Fifth Straight WCWS Appearance Puts Sooners Among Elite

NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma's softball team, fresh off a regional championship in Tuscon, Ariz., returned home Monday. The Sooner bus arrived at the OU Softball Complex at 2:45 to a large crowd of media and fans.

OU will begin play in its fifth consecutive Women's College World Series this Thursday. It's a remarkable run for the Sooners, who won the national championship in 2000.

Here is more on OU's appearances in the WCWS and its run through Region 1 ...

* On Sunday, Oklahoma qualified for its fifth consecutive Women's College World Series. The last non-Pac 10 Softball Program to qualify for five straight was Fresno State, which had five in a row from 1988-92.

* Oklahoma is the only school not based in California or a member of the Pac 10 to make it to the series in five consecutive seasons. The Women's College World Series began in 1982.

* The only other school to parlay its first series appearance into five straight was Arizona, which made its first series in 1988. The Wildcats had been to 16 straight before being knocked out in regional action this season.

* Oklahoma's consecutive series streak is third among this year's field. Only UCLA and Cal, which has played in the last six, have longer current runs.

* With one entrant yet to be determined, here is a look at the number of tournament appearances (including this one) for this year's field -- UCLA 21, California 9, Florida State 7, Washington 7, Michigan 5, Oklahoma 5, Stanford 2 and LSU 1.

* OU, a No. 2 seed in Region 1, is the only team in the WCWS field that was not the top-seeded team in its region.

* Oklahoma's 15-0 win over Louisiana-Lafayette tied a pair of NCAA records. The number of runs equaled the most ever scored in a regional final. Michigan topped Notre Dame in a Regional 1 final, 15-6, in 1995, while Arizona routed Florida State, 15-0, in Regional 3 that same year.

* The margin of victory tied the widest ever in a regional game, regardless of what round. The above-mentioned Arizona win shares that mark.

* OU's win marked only the 13th time in tournament history that a team scored double digits in regional play and only the fourth time that a team had done so in the regional championship game.

* The 15 runs OU posted on No. 9 Lafayette was the most the Sooners have ever posted against a ranked team.

* It was their largest margin of victory since 2002, when they defeated Drake 15-0.

* It was the second time this season OU has scored 15 runs and the 10th time under coach Gasso that they have surpassed the mark. OU has scored 15 or more runs 33 times in program history.

* OU's 3-2 defeat of Arizona marked the first time in program history that OU has defeated a No. 1 ranked team.

* That defeat led to U-of-A being eliminated one day later, which ended the Wildcats NCAA record streak of 16 consecutive WCWS appearances.

* OU defeated the NCAA's top two pitchers in wins, winning percentage and strikeouts. Alicia Hollowell of Arizona was 41-4 (.911) after the regional, while Brooke Mitchell of ULL was 45-5 (.900).

* Hollowell, a 2004 USA Softball Player of the Year finalist, had a 508 strikeouts on the year while Mitchell had an NCAA-best 524. OU only struck out six times against Hollowell and seven total times against Mitchell. Mitchell could only strikeout one Sooner, when OU pounded the Cajuns 15-0.

* Brooke Mitchell's line of four runs and eight hits in the first game on championship Sunday was her worst of the season. That lasted until OU came out in the second game and roped her for nine runs and nine hits, which are both career-worsts.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Fifth Straight WCWS Appearance Puts Sooners Among Elite

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