Sooners playing for more than conference title during SEC Softball Tournament

Top-seeded Oklahoma will sit for the first two rounds of the SEC Softball Tournament before beginning play on Thursday at Jack Turner Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

The SEC regular-season champions Sooners will face Wednesday's winner of the second-round matchup between No. 8 Mississippi State and No. 9 LSU in the opening game of the quarterfinal round on Thursday.

The Sooners are hoping to live up to their 1-seed and add a conference tournament championship to their accomplishments in their first season as a member of the heavyweight SEC.

It will not be an easy road to a potential tournament title, but OU will not have to face No. 2 Texas A&M or No. 3 Texas until the championship game.

Assuming a quarterfinal win, the Sooners would have to get by No. 4 Tennessee, which took two of three from OU in Norman earlier this season, to advance to the conference title game on Saturday.

As much as Patty Gasso's newly remodeled 2025 softball team, which added 13 newcomers to the roster this season, would like to win three games and take home the conference tournament trophy, in truth, they have their sights set even higher.

OU would like nothing more than to make it back to the Women's College World Series for what would be a ninth consecutive season and 13th in the last 14. Like the SEC slogan suggests: "It just means more."

The Sooners are also fighting for a top-8 national seed, which would award them as both a regional and super regional host site in the NCAA Tournament.

The importance to the Sooners of winning one of the top national seeds is that they would not have to leave the state of Oklahoma for the rest of the season. The WCWS, of course, is held every year in Oklahoma City.

The Sooners can't afford to get caught looking too far ahead, though, They've still got work to do in the SEC tournament, and that starts with getting ready for the quarterfinal matchup with either Mississippi State or LSU.

What fans need to know about OU vs. Mississippi State or LSU

Oklahoma

• Oklahoma swept the three-game home series with Mississippi State (37-16, 13-11) this season, winning 4-0 in the series opener and both ends of a doubleheader, 6-5 and 9-6, respectively. The Sooners did not play LSU, which enters the tournament at 40-13 and 12-12 in SEC play.

• 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).

• 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. Right-handed starter Sam 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.

Mississippi State

• Mississippi State sits eighth in the SEC standings, but is still ranked 18th nationally. The Bulldogs are 6-6 in their last four SEC series against Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Ole Miss. Only OU and Ole Miss are currently ranked of the group. Mississippi State is 2-4 this season against those two teams.

• Mississippi State won five of its eight conference series this season. Finishing with a conference record of 13-11, this is the first season since 2001 that MSU has finished with a conference record above .500.

• The Bulldogs' 72 home runs are tied with Texas for second-most in the SEC behind Oklahoma and Florida, both with 95. Six players in the Mississippi State lineup hit .300 or better, led by outfielder Sierra Sacco, whose .466 batting average is second-best in the SEC.

• MSU ace and former LSU pitcher Raelin Chaffin logs most of the innings for the Bulldogs' pitching staff. The senior right-hander owns a 21-8 record, tied with Teagan Kavan of Texas for best in the SEC, with a 2.53 ERA. Her 180 strikeouts rank third in the conference.

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 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 is 4-8 in its last three SEC series, all against top-10 opponents in Texas A&M, Texas, Florida and Arkansas.

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