OU Set to Host NCAA Softball Regional

NCAA Softball Norman Regional
Game 1 - Oregon State vs. Tulsa	Friday, May 18- 5:30 p.m.
Game 2 - OU vs. Lehigh	Friday, May 18- 7:30 p.m.
Game 3 - WG1 vs. WG2	Saturday, May 19 - 1 p.m.
Game 4 - LG1 vs. LG2	Saturday, May 19 - 3:30 p.m.
Game 5 - WG4 vs. LG3	Saturday, May 19 - 6 p.m.
Game 6 - WG3 vs. WG5	Sunday, May 20 - 1 p.m.
Game 7 - (If necessary game)	Sunday, May 20 - 3:30 p.m.
Location	Norman, Okla. \| Marita Hynes Field
Tickets	OU Athletics Ticket Office
TV - F/Sat	Cox Channel 3/703 HD
TV - Sunday	Fox Sports Oklahoma
Radio - Sunday	KREF 1400 AM
Online	Live Webcast on Oklahoma All-Access \| Live Stats
Game Info	Game Notes \| OU Twitter \| NCAA Norman Regional Central

NORMAN, Okla. --Fresh off the program's ninth Big 12 Championship, No. 4 Oklahoma (45-8, 19-5 Big 12) opens postseason NCAA play at home as it hosts an NCAA Regional for the ninth time in program history. The Sooners open up play against Lehigh (40-17, 18-2 Patriot League) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. No. 24 Oregon State (34-21, 9-14 (Pac-12) and Tulsa (41-12, 19-5 Conference USA) face off in the region's other first round game at 5 p.m.

The three-day regional will feature three conference champions as Lehigh and Tulsa won their respective conference championships while Oregon State finished eight in the Pac-12.

Friday's winners will square off in Saturday's first of three games at 1 p.m. while Friday's two losers will face off in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. The loser of Saturday's first game will take on the winner of the day's second game in an elimination game. The winner of Saturday's final game will take on the winner of the day's first game on Sunday at 1 p.m. with an if necessary rematch scheduled for 3:30 p.m. A full schedule for all three days is below.

Oklahoma is 2-0 all time against Lehigh with its last game coming in 2005. OU's other match up against Lehigh came in postseason action in 2001. The Sooners are 10-2 all-time against Oregon State and 35-10 all-time versus Tulsa.

The winner of this weekend's regional will advance to the NCAA Super Regional round the following weekend with an ultimate goal of reaching the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

For NCAA Super Regional action, the Norman regional matches up with the Tucson regional which includes the host school, No. 17 Arizona, along with No. 13 Hawaii, Notre Dame and North Dakota State.

OU enters the regional with the nation's top ERA, 1.17, while ranking second in home runs per game, 1.6. The Sooners' batting average of .316 ranks 13th nationally. The Sooners are led at the plate by Big 12 Player of the Year Keilani Ricketts with a .400 average, one of seven Sooners batting at least .307. The Big 12's Freshman of the Year, Lauren Chamberlain, broke the conference single season record and is second nationally with 25 home runs.

In the circle, the Sooners are led by the one-two punch of Ricketts (28-7) and Michelle Gascoigne (16-1). The two rank sixth (1.10) and 16th (1.30), respectively, among the nation's pitchers for ERA in all games. The two rank second (10.8) and ninth (9.3) nationally in strikeouts per seven innings while Ricketts also ranks fourth in hits allowed per seven innings (3.84) and eighth in ERA.

A LOOK AT LEHIGH
The Patriot League champion for the second consecutive year, Lehigh enters the regional with a record of 40-17 and ranked No. 126 in the final RPI.

The Mountain Hawks are led at the plate by Julie Fernandez (.448) and Jennifer Colquhoun (.438) while Emily Blausher (17-10) and Rebecca Bliss (19-6) lead in the circle with respective ERAs of 1.60 and 1.69.

The Mountain Hawks have won their last six and 12 of their last 13. Nationally they rank 21st with a batting average of .313 and 20th with an ERA of 1.80.

A LOOK AT OREGON STATE
Oregon State scored the second-most runs in program history, 283, en route to finishing seventh in the Pac-12 with a record of 34-21 and final RPI ranking of No. 24.

The Beavers are led at the plate by Elizabeth Santana (.349), one of three starters batting over .300. OSU has three pitchers with at least 88 innings of work in Paige Hall (14-3, 2.62 ERA), Marina Demore (8-6, 2.97) and Tina Andreana (9-11, 4.35).

Oregon State ranks 106th nationally with a batting average of .275 while ranking 148th in ERA at 3.37.

A LOOK AT TULSA
The Conference USA champions, Tulsa enters the regional with a record of 41-12 and ranked No. 32 in the final RPI.

The Golden Hurricane are led at the plate by Jill Barrett who ranks 19th nationally with a batting average of .430. TU is paced in the circle by Lacey Middlebrooks (20-5, 1.87) and Aimee Creger (18-5, 2.69).

Tulsa ranks 19th nationally with a batting average of .311 and is 73rd in ERA at 2.58.

COMMON OPPONENTS
Regional wise, OU and Oregon State have the most common opponents with six. The Sooners are 8-2 against those six while the Beavers are 3-5.

OU and Tulsa share five common opponents - OU 11-1, TU 4-3, while Lehigh and Oklahoma have played just one common opponent - Kent State. The Sooners defeated twice, 6-0 and 11-1, while Lehigh fell 9-2.

SERIES HISTORIES
The Sooners have played all three teams in the Norman regional in the past, including in regional action, and own winning records against all three.

OU is 2-0 all time against Lehigh including a 9-2 win in home regional action in 2001. The Sooners also defeated the Mountain Hawks 5-0 in 2005.

OU leads its series with Oregon State, 10-2, and has won the last seven games in the series. The two teams have met in the postseason three times with OU winning all three. Two of the three came at home in 2000 while OU defeated Oregon State in the final of the 2003 Gainesville Regional.

Oklahoma leads the in-state battle with Tulsa, 35-10, as the teams have alternated wins the last eight meetings. They have met four times in regional action with two wins a piece. The two were pitted in the 2011 Norman regional with OU winning two of three.

TOUGH SECOND ROUND OPPONENT
No matter who Oklahoma plays in the second round, they'll be facing one of the tougher second round match ups in the entire NCAA bracket. With Oregon State ranked No. 24 in the final RPI and Tulsa No. 32, the team's have a combined RPI ranking of 56, which ranks second among all first round games.

REGIONAL HISTORY IN NORMAN
The 2012 Norman Regional marks the ninth time that OU has hosted an NCAA Regional in Norman, all under Patty Gasso. The Sooners have won six of the eight regionals they had previously hosted and are 23-5 all time in regional games in Norman.

OU hosted a regional in 2011 and won three games to advance to the Tucson Super Regional where it swept Arizona to advance to its sixth Women's College World Series.

The 2011 Norman Regional saw OU open with back-to-back wins, defeating Iona, 7-1, and Tulsa, 6-0. Tulsa returned to face the Sooners from the elimination bracket and forced an if necessary game with a 4-3, nine-inning win, before OU claimed its sixth home regional title with a 5-0 win.

REGIONAL COMPARISON
See how the four teams in the Norman Regional stack up against each other...

Stat	OU	Lehigh	Oregon State	Tulsa
Batting Avg.	.316	.313	.275	.311
Runs/game	6.3	4.8	5.1	5.2
Hits/game	8.2	8.3	7.1	8.5
HRs/game	1.6	0.5	0.7	0.6
RBI/game	5.5	4.2	4.6	4.5
Slugging %	.548	.439	.401	.441
Walks/game	3.4	2.4	3.5	3.3
On Base %	.408	.377	.375	.388
SB/game	1.1	0.7	1.1	1.1
ERA	1.17	1.69	3.37	2.38
Hits given up/game	3.8	4.9	6.3	5.4
Walks issued/game	1.0	1.5	3.4	3.5
Strikeouts/game	9.4	5.6	4.9	6.4
Opposing bat. avg.	.166	.204	.246	.221

OU VS. THE NCAA FIELD
The Sooners have played 13 of the 64 teams in the NCAA field and are 16-8 against those 13 teams. OU is one of six Big 12 teams in the field of 64.

GET OUTTA OF HERE
The Big 12 leader in home runs with 85, the 2012 Oklahoma team has tied the OU single season record for home runs. The Big 12 team record for home runs in a season is 88 set by Texas in 2010.

The Sooners have hit multiple home runs on 23 occasions this season and at least three in 13 different games. Oklahoma is 22-1 in its 23 games with multiple home runs and have hit 42 in its 24 Big 12 games.

Six players have hit at least five home runs with freshman Lauren Chamberlain leading the way with a Big 12 single season record of 25. With three home runs against Iowa State, the first-year Sooner broke the Big 12's single season record for home runs.

Entering postseason, the Sooners rank third nationally with 85 home runs.

Rank	Team	HRs	Games	Games Left
1.	New Mexico	95	52	0
2.	Alabama	90	57	NCAAs
3.	Oklahoma	85	53	NCAAs

CHAMBERLAIN CHASING
The Big 12 leader in home runs with 25, Lauren Chamberlain broke the conference's single-season record in last week's win over Iowa State.

The freshman ranks second nationally in home runs per game (0.47) and overall with her 25 home runs.

GASSO HITS 1,000 WINS
Oklahoma Head Coach Patty Gasso hit a major coaching milestone as she hit the 1,000-win mark as her No. 7 Sooners defeated Virginia, 9-1, at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif. Gasso now stands at 862-277-2 at Oklahoma and 1,022-338-3.

Counting just NCAA Division I wins, Gasso entered the 2012 season 29th all time and has already moved up four spots to 25th.

HITS PARADE
Oklahoma has registered at least seven hits 41 games this season and have hit double digits in the category on 13 different occasions including twice at the Judi Garman Classic with a season-high 19 hits against DePaul before collecting 18 against Virginia.

OU is 39-2 in the games it records at least seven hits with the only losses coming to Georgia when the Sooners out hit the Bulldogs, 7-4, but fell 3-2, and on April 6 when OU fell to Texas Tech, 5-4, despite collecting seven hits. Oklahoma is 4-5 in the seven games below seven hits.

OU has seven starters hitting at least .307 and eight players with at least 30 hits.

SLUGGING AWAY
The Big 12's top team in slugging with a .547 clip, OU owns three of the top four spots on the Big 12's individual slugging percentage list.

Lauren Chamberlain leads all Big 12 batters with a percentage of .888 while Keilani Ricketts is second with .836. Jessica Shults sits in fourth, slugging .713. Georgia Casey does not own enough at bats to qualify for stat rankings, but carries a .735 slugging percentage.

Nationally, the OU ranks sixth in slugging with Chamberlain eighth and Ricketts 18th. OU joins UTEP as the only school to have two players in the top 20 nationally in slugging percentage.

RACKING UP THE Ks
Keilani Ricketts didn't stop racking up the Ks after reaching the OU career plateau. After striking out 10 Iowa State batters on May 11, the junior now has 19 double-digit strikeout games on the season.

Ricketts has racked up 56 career games with at least 10 strikeouts and has eight games with at least 15 strikeouts including one game this season, 16 at UNLV, and the school record, 19 last season versus Iona.

Strikeouts	Date	Opponent	Hits/Walks	Result
16	2/10	UNLV	3/0	W, 5-0
12	2/11	Kent State	2/1	W, 6-0
13	2/17	Georgia Tech	2/3	L, 1-0
10	2/24	Stanford	8/0	L, 5-0
10	2/25	Georgia	4/1	L, 3-2
14	2/29	North Texas	1/2	W, 4-1
13	3/2	LSU	1/1	W, 7-0
10	3/3	LSU	3/2	W, 5-0
11	3/4	Iowa	3/0	W, 4-2
14	3/23	Baylor	4/1	W, 2-0
10	3/28	Oklahoma State	1/1	W, 4-0
10	3/30	Kansas	0/0	W, 8-0
11	4/5	Texas Tech	1/2	W, 3-1
12	4/13	Texas A&M	5/0	W, 6-1
12	4/20	Missouri	6/1	W, 2-1 (10)
11	4/22	Missouri	4/1	W, 2-1
13	4/28	Central Arkansas	1/0	W, 8-0 (6)
13	5/4	Texas	3/0	W, 5-2 (8)
10	5/11	Iowa State	2/1	W, 10-0

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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