circle in the early going is the absence of pitching coach Jennifer Rocha, who is away from the team with an undisclosed health issue.
Former OU pitcher Karlie Keeney jumped to the rescue and joined the staff to fill in during Rocha's absence. Keeney played one season for the Sooners in 2024 after transferring from Liberty. She made 30 appearances in the circle, including five starts, posting a record of 6-1 and a 1.82 ERA in 61.2 innings.
Gasso is confident Deal and Berzon will find their grooves and become bigger contributors going forward and that the Sooner pitching staff will get things tightened up. Deal and Berzon are both veterans and they're both competitors.
"They're going to keep competing," Gasso said.
In each of the last five seasons, Oklahoma has featured at least a couple of dominant starters. A year ago, it was Sam Landry and Kiersten Deal, who combined for a 35-8 record, a WHIP (walks and hits over innings pitched) of 2.66 and a .218 opponents' batting average. In 2023, it was Jordy Bahl, Hope Trautwein and Alex Storako who delivered the goods from the circle. That trio combined for a near-perfect 58-1 record, a WHIP under 1.00 and an opponents' batting average of .162.
In 2021, the first of Oklahoma's four consecutive national championships, Shannon Saile, Giselle Juarez and Nicole May delivered 54 wins against just four losses, a combined WHIP of 0.98 and an opponents' batting average of .187.
The OU pitching may not be as dominant as it's been in year's past, but this team is still good enough to win plenty of games and make a solid run at defending its 2025 regular-season SEC championship and its incredible string of nine straight Women's College World Series appearances.
For those Sooner fans who are a little nervous about the team's 13-2 start, you're probably being guided a bit too strongly by OU's recent history.
Oklahoma started the season 15-0 in four of the last five seasons. The one year it did not, the Sooners started out 14-1 through the first 15 in 2023. Granted, OU won four national championships during that four-year period.
The four years in 2016-19, however, were more like the current season. The Sooners lost at least two games in their first 15 outings in all five seasons and three times in two of the five. And I remind you that Oklahoma finished two of those seasons in 2016 and 2017 with a national championship in hand.
It's way too early to give up on the pitching and write this Sooner softball team off.