What can we take away from the Oklahoma softball WCWS win over Duke?

The three-time defending national champion Oklahoma softball team has won nine consecutive games in the Women's College World Series over the last three seasons.

The Sooners are attempting to become the only team in history to win four consecutive national championships in softball

The last team to defeat the Sooners in the WCWS was UCLA, the team Oklahoma will face in this year's college softball world series on Saturday. UCLA briefly staved off elimination with a 7-3 win over OU in 2022, only to lose 15-0 to the Sooners later that same day.

No. 2 Oklahoma brought out the power bats, slugging three home runs in a 9-1 run-rule win over 10th-seeded Duke in six innings on Thursday. No. 6 UCLA defeated No. 14 Alabama in the game preceding the Sooners on Thursday afternoon.

In addition to nine consecutive wins in the WCWS, the Sooners have won 19 consecutive NCAA postseason games.

Duke was playing in its first ever Women's College World Series game, while the Sooners were playing in their 20th WCWS game in the last four years and their 72nd of all-time.

Here are some of the Sooner takeaways from the Game 1 win over Duke

• For the second straight game OU starter and ace Kelly Maxwell struggled with her command. In her last two games (vs. Florida State in the super regionals and Duke in the WCWS), the Oklahoma State transfer has walked a combines 10 batters and hit three others. Here's the concern: She threw a total of 67 pitches in 3.2 innings against Duke. Here's the problem: Only 32 of those pitches were strikes, the rest were balls.

• A two-out, two-run home run blast by Kinzie Hansen in the third inning erased a 1-0 Duke advantage and gave Oklahoma a 2-1 lead the Sooners never relinquished. The home run was her 10th of the season and the sixth of her career playing in the WCWS. which ties her for third all-time with former OU player Lauren Chamberlain. Hansen is one of several Sooners playing in her fourth consecutive WCWS.

• Alynah Torres and Cydney Sanders also got into the home run act on Thursday. Both players transferred to OU from Arizona State after the 2021 season. Torres hit one with a runner aboard the same inning as Hansen. It was her ninth of the season but her first since April 19. Sanders left the yard with a two-run no-doubter in the fourth inning. She has 28 total hits this season and 15 are home runs. Sanders home run on Thursday was her first in over two month. Her last round-tripper was recorded on April 16.

• OU's Jayda Coleman had a couple of hits and scored two runs in the win over Duke. But the Sooner senior also was responsible for the defensive play of the game. In the top of the fourth inning with the bases filled with Blue Devils without the benefit of a hit and two outs, Coleman made a diving catch of a fly ball hit by Duke's Gisele Tapia. Had that ball dropped for a hit, at least two runs would have scored and things might have gone much differently in this game.

• This is the 26th time this season that the Sooners have won a game by run rule and the 31st time they have held an opponent to one run or less in 61 total games.