No. 7 OU Faces Three Ranked Teams in California

March 14, 2012

No. 7 Oklahoma (20-3) at Judi Garman Classic
Date	Thursday, March 15 - Saturday, March 17
Location	Fullerton, Calif. \| Anderson Family Field
Tickets	Cal State Fullerton Ticket Office
TV/Radio	N/A
Online	Live Stats \| Tournament Headquarters
Game Info	Game Notes \| OU Twitter

NORMAN, Okla. --No. 7 Oklahoma travels to Fullerton, Calif., this weekend for the Judi Garman Classic for one of the toughest tests of the season, facing three ranked opponents in No. 3 Washington, No. 19 Michigan and No. 25 DePaul along with Virginia and Penn State. The Sooners enter the weekend with a record of 20-3 while riding an 11-game winning streak.

OU opens the event up with No. 24 DePaul (14-5) on Thursday at 1 p.m. PST before taking on No. 19 Michigan (16-7) at 5:30 p.m. PST. On Friday, the Sooners face Virginia (16-5) at 1 p.m. PST and Penn State (7-13) at 5:30 p.m. PST. The Sooners close out the weekend on Saturday at 11 a.m. PST against their highest-ranked opponent of the year, No. 3 Washington (23-1).

The Sooners are led in the pitching circle by the one-two punch of Keilani Ricketts (10-3) and Michelle Gascoigne (9-0). Both rank in the top 20 nationally in ERA with Gascoigne leading the way at No. 11 with an ERA of 0.77 and Ricketts at No. 20 at 0.96. The two consistently strike out opponents as Ricketts is second nationally with 11.5 strikeouts per seven innings and Gascoigne is No. 3 nationally with 11.4 strikeouts per seven innings. Both also rank in the top eight nationally in opponents' batting average per game.

Oklahoma's pitching staff overall ranks second nationally with a combined ERA of 0.83

At the plate, the Sooners have connected on 34 home runs and 158 runs, a number that ranks 12th nationally. Freshman Lauren Chamberlain leads the Big 12 with nine home runs while both she and Jessica Shults hit five last weekend.

The Sooners rank fifth nationally with 1.48 home runs per game, hitting 34 in the 23 games. Saturday's game against Washington will feature two of the nation's top scoring teams as Washington ranks 10th nationally with 7.04 runs per game while OU is No. 12 with 6.87 runs per game.

Oklahoma played three of the five teams in 2011, going 2-1 with wins over DePaul and Washington and a loss to Penn State.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

No. 7 OU Faces Three Ranked Teams in California

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