Anyone who hoped coach Patty Gasso’s Oklahoma softball program might rest on its laurels after a dominating 2022 season ended with the Sooners’ sixth national championship has been disappointed.
If anything, this year’s Sooners are even better than the squad that finished 59-3 after beating Big 12 rival Texas 10-5 to win the national title.
There is no legal Oklahoma sports betting on Sooners softball or any other sport in the state. Legislation proposed during the 2022 session failed to advance.
It’s not possible to list all of the ways OU wore out its competition heading into the Big 12 Conference Tournament, which starts Thursday, but BetOklahoma.com looked at the statistics to find some of those ways.
OU Softball By the Numbers
- Best record: 49-1.
- Best winning streak: 41 games.
- Best hitters: .368 batting average, 30 percentage points better than No. 2 UCLA nationally and 39 percentage points better than No. 2 Texas in the Big 12.
- Best power hitters: 91 homers, 18 more than No. 2 Texas Tech in the Big 12.
- Best pitchers: 0.87 ERA with a .159 batting average allowed; Clemson is No. 2 nationally at 1.35, while Texas and Oklahoma State are closest in the Big 12 with ERAs of 2.12.
- Best fielders: 14 errors in 1,200 chances for a fielding percentage of 0.988. Oklahoma St. is No. 2 in the Big 12 with 34 errors.
When sports betting does become legal in the state, BetOklahoma.com will be your source for Oklahoma sportsbook promos.
Baylor Provided Sooners Only Blemish
The only hiccup for Oklahoma so far this season was a 4-3 loss to Big 12 foe Baylor in the final game of the Getterman Classic tournament in Waco on Feb. 19. The Bears jumped out to a 4-1 lead with four runs in the bottom of the third inning and held on as the Sooners failed to manufacture enough runs.
It was just the eighth loss in the past three years for the Sooners, who are now 164-8 in those seasons. The loss seemed to be something Gasso knew her team would learn from and use to its advantage the rest of this season.
"What just happened is extremely valuable," Gasso said after the loss to SoonerSports.com. “What's valuable is the response, the rebound and the extra work that is going to be put in to make us better. Our offense was confused with things, and we definitely have to find a way to handle pitchers that mix pitches better."
Oklahoma seemed to put those lessons to work. The next time they traveled to Waco was for a Big 12 series with the Bears, and the Sooners won by scores of 7-0, 4-0 and 2-0. They wrapped up a perfect 18-0 march through Big 12 play with a series sweep of in-state rival Oklahoma State in Stillwater on May 7.
Finishing atop the Big 12 gives Oklahoma a first-round bye at the Big 12 tournament, which starts Thursday at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. Fourth-seed Baylor takes on fifth-seed Iowa State at 11 a.m., and the winner will face the Sooners on Friday at 1 p.m. on ESPNU.
The other two first-day games will be No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. No. 6 Kansas. The winner of those two games will play in the other semifinal Friday after Oklahoma’s game.
The Big 12 final will be played Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
If there were Oklahoma sports betting apps, it would be a safe bet no matter what the Sooners do this week they’ll be hosting a NCAA Regional from May 19-21. And if they win that for a 13th straight time they would host a Super Regional on May 26-28.
Another win there would produce OU’s 16th trip to the Women’s College World Series, which will be held in Oklahoma City from June 1-9.
