Oklahoma softball unbeaten streak reaches unworldly 62 games
By Chip Rouse
The expression "The more things change, the more they stay the same" could well be the tagline for the 2024 edition of Oklahoma softball -- as well as the 2023, 2022 and 2021 editions.
The past three seasons the Sooner softball dynasty has been overcoming obstacles and mowing down opponent after opponent in unprecedented fashion. Oklahoma has not lost a game in 364 days. The Sooners are 9-0 after a five-game sweep in the Cowgirl Challenge in Lake Charles, Louisiana, this weekend and have won an NCAA record 62 consecutive games, 15 better than the previous high held by 1996-97 Arizona.
The four-year Oklahoma seniors have lost just seven times in 192 games in three-plus seasons and have played on three consecutive national championship teams. Head coach Patty Gasso has eight new additions to this year's roster, and yet the Sooner softball machine appears well position again this season to do something no other school has accomplished: win four consecutive national titles.
Oklahoma allowed just one run and 11 total hits in defeating Central Arkansas twice, McNeese State twice and Lamar this weekend. The Sooners recorded 46 hits and outscored their five foes in the Cowgirl Challenge 36 to 1. Four of the OU wins were by shutout, giving them six in nine games, and three were ended in five innings by run rule.
Oklahoma State transfer Kelly Maxwell recorded her third win of the early season, holding McNeese State to one run, the only one given up by an OU pitcher all weekend and three hits while striking out eight in 5.0 innings. Nicole May also picked up a pair of wins to go 3-0 on the season. The senior right-hander allowed no runs, just one hits and recorded 11 strikeouts in 6.1 innings in two appearances.
The Sooners two big stars, All-Americans Jayda Coleman and Tiare Jennings, had productive weekends at the plate. Jennings was 7 for 16 with a pair of home runs and five RBI, and Coleman was 7 for 15 at the plate with three runs batted in.
Next up for the seven-time national champion Sooners is the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City, California, in the Palm Springs area. Like this past weekend, OU will play five games in three days, starting off with a Friday doubleheader against Mississippi State and Wisconsin, San Diego State on Saturday and two game with Seattle and Loyola Marymount on Sunday.