When the Oklahoma Sooners are supposed to be at their most vulnerable in five years, they still looked unbeatable.
The No. 2 national seed Sooners started their NCAA Softball Championship run by run-ruling their way through the Norman Regional to get to Super Regionals. No team lasted more than five innings as the Sooners outscored their opponents 31-3 during the weekend at Love's Field.
Sooners run-rule way through Regionals to get to Super Regionals in NCAA Softball Championship
OU officially advanced with a 12-1 win over the 2-seeded California Golden Bears on Sunday. The Sooners also thumped Cal 11-2 on Saturday and embarrassed 4-seed Boston University 8-0 on Friday. Every game was over early after the fifth inning.
Ace Sam Landry appeared in all three games, yet still barely pitch more than a game's worth of innings because of the dominance. Landry gave up two earned runs in 10 innings throughout the three-game span and was relieved each outing. Both runs came against Cal in Saturday's win.
Landry struck out 11 batters total and improved her season record to 22-4 after tallying the win all three games. She gave up one unearned run on Sunday and allowed just one hit. Landry had a no-hitter going until the fourth inning.
Offensively, the Sooners totaled four home runs over the weekend and half came on Sunday. Kasidi Pickering, Ella Parker, Gabbie Garcia and Ailana Agbayani all went long in the win. Parker's solo shot in the fourth inning went a preposterous 285 feet and literally left Love's Field.
The Sooners will get the winner of the Tuscaloosa Regional final between Virginia Tech and No. 15 national seed Alabama, which took two of three from OU during the regular season. This matchup would be in Norman this time, though, instead of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
It will be OU's ninth straight Super Regional appearance after winning the last four national championships and replacing almost the entire roster from last season.
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