The Oklahoma Sooners softball team represents the University of Oklahoma in NCAA Division I college softball. The team competes in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and plays its home games at Love's Field in Norman, Oklahoma. The Sooners are currently led by head coach Patty Gasso.
Oklahoma has won their conference title 17 times, and their conference tournament 10 times, winning the Big 12 Conference tournament 9 times and the SEC tournament 1 time winner. They have been to the NCAA tournament 32 times, advanced to the NCAA Women's College World Series 18 times, and won the NCAA championship 8 times. Oklahoma also appeared in the AIAW Women's College World Series 4 times.
History The Sooners won their first national championship back in 2000. They swept Harvard, Cal-State Northridge, and Oregon State at their home regionals to advance to their first appearance in the Women's College World Series. They beat California and knocked off Southern Mississippi and Arizona to advance to the championship game against UCLA. They beat UCLA 3-1 to capture their first national title.
They hosted and won their 2013 regional. They beat Marist and Arkansas with a combined score of 41-6. They hosted again their super regionals against Texas A&M where they outscored the Aggies 18-2. In Oklahoma City, they went through 8 seeded Michigan, #10 ranked Texas, and #11 ranked Washington to reach Tennessee in the championship. Game 1 was where Lauren Chamberlain hit her iconic two-run walk-off home run after 12 innings of play. In game 2, Keilani Ricketts drove in all four runs, and Michelle Gascoigne pitched a shut out to obtain their second national title.
Once again, they hosted their regional in 2016 where they beat Wichita State and Ole Miss. They went on to host their super regional against Louisiana-Lafayette where they swept to advance to the Women's College World Series once again. In their first game in the tournament, they beat Alabama in extra innings. They faced #12 Michigan in game 2, and beat LSU in their third to face Auburn in the championship. They won 2-1 in their final game where Paige Parker threw a complete game.
In 2017, No. 10-seeded OU hosted North Dakota State, Arkansas and Tulsa in the Norman Regional. After opening play with a 3-2 loss to the Bison in nine innings, the Sooners rallied to defeat Arkansas, NDSU and Tulsa (twice) to advance to the Auburn Super Regional. In its first game against the Golden Hurricane, OU rallied from a 4-2 deficit with 10th-inning home runs by Caleigh Clifton and Sydney Romero to win 6-4 setting up a winner-take-all match-up the next day. The Sooners then dispatched Tulsa 3-0 to claim the regional title. Boosted by their resurgent play in the regional, OU defeated the Tigers 4-0 and 5-2 to advance to the WCWS. They began WCWS play with a 6-3 decision over Baylor followed by a 3-1 victory over Washington and a 4-2 defeat of Oregon to clinch a spot opposite top-seeded Florida in the Championship Series. In Game 1, OU outlasted the Gators 7-5 in a 17-inning marathon, the longest game ever played in WCWS Championship Series history. Shay Knighten's three-run, go-ahead homer in the top of the 17th provided the difference for the Sooners. Her bases-clearing, three-run double in the bottom of the second of Game 2 paced OU to a 5-4 victory earning the program its fourth national title and Knighten the WCWS' Most Outstanding Player honor.
In 2021, the Sooners hosted their regional as the No. 1 overall seed and beat Wichita State, Texas A&M, and Morgan State. They advanced to host their super regional against Washington, which they won in two games. At the Women's College World Series, they lost their first round game to James Madison University; subsequently, they won four straight elimination games to advance to the championship series, besting Georgia, UCLA, and James Madison twice. In the championship series, they lost their first game to Florida State, but returned to win games two and three to claim their fifth national championship.
In 2023, the Sooners set an NCAA Division I softball record 53-game winning streak. They finished the season with a 61–1 record and won their seventh national championship, and third consecutive championship. They became the first team to three-peat since UCLA from 1988 to 1990.
On June 6, 2024, Gasso's Sooners again defeated Texas in the national championship series, in a rematch from 2022, winning Gasso's and the school's eighth national championship. Gasso's eight national titles tied Arizona's Mike Candrea for the most by any coach in Division I softball history. With the win, Oklahoma became the first team in college softball history to four-peat.
Coaching history
1975–1976 Amy Dahl 18–16 1977–1984 Marita Hynes 257–188 1985–1993 Michelle Thomas 226–230 1994 Jim Beitia 58–15 1995–present Patty Gasso 1,567–361–2
Championships National championships Season Record Head coach 2000 66–8 Patty Gasso 2013 57–4 Patty Gasso 2016 57–8 Patty Gasso 2017 61–9 Patty Gasso 2021 56–4 Patty Gasso 2022 59–3 Patty Gasso 2023 61–1 Patty Gasso 2024 59–7 Patty Gasso8 national championships
Conference championships 1996 Big 12 17–5 Patty Gasso 1999 11–3 2000 17–1 2009 14–4 2012 19–5 2013 15–2 2014 16–2 2015 14–2 2016 17–1 2017 17–1 2018 18–0 2019 18–0 2021 16–1 2022 17–1 2023 18–0 2025 SEC 17–7 2026 20–417 conference championships
Conference tournament championships Season Conference Head coach 1996 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2001 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2007 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2010 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2017 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2018 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2021 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2023 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2024 Big 12 Patty Gasso 2025 SEC Patty Gasso10 conference tournament championships
Records and statistics Year-by-year results
Records by opponent
Southeastern Conference opponents Team W–L Last meeting Alabama 18 8–10 W 7–3June 2, 2019 Arkansas 30 28-2 W 10-7March 16, 2025 Auburn 10 8-2 W 7-1March 19, 2023 Florida 10 8-2 W 6-5June 4, 2024 Georgia 8 4-4 W 8-0June 5, 2021 Kentucky 11 10-1 W 7-1March 4, 2023 LSU 19 11-8 W 3-0April 11, 2023 Mississippi State 8 8-0 W 10-7March 16, 2025 Missouri 98 56-42 L 1-3March 22, 2025 Ole Miss 6 6-0 W 11-8February 17, 2017 South Carolina 12 7-5 W 2-1March 9, 2025 Tennessee 12 7-5 W 9-0June 3, 2023 Texas 88 61–27 W 8-4June 6, 2024 Texas A&M 83 53-30 W 8-0February 24, 2023
Notable Non-Conference opponents Team W–L Last meeting Tulsa 58 48–10W 8–0April 16, 2024 UCLA 23 10–13W 1–0 June 1, 2024
NCAA Tournament seeding history National seeding began in 2005. The Oklahoma Sooners have been a national seed in 20 of the 21 tournaments.
Years →'05'07'08'09'10'11'12'13'14'15'16'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25'26Seeds →1431071494171131041111223
College World Series Oklahoma has advanced to the Women's College World Series 18 times, winning the title in 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and finishing as runner-up in 2012 and 2019.
2000 4 0 2001 1 2 2002 0 2 2003 1 2 2004 1 2 2011 0 2 2012 4 2 2013 5 0 2014 1 2 2016 5 1 2017 5 0 2018 2 2 2019 3 3 2021 6 2 2022 5 1 2023 5 0 2024 5 1 2025 2 2
2025 coaching staff Patty Gasso Head coach 30th Jennifer Rocha Associate head coach and pitching coach 5th JT Gasso Associate head coach and hitting coach 8th Falepolima Steele Assistant coach 1st Lauren Foster Graduate assistant 1st Ryan Wondrasek Director of player development 1st Reference:
Individual honors and awards This is a list of individual honors at the national and conference levels, including All-Americans.
National awards USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Keilani Ricketts (2012, 2013) Jocelyn Alo (2021, 2022)
NFCA National Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo (2022)
Softball America Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo (2021)
Softball America Pitcher of the Year Giselle Juarez (2019)
Softball America Defensive Player of the Year Grace Lyons (2023)
NFCA National Freshman of the Year Paige Parker (2015) Jocelyn Alo (2018) Tiare Jennings (2021) Jordy Bahl (2022) Kendall Wells (2026)
Softball America Freshman of the Year Tiare Jennings (2021) Jordy Bahl (2022) Kendall Wells (2026)
NFCA Catcher of the Year Kendall Wells (2026)
Honda Sports Award Keilani Ricketts (2013)
Softball Academic All-American of the Year Lana Moran (2000)
Conference awards Big 12 Player of the Year Jill Most (1996) Lynette Velazquez (1999) Lisa Carey (2000) Kelli Braitsch (2001) Norelle Dickson (2007) Amber Flores (2009, 2010) Keilani Ricketts (2012) Shelby Pendley (2013, 2015) Erin Miller (2016) Shay Knighten (2017) Sydney Romero (2019) Jocelyn Alo (2021, 2022) Jayda Coleman (2023)
Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Lauren Eckermann (2007) Keilani Ricketts (2013) Paige Parker (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) Giselle Juarez (2019) Jordy Bahl (2022, 2023)
Big 12 Freshman of the Year Lisa Carey (1998) Jennifer Stewart (1999) Lauren Chamberlain (2012) Paige Parker (2015) Shay Knighten (2016) Nicole Mendes (2017) Jocelyn Alo (2018) Grace Green (2019) Tiare Jennings (2021) Jordy Bahl (2022)
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Heather Scaglione (2004, 2005) Savannah Long (2008) Lindsey Vandever (2010) Kelsey Arnold (2016, 2018) Caleigh Clifton (2019) Grace Lyons (2021, 2022, 2023) Kinzie Hansen (2024)
Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Andrea Davis (2000)
Big 12 Coach of the Year Patty Gasso (1996, 1999, 2000, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)
SEC Coach of the Year Patty Gasso (2025)
SEC Pitcher of the Year Sam Landry (2025)
SEC Freshman of the Year Kendall Wells (2026)
First Team All-American Season Player(s) 1999 Lynette Velazquez 2000 Lisa Carey 2001 Kelli Braitsch 2003 Leah Gulla 2004 Heather Scaglione 2005 Heather Scaglione 2006 Kristin Vesley 2007 Norrelle Dickson 2009 Amber Flores 2010 Heather Scaglione 2011 Keilani Ricketts 2012 Lauren Chamberlain, Keilani Ricketts, Jessica Shults 2013 Lauren Chamberlain, Keilani Ricketts 2014 Shelby Pendley 2015 Lauren Chamberlain 2016 Paige Parker 2018Jocelyn Alo, Paige Parker, Sydney Romero 2019 Caleigh Clifton, Giselle Juarez, Sydney Romero 2021 Jocelyn Alo, Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings 2022 Jocelyn Alo, Jordy Bahl, Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Grace Lyons 2023 Jordy Bahl, Alyssa Brito, Jayda Coleman, Kinzie Hansen, Tiare Jennings 2024 Alyssa Brito, Tiare Jennings 2025 Ella Parker, Kasidi Pickering 2026 Ella Parker, Kendall Wells
References
External links
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