OU's Spring Break Trip Begins in Long Beach

Long Beach State Tournament
March 14 | Long Beach, Calif. | LBSU Softball Complex

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NORMAN - Riding a season-best 11 game winning streak, No. 9/10 Oklahoma (20-4) embarks on a six-day, seven-game trip to California during Spring Break. The Sooners will play two games Tuesday in Long Beach before playing five games at the LMU Tournament in Los Angeles.

Tuesday, the Sooners meet No. 5/4 Arizona (24-1) at 12 p.m. CT and Long Beach State (7-13-1) at 5 p.m. CT.

Both games Tuesday can be heard on KEBC 1560 in Norman or online via the link above.

OU has eight native Californians on its roster: Fale Aviu (Oceanside), Shay Knighten (Buena Park), Mariah Lopez (Saugus), Kylie Lundberg (Lakewood), Melanie Olmos (Riverside), Sydney Romero (San Diego), Vanessa Taukeiaho (Rancho Cucamonga) and Lea Wodach (Coto de Caza).

Facing Arizona

Oklahoma is 19-27 all-time against Arizona, including a 9-11 mark at neutral site games. The Sooners, however, had won eight in a row against the Wildcats before losing in the last meeting between the schools in 2015.

In the last meeting at the 2015 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, OU rallied for four runs over the last two innings, but Arizona's Kellie Fox hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the seventh to win it, 5-4. Nicole Pendley, then a freshman, hit the game-tying two-run home run in the top of the seventh. Paige Parker, also a freshman at the time, started and gave up five runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks and struck out three in a complete-game effort.

Oklahoma and Arizona have two common opponents this year as both have beaten Tulsa and BYU.

OU and Arizona are two of three schools to win more than two national titles. UCLA leads the way with 12, while Arizona has eight and the Sooners have three.

OU head coach Patty Gasso and Arizona head coach Mike Candrea are two of the winningest coaches in NCAA history. Candrea (.797) is third among active coaches and sixth all-time in win percentage, while Gasso (.777) ranks seventh and ninth in those categories. Candrea is also second among active coaches and all-time in wins (1,492), while Gasso is ninth and 14th, respectively, with 1,105.

Facing Long Beach State

Oklahoma is 11-1 all-time against Long Beach State, including a 4-0 record in Long Beach.

The Sooners and 49ers met a year ago in the season-opening tournament in Las Vegas. Sydney Romero had three hits and drove in two runs, while Paige Parker gave up two hits in 3.0 innings in a 7-0 OU victory.

OU and LBSU have three common opponents this year. Both lost to Washington, OU beat UCLA and lost to Notre Dame, while the 49ers lost to the Bruins and beat the Irish.

Long Beach State is the alma mater of OU head coach Patty Gasso. A softball standout in the team's early years in 1983 and 1984, she was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in November 2013. She then coached at Long Beach City College for four years before becoming the head coach at Oklahoma. Gasso is 8-1 all-time against her alma mater.

LBSU assistant coach Danielle Spaulding is the sister of former Sooner, Amber Spaulding, who played at OU from ('04-07) and still ranks second in program history with 16 career sacrifice hits.

Sooners Looking to Continue Road Winning Streak

Dating back to April 8 of last season, the Sooners have won 13 straight road games. That's the fourth longest road winning streak in program history and four wins off the school record.

Wins	Start Date	End Date
16	March 18, 2002	March 20, 2003
15	March 8, 2000	Feb. 20, 2001
14	April 28, 2012	April 19, 2013
13	April 8, 2016	N/A

OU Stealing at Highest Rate in Last 10 Years

Through 24 games, Oklahoma is 39-47 on stolen base attempts. With 1.63 steals per game entering the week, OU ranked 52nd in the country, but by their own standards, the Sooners are stealing at a higher rate than any time over the last 10 years.

Below is a chart that shows the most steals and steal attempts at OU through the first 24 games since 2008.

SB	Year	SBA	Year
39	2017	47	2017
38	2010	42	2016
36	2016	42	2009
34	2009	41	2010
33	2014	39	2015

Sydney Romero leads OU with 10 steals in 10 attempts this year after going 6-8 all of last season. Caleigh Clifton (8) is already over halfway to her total of 14 from last year, while Alissa Dalton has 6 to rank third on the team.

As a team, OU has had five games this year with 4 stolen bases. And before going 0-3 against Western Kentucky on March 5, the Sooners were successful on 26-27 tries during a 13-game span from Feb. 17 to March 4.

Quick Hits

Through 3/14, Paige Parker is 4th among active pitchers in career shutouts (25), 8th in ERA (1.65) and wins (73), 13th in complete games (63), 16th in total strikeouts (573), 18th in strikeouts/7 IP (7.44), 30th in innings (539.3) and 39th in starts (77) ... Paige Lowary is 26th among active pitchers in strikeouts/7IP (6.22), 27th in saves (7), 30th in wins (47) and 50th in strikeouts (360)

OU is 9-0 this year when hitting a home run ... the pitching staff has struck out at least six batters in 15 of the last 16 games and has not walked more than 2 batters in any of the last 16 contests ... opponents have had just one at-bat with the bases loaded this year