By Michael Kinney
OKLAHOMA CITY– Since 1995, Oklahoma has been the center of the softball world. In that time, the Sooners have made 29 trips to the NCAA tournament while taking home six national championships. That includes winning the past two Women’s College World Series (the tournament was not played in 2020).
Even though the entire run has come under the tenure of coach OU Patty Gasso, each of her teams has been different from the others. So, when Gasso looks at this year’s squad, she sees something a little different than the ones who won it all in 2021 and 2022.
“I think just it started as a very diverse group, a lot of different backgrounds, different cultures. Almost unsure what it was going to blend like,” Gasso said Wednesday. “They did such a significant effort into creating this culture that they really gravitated to, where I don’t know, if they found each other on the street, that they would all be best friends, but when you put them in a room and put softball in front of them, they’ve created this connection like nothing I’ve seen.”
No. 1 Oklahoma’s diverse collection of talent has already done something no other program has ever done before. They head into the 2023 WCWS riding an NCAA record 48-game winning streak. Their one and only loss this season came on Feb. 19 in a 4-3 defeat to Baylor.
Since then, the Sooners have steamrolled the competition as they outscored its opponents by a combined score of 478-56 on the season. That also includes going 20-0 against ranked opponents.
Oklahoma will kick off its title defense Thursday with first-round action against No. 9 Stanford at the USA Hall of Fame Stadium.
Of the eight teams playing in this year’s WCWS, the OU has already beaten Oklahoma State, Florida State, Utah, Washington and Stanford.
“It was a long time ago, but absolutely (we take something from that game),” Stanford coach Jessica Allister said. “Obviously we’ll draw back from that and watch the film and get some information from there, but I think that we’re both very different teams at this point in the season. There’s a lot of ball that’s been played since then.”
Each of the first-round matchups is a rematch from earlier in the season. That includes Oklahoma State and Florida State. The Pokes won two of the three games played.
“I think for us playing Florida State is kind of an interesting deal,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “Obviously we played them three times this year. We played them two or three times last year and the year before. Know them well. They know us well. I feel like I already know what they are and who they are. They’re obviously a little bit different than what they were when we played them in April.”
The final two series bring teams together that know each other well. SEC foes Alabama and Tennessee face off against each other. The Vols took three the four matchups during the season.
“There is no advantage that we have on Alabama, no advantage that Alabama has,” Tennessee coach Karen Weekly said. “I think it alleviates a little bit of the uncertainty that you feel when you watch a team on film, but then step in the batter’s box, that looks a little bit different than it looked on film. It kind of takes that part away from it.”
On the other side of the bracket, Utah and Washington will go at it for the fifth time this season. The teams have split the series 2-2 so far, with Utah claiming the Pac-12 tournament championship.
“It’s a great opportunity for the Pac-12 to have three teams here, and maybe what some might consider three, quote, unquote, nontraditional Pac-12 teams,” Washington coach Heather Tarr said. “I think the opportunity to compete against a common opponent, a known opponent is a challenge because, just as well as we know them, they know us. You know it’s on a big stage, and what a great opportunity again for our conference to showcase itself. It’s unfortunate that we match up right away, but we’ve had these situations before.”
Day one of the WCWS starts at 11 a.m. with Tennessee and Alabama. Oklahoma and Stanford are set to take the field at 1:30 p.m.
OSU and Florida State will start the second session at 7 p.m. while Washington and Utah are the nightcap at 9:30 p.m. All games will be played at USA Hall of Fame Stadium.
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