Oklahoma's opponent in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Softball Tournament is no longer to be determined. The top-seeded Sooners will face No. 9 LSU, which shut out Mississippi State 5-0 on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals.
The Sooners and LSU (41-13, 12-12) will play the first game on Thursday at Jack Turner Stadium in Athens, Georgia, set to start at 10 a.m. CT. The game can be viewed on SEC Network.
Oklahoma (43-7, 17-7) and LSU did not meet in the regular season, but the two teams have played 19 times previously, with the Sooners owning an 11-8 record in the series history. The most recent meeting was in 2023, when then-No. 1 OU defeated the No. 13 Tigers 3-0 in Baton Rouge. Before that, the two teams had not played each other since 2016.
The second-round game between LSU and Mississippi State was also the first meeting of the season between those two teams. LSU jumped out to an early lead, scoring four times in the second inning on three singles, a pair of walks and a hit batter. Mississippi State was never able to recover.
Freshman left-hander Jayden Heavener totally dominated the Bulldog lineup, facing just 23 batters total, two over the minimum. She gave up no runs and just one hit, along with eight strikeouts in going the distance for her 12th win of the season.
The winner of the game between OU and LSU will move on to face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between No. 4 Tennessee and No. 5 Arkansas. The Sooners lost their series with Tennessee this season, dropping two of three, and swept Arkansas.
What fans need to know ahead of Sooners' matchup with LSU
Oklahoma
- Oklahoma leads the SEC in on-base percentage (.451) and slugging percentage (.627), is tied for first in home runs (95), and is third in runs scored and walks drawn (248, nearly five per game).
- The fact that this is the first game this season between OU and LSU means that the two teams are not familiar with each other, which should be an advantage to the starting pitchers, which is expected to be Sam Landry for Oklahoma and Sydney Berzon for LSU. Landry won the first game against every SEC team she faced this season, going the distance in every one and allowing as many as six runs just once.
- Sophomores Kasidi Pickering and Ella Parker are both hitting better than .400. Freshman Gabbie Garcia leads the team with 15 home runs and six Sooners have at least 10. The top four hitters in the OU starting lineup all have 40 or more runs batted in. Landry is the workhorse of the pitching staff with an 18-4 record and a league second-best 2.10 ERA.
- When Oklahoma scores at least six runs, the Sooners are 37-0 this season.
LSU
- LSU is ninth in the SEC standings and No. 9 nationally, according to ESPN.com/USA Softball, but is second in the conference in hitting (.341 team average) and on-base percentage (.446) and fourth in runs scored (7.2 per game). The Tigers also lead the conference with 252 walks, which puts pressure on pitchers to throw strikes.
- The Tigers have eight hitters in their starting lineup batting over .320 and two (leadoff hitter Danieca Coffey and first baseman Tori Edwards) who hit better than .400. Edwards also has a program single-season record 18 home runs and an .853 slugging percentage.
- Starting pitcher Sydney Berzon, the probable starting pitcher against Oklahoma in Thursday's quarterfinal contest, has a 17-6 record, and her 2.46 ERA ranks sixth in the SEC. The junior right-hander also has five shutouts to her credit.
- LSU was 4-8 in its last three SEC series, all of which were against top-10 opponents in Texas A&M, Texas, Florida and Arkansas.
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