The 2026 college softball season opened over the weekend with No. 3 Oklahoma slipping past Arizona State and winning a three-game series over No. 18 Arizona to open the season with a 3-1 record.
Despite winning three of four games to open the season, including taking two of three from a top-20 team in Arizona, the Sooners fell one spot to No. 4 in this week's Softball America Top 25 rankings on Monday.
Sooners slide in rankings after 3-1 opening weekend
The series victory against Arizona was preceded by a quick stopover in Tempe, Arizona, and a narrow 2-1 victory over Arizona State.
The eight-time national champions and reigning SEC regular-season champions got off to a somewhat unsettling start to the season, coming from behind against Arizona State with a one-out, two-run home run by freshman Kendall Wells in the top of the sixth. Wells' game-winning long ball preserved a one-hit performance by sophomore starter Audrey Lowry, who worked 5.2 innings before yielding the circle to Ole Miss transfer Mialii Guachino to close out the game.
The Sooners unleashed their power-laden lineup a little more in the opening game of the Arizona series, scoring five runs in the first two innings to jump out to a 5-3 lead. The OU pitching wasn't as sharp on Friday in Tucson, registering not a single strikeout while walking seven Arizona hitters. Three of those walks were issued in the sixth inning and were followed by a bases-clearing grand slam. That wiped out a 6-5 Oklahoma advantage and paved the way to an 11-6 Wildcat win.
Game 2 of the series was more Oklahoma-like, with the Sooners battering three Arizona pitchers for 21 runs on 21 hits in a 21-3 blowout win. Lowry, who got the start two days after the season-opening win over Arizona State, allowed no runs and four hits in 3.0 innings. The Sooners hit seven home runs in the game, two by preseason All-SEC selection Kasidi Pickering.
Oklahoma appeared destined for a second loss in the season in the Arizona series finale on Sunday before back-to-back solo home runs by Wells and sophomore Gabbie Garcia in the top of the seventh -- for Garcia her second in the game -- allowed the Sooners to overcome a one-run deficit and served up a 6-5 Sooners win.
The Sooners pounded 12 home runs on opening weekend, including four by Garcia, who led Oklahoma with 20 fence-clearing blasts a year ago. Garcia's body of work for the weekend included six hits in 14 at bats for a .428 average and six runs batted in. Redshirt sophomore Nelly McEnroe-Marinas also had a big weekend, collecting seven hits in eight official plate appearances. She also reached base on four walks.
Sophomore left-hander Lowry appeared in all four games over the weekend and started in two. She was awarded the win in three of her four appearances, working a total of 11.3 innings and allowing just one run and five hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
The one disappointment from opening weekend was the ratio of strikeouts to walks by the Oklahoma pitching staff. Six Sooner pitchers combined for eight strikeouts and 16 walks in the four games. This is not a sustainable stat if OU is to have another championship-level season.
The 6-5 victory in the Arizona series finale enabled the Sooners to avoid opening the season with a second loss in the first four games. The last time an Oklahoma softball team lost as many as two games in the first four was in 2017. That year, OU lost to No. 2 Auburn and No. 13 Washington in a season-opening tournament in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It proved to be only a temporary bleep, though, as OU ended the season as national champion with a 61-9 overall record after defeating No. 2 Florida in the Women's College World Series.
Oklahoma heads to New Mexico this weekend for a tournament involving New Mexico State, Montana, Minnesota and Idaho State. The Sooners will play a doubleheader on Friday against Montana and host New Mexico State, then two more games on Friday against Minnesota and Idaho State.