Softball Heads to Tucson for Supers

May 20, 2008

TUCSON SUPER REGIONAL
Location	Tucson, Ariz. \| Hillenbrand Stadium
Game 1	Friday, May 23 - 6:30 p.m. (CT)
Game 2	Saturday, May 24 - 1:30 p.m.
Game 3	Saturday, May 24 - 3:30 (if necessary)
TV	ESPN for all three games
Radio	KOKC 1520 AM for all three games
Information	Tucson Super Regional

NORMAN, Okla. -- The 10th-seeded Oklahoma softball team (46-12) clinched its eighth regional championship last weekend in Norman and will head to Tucson to play the seventh-seeded Arizona Wildcats (39-16) in a Super Regional May 23-24. All games of the best-of-three series will be televised live on ESPN.

The series opener is slated for Friday at 6:30 p.m. (CST) at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium. The second game will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday while the third game (if necessary) will start at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The Tucson Super Regional is one of six Super Regionals that will be televised by the ESPN family of networks. The Sooners and Wildcats will have all three of their games shown live on basic cable station ESPN. Eric Collins and Cheri Kempf will handle the commentary this weekend on ESPN.

In addition to television, OU play-by-play voice Brian Brinkley will call of OU's games this weekend on KOKC 1520 AM. Live stats will be provided on SoonerSports.com as well.

SUPER REGIONAL HISTORY
The two-time defending National Champion Arizona Wildcats are making their fourth consecutive trip to Super Regionals and have been every year since the new format began in 2005. The Sooners are making their third trip to the Super Regionals in the last four years and are aiming for their first Super Regional victory.

Ironically, Oklahoma and Arizona met in Tucson for the 2005 Super Regional, the first year of the new format. The Sooners were the 14th overall national seed while the Wildcats were the No. 3 national seed. Arizona swept Oklahoma with scores of 6-0 and 7-6. The loss to Arizona snapped Oklahoma's five-year streak of consecutive trips to the Women's College World Series. The streak began in 2000, the year the Sooners won the National Championship, and ended in 2004. The Sooners will be aiming for their first trip back to the WCWS since 2004.

OU's only other Super Regional to play in was last year in 2007 when the third-seeded Sooners hosted 14th-seeded DePaul in Norman at the OU Softball Complex. Oklahoma ran into a red hot DePaul squad as the Sooners were upset on their home field. DePaul swept the Sooners with a 3-0 victory in the first game and a 7-2 win in the second and deciding contest.

OKLAHOMA AND ARIZONA POSTSEASON CONNECTION
The Sooners and Wildcats are perennial top-10 softball programs so the two schools are all too familiar with each other in the postseason. Below is a look at the location, outcome and result since the two teams have met in the postseason since 2000.

2000 -WCWS (Oklahoma City)
5/28 Oklahoma 1, Arizona 0
-The Sooners advance to the WCWS title game with the win and beat UCLA for their first National Championship.

2001 -WCWS (Oklahoma City)
5/25 Arizona 5, Oklahoma 4
-The Wildcats advance to the WCWS title game and defeat LSU for the National Championship.

2004 - NCAA Regionals (Tucson, Ariz.)
5/22 Oklahoma 3, Arizona 2
-The Sooners upset top-seeded Arizona and win the Tucson Regional to advance to their fifth straight WCWS.

2005 - NCAA Super Regionals (Tucson, Ariz.)
5/27 Arizona 6, Oklahoma 0
5/28 Arizona 7, Oklahoma 6
- Arizona advanced to the WCWS and was eliminated by Texas as Michigan won the National Championship.

LAST TIME THEY MET
The Sooners and Wildcats haven't met this year, but did play each other in 2007. The Wildcats went on to win the National Championship, but the Sooners swept Arizona in non-conference play. The teams met twice at the Judi Garmen Classic in Fullerton, Calif., last season. Oklahoma topped Arizona 6-2 in pool play of the tournament and then run ruled the Wildcats, 11-0, in the tournament title game. Current OU pitcher D.J. Mathis shut out the Wildcats in the title game as she allowed six hits and struck out five in the five-inning contest. Samantha Ricketts also had six RBIs in the contest.

SERIES HISTORY
Arizona leads the all-time record between both schools, 23-10. However, Oklahoma has won the last two against the Wildcats. OU's last victory in Tucson was in 2004 when Oklahoma upset top-seeded Arizona in regionals and moved on to the WCWS. The two teams last played in Tucson in 2005 when Arizona swept Oklahoma in the Super Regionals and advanced to the Women's College World Series.

SCOUTING ARIZONA
The Wildcats will enter their Super Regional with a 39-16 overall record, including a stellar 20-4 mark at Hillenbrand Stadium. The lone losses for Arizona at home this season have been to Creighton, Arizona State, UCLA and Oregon. The Cats last loss at home was on April 25 to the Oregon Ducks.

Both teams enter with very similar stats, namely pitching. Arizona owns a staff ERA of 1.67 while the OU staff posts a 1.47 ERA. Two of the top pitchers in the country will be going head-to-head this weekend as OU's D.J. Mathis (1.09 ERA, 30-5) and last year's WCWS MVP Taryne Mowatt (1.69 ERA, 27-12) will be battling in the circle.

The squads are very similar on offense as OU owns a team average of .300 while U of A is hitting .312 for the season. Arizona has hit 88 home runs compared to OU's 74. In addition, U of A has four hitters with at least 14 home runs this season and seven starters hitting over .300.

MOWATT VS. MATHIS
OU pitcher D.J. Mathis and U of A hurler Taryne Mowatt enter the Super Regional with very similar stats. Below is a comparison of their stats through all games this season.

	ERA	W-L	IP	K's	B/Avg.
Mathis	1.09	30-5	224.2	253	.151
Mowatt	1.69	27-12	252.2	375	.176

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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