A couple of strange things happened this year in Oklahoma's pursuit of national championships in its two diamond sports.
The Sooner softball team, which has owned the Women's College World Series in recent seasons, was missing in action at this year's annual event. That's an extremely rare occurrence going back a quarter of a century.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma baseball team, losers of seven of its last 10 regular-season games and a long shot at best at that point to make it to the men's version of the College World Series this season, has defied the odds and is back on the CWS stage as one of eight teams competing for this year's national championship.
Sooners continue magical run in CWS just after Patty Gasso's program missed the WCWS
Patty Gasso's OU softball team has won six NCAA championship in the last 10 seasons and had been to the Women's College World Series for nine consecutive seasons entering the 2026 season. The No. 3 national seed Sooners not only were considered a virtual lock to make this year's WCWS, but a favorite to win it all for what would have been a fifth time in six seasons.
That, of course, did not come to pass as Oklahoma lost two of three games to Mississippi State in a Super Regional hosted by the Sooners, thus replacing the mighty powerhouse from Norman at college softball's annual Division I championship finale in what had to be one of the biggest surprises of the entire season.
The Sooners have been a regular fixture at the WCWS for the better part of this century. But despite winning 52 of 62 games this season, being ranked No. 1 in the nation for a brief spell in April and winning the SEC regular-season championship for a second straight season, OU fell flat at the worst possible time and missed out on its annual trek up Interstate 35 to Oklahoma City and what has become the Sooners' home away from home in the world of college softball.
Oklahoma does have a College World Series representative this season after all, though, with the Sooner men coming out of the shadows with a magical postseason run that has landed them in the Men's College World Series for the 12th time and their second appearance in five seasons.
What's ironic is, less than a month ago, OU softball and OU baseball were two programs headed in opposite directions as far as their ascendancy onto the 2026 postseason stage. The widespread expectation was that the softball crew would power its way through regionals and super regionals as it had all season long and be a tough out, as always, in Oklahoma City.
That was not the same feeling with the baseball Sooners. Oklahoma had held its own in the country's strongest baseball league. Even then, the Sooners finished tied for 11th in a conference that ended up sending 12 participants to this year's NCAA Tournament and five to the MCWS.
As the proverbial saying goes, "It's not how you start but how you finish that matters," and since the start of the NCAA Tournament, there hasn't been a college baseball team hotter than the Sooners. A team that hit a pedestrian .280 during the season is batting a collective .338 with 70 runs scored (10 per game) and 18 home runs in postseason play. OU had only hit 66 home runs all season entering the NCAA postseason.
Surprises are definitely a part of the postseason. After all, that's what makes the action so exciting and must-see television viewing. With regard to the Sooner softball season, OU played at its typical championship level throughout the season. You don't win 50 games if you're not very good.
But fans tend to overlook the fact that this was a very young Oklahoma team with 14 of its 21-member roster being freshmen and sophomores. It is a group that is still learning and gaining prime-time experience. Barring any unforeseen transfer losses of key personnel, OU softball should be back stronger and better next season.
Oklahoma baseball, on the other hand, was never expected to be still playing at this stage of the season. The transformation that the Sooners have undergone in the NCAA Tournament truly has been Sooner Magic. No one but the Sooner players themselves would have believed a few short weeks ago that something like this was possible, especially having to go on the road and beat two top-15 national seeds to earn their way to the Men's College World Series.
You be the judge, but for me, what the OU Boys of Summer have managed to achieve once the calendar flipped to June goes beyond surprising, approaching shocking -- even extraordinary.
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