Before last season, no NCAA Division-I school not named Oklahoma had won a national championship in college softball since 2020, and Patty Gasso's Sooners came pretty close this past spring to making it a five-peat.
The 2024 season was an off year for Oklahoma softball, but the Sooners still won 52 of 61 games and advanced to their ninth straight appearance in the Women's College World Series, where they made it to the national semifinals. Not a bad run for losing half of your starting lineup and two starting pitchers from the previous year.
Here's the bad news for all the Sooner softball haters out there and the rest of the college softball world: Oklahoma lost just one position player from its 2024 starting lineup. And if that's not proof enough that OU softball will be back as a national title contender and stronger in 2026, the Sooners also pulled in the No. 4 transfer class in the offseason, according to Softball America, and welcomed the top-ranked 2025 recruiting class nationally.
Oklahoma softball adds No. 4 transfer class to top-ranked 2025 recruiting class
And you combine all that with the most successful active coach in college softball with Patty Gasso. The Sooners may not be the preseason No. 1 when the top-25 rankings start coming out ahead of the 2026 season, but it is a pretty good bet you'll see them among the top three and a formidable challenge for every opponent they face next season.
Joining the Oklahoma roster from the transfer portal was a pair of SEC right-handed pitchers in Sydney Berzon from LSU and Ole Miss' Miali Guachino, both with starting experience. Four of the Sooners' five incoming freshmen (OF Kai Minor, INF Lexi McDaniel, C Kendall Wells and RHP Berkley Zache) were the No. 1 or No. 2 high school prospects at their position and all ranked in the top-5 overall nationally.
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