The Next Season Starts Now

By Andrew Gilman | SoonerSports.com

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Sooners are 45-8 and ranked No. 4 in the nation. They won the Big 12 Conference and have one of the best hitters and one of the best pitchers in the country.

It's been an amazing year so far for Oklahoma.

Now, the real season starts.

Starting with tonight's 7:30 game against Lehigh, the Patriot League champs, the Sooners' second season gets going.

“We segment our season into preconference, conference and postseason,” OU Head Coach Patty Gasso said. “And one of the first things I asked the team was, 'Do you feel like you've peaked yet?' All of them said no. That's a good sign because they are trying to get better.”

Now's the time. This is a team that was expected to be good, and it has been. This is a team that is expected to make the next step to the College World Series. And now we'll see.

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“We've been playing well for the last month,” said Gasso of her team that won the Big 12 with a 19-5 record, including going 8-2 in its last 10 games. “We're prepared and we're ready. This will definitely be a challenge right out of the chute. We want to start the tournament on the right foot.”

Oregon State (34-21) and Tulsa (41-12) play the first game at 5:30 p.m. The winner of the four-team regional will go to the Super Regional. If the Sooners win, they will host that. The winner of the Super Regional will go on to Oklahoma City for the Colelge World Series which starts May 31.

If OU wins tonight against Lehigh, the Sooners will play at 1 p.m. against the Oregon State-Tulsa winner. If the Sooners lose Friday, they will play at 3:30 against the OSU-Tulsa loser.

“They are extremely talented and strong, dedicated and have passion for the game,” Gasso said of her team. “They do all the extras. Put them all together and they understand they have something special. It's a team that's mature and talented and really afraid of nothing. Very, very confident.”

This is the time to see exactly how confident. While the Sooners are expected to advance from this weekend, they'll still have to get great performances from its star pitcher Keilani Ricketts and its star slugger Lauren Chamberlain.

They'll also have the pressure of being expected to win.

“I don't think there there's a sense of urgency,” said catcher Jessica Shuts, who is hitting .360 this season with 16 home runs. “I don't think anyone is pressing. We've been playing hard all season, now it's time to show it.”

Ricketts and Chamberlain have showed themselves as some of the best in the nation this season. Ricketts is 28-7 with a 1.10 ERA in 32 starts. Chamberlain led the Big 12 in home runs and was second in the nation with 25 home runs and 63 RBIs. The home runs set a Big 12 and school single-season record.

Up next: the NCAA tournament awaits.

“Coach has stressed us to us all year to focus on the Big 12,” Shults said. “We focused on that and not the postseason. We focused on Big 12 all year and that's what we wanted our first goal to be. We marked that off the list. Now we're focused on the postseason and that first game against Lehigh.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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