OU Hosts Iowa State in Big 12 Opener

March 31 - April 1 | Norman, Okla. | Marita Hynes Field

Iowa State

^12/12 Oklahoma

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NORMAN - Winners of five straight, No. 12/12 Oklahoma (28-7, 0-0 Big 12) opens its 22nd season of Big 12 play this weekend as it welcomes Iowa State (15-19, 0-3 Big 12) to Norman for a three-game series over two days.

Due to inclement weather in the forecast, play on Sunday has been cancelled, and instead the teams will play a doubleheader Friday at 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday's first pitch has also been moved up from 2 p.m. to 11 a.m. Fans with tickets to Sunday's game may exchange them for tickets to another home game this season by contacting the OU Athletics Ticket Office at 405-325-2424 or (800) 456-GoOU.

All three games this weekend will be streamed on SoonerSports.TV with a paid subscription (see above link). The game can also be heard on KEBC 1560 in Norman or online via the link above.

Fans should plan to arrive early this weekend. With the Medieval Fair taking place across the street at Reaves Park, parking will be in high demand. It will be free to park at the OU Softball Complex all day Friday and until 11 a.m. on Saturday. After 11 a.m., parking will cost $5.

The Sooners are 16-5 all-time in Big 12 openers, including five straight wins. In those five wins, OU has outscored opponents 39-6. This will be the third time that Oklahoma has opened conference action against Iowa State, beating the Cyclones in 1996, 2005 and 2014 (combined score 22-5).

Facing Iowa State

Oklahoma and Iowa State have met 102 times entering this weekend, with the Sooners owning a 74-28 all-time advantage, including an 25-12 mark in Norman. The 74 wins are the second most for OU against another team in program history.

Opponent	Wins	Losses	Pct.
Oklahoma State	83	70	(.542)
Iowa State	74	28	(.725)
Kansas	60	44	(.577)

OU has won the last 27 meetings in the series and 28 of the last 29. OU has won seven of the past 12 meetings via run-rule and has not given up more than two runs in any of the last 21 games to the Cyclones.

The 27-game win streak is Oklahoma's third-longest active streak against a D-I opponent.

Opponent	Streak	Series Record	Last Loss
Wichita State	34	47-7 (.870)	3/21/90
North Texas	28	28-0 (1.000)	Never
Iowa State	27	74-28 (.725)	4/22/06

Oklahoma has not lost in Norman to ISU since April 5, 2003, a span off 15 games. The Sooners have never dropped a Big 12 series to Iowa State, going 18-0-3 all-time.

OU head coach Patty Gasso is 50-4 (.926) all-time vs. ISU.

The Sooners and Cyclones have played two common opponents so far in UAB and UC Santa Barbara. The Sooners have gone 3-0 against those teams with a pair of wins over UAB, while Iowa State is 0-2 against the schools.

Oklahoma junior Lea Wodach and Iowa State senior Rachel Hartman both attended Tesoro HS in Las Flores, Calif.

OU junior Paige Lowary is from Dallas Center, Iowa, which is about an hour southwest of the ISU campus in Ames.

Last Time They Met

Oklahoma swept a three-games series in Ames last season by a combined score of 24-4. The Sooners posted a slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) of .344/.442/.505, while the Cyclones' line was just .203/.268/.270. The OU pitching staff gave up two unearned runs in 21.0 innings for a 0.67 earned run average. Conversely, Iowa State pitchers posted a 6.67 ERA.

In the series opener, OU trailed 2-1 after four innings, before Nicole Pendley's two-run single in the fifth put OU on top. The Sooners still had to thwart a sixth-inning rally from ISU that saw the go-ahead run in scoring position with two outs, but Oklahoma held on for a 4-2 win.

Game two of the doubleheader was less of a nail-biter as OU won 8-1. Caleigh Clifton and Fale Aviu each homered, while Kelsey Stevens struck out nine and gave up one unearned run in a complete game. OU scored three runs in the first, two in the third and three more in the sixth.

In the finale, OU scored four in the fourth, three in the sixth and four more in the seventh en route to a 12-1 win. Shay Knighten drove in four runs, including a three-run homer, while Macey Hatfield was 2-3 with 2 RBI, Clifton homered again and Aviu was 3-4.

Home Sweet Home

Since April 3 of last season, the Sooners have won 27 straight home games, including all 12 this year. That's the third longest home win streak in program history.

Wins	Start Date	End Date
45	April 14, 2000	March 29, 2002
30	March 13, 2004	April 6, 2005
27	April 3, 2016	N/A

During the streak, Oklahoma has two top-25 wins, 10 shutouts and 11 run-rule wins. Eight victories have been against Big 12 teams, while 19 have been non-conference matchups, including five in the postseason.

Mendes on a Tear Since Becoming a Starter

Freshman Nicole Mendes entered the starting lineup for the Sooners on March 10 in the second game of a doubleheader vs. Omaha and hasn't left since. Over the last 14 games, in which she has started in RF (7), DP (7), LF (1) and P (1), she leads the team in average (.469), hits (23), triples (3), stolen bases (7) and OBP (.509) and tied for the lead in runs (17).

Mendes has hit safely in 12 of the 14 games, including three games with three hits and a four-hit game at Loyola Marymount where she had two doubles and a triple and scored three runs.

Sooners Once Again Atop Big 12 Preseason Poll

For the fifth year in a row and the eighth time in the last nine years, the Oklahoma softball team topped the Big 12 Preseason Poll. The Sooners got six of the seven first-place votes. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team.

The Sooners led with 36 points, while Texas received the other first-place vote and ranked second with 30 points. Baylor was slotted third with 26 points, followed by Oklahoma State (22), Kansas (14), Texas Tech (13) and Iowa State (6).

OU Looking for Sixth Straight Big 12 Crown

Oklahoma has won an unprecedented five straight Big 12 championships. Prior to this current run, no team in league history had even won three straight conference crowns.

With five straight league crowns, the Sooners are tied for the second longest active regular season conference-title streak in the nation with North Dakota State (Summit). Only Michigan (9) in Big Ten has a longer stretch.

Oklahoma has won nine Big 12 regular season titles and four conference tournament championships. The 13 combined championships are the most in league history.

The Sooners are undefeated in their past 37 regular season Big 12 series, going 33-0-4. The last series loss for OU came to Missouri on April 16-17, 2011. The next longest Big 12 series unbeaten streak belongs to Baylor at 4-0-0.

Since the Big 12 began in 1996, OU has the best all-time win percentage in conference play at .775 (290-84), while Texas is a distant second at .640 (226-127). Among teams currently in the league, Baylor is third at .504 (178-175-1), followed by Oklahoma State at .444 (167-209), Kansas at .389 (149-234), Texas Tech at .320 (120-255) and Iowa State at .211 (79-295).

In the 21 seasons of Big 12 softball, Oklahoma has had a winning record in league play 20 times and finished first or second in the standings 17 times.

OU Stealing at Highest Rate in Last 10 Years

Through 35 games, Oklahoma is 58-72 on stolen base attempts. With 1.66 steals per game, OU ranks 45th 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 35 games since 2008.

SB	Year	SBA	Year
58	2017	72	2017
47	2016	58	2016
46	2010	55	2011
45	2011	54	2010
44	2009	53	2009

Sydney Romero and Caleigh Clifton lead OU with 12 steals each, after stealing 6 and 14 last year, respectively. in 13 attempts this year after going 6-8 all of last season. Nicole Mendes has 7 to rank third on the team. Twelve different players have at least one stolen base this year.

As a team, OU has 11 games this year with at least three stolen bases and six games with at least four.

Quick Hits

Through 3/26, Paige Parker is 6th among active pitchers in career shutouts (25), 9th in ERA (1.67) and wins (74), 12th in complete games (64), 16th in total strikeouts (599), 17th in strikeouts/7 IP (7.54), 28th in innings (556.3), 36th in starts (80) and 49th in appearances (107) ... Paige Lowary is 29th among active pitchers in saves (7) and wins (49) and 30th in strikeouts/7IP (6.18)

Mariah Lopez has given up one run in 22.2 innings at home this year (0.31 ERA) ... Lopez has also not yet given up a run in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd innings (30.0 IP total; 33 K's, 1 BB) ... opponents are 0-28 against Lopez in 0-2 counts ... Kelsey Arnold is hitting a team-best .469 (15-32) in home games this year ... Sydney Romero is hitting .481 (25-52) with runners in scoring position this year ... the pitching staff has thrown at least 10 strikeouts in three of the last six games ... as a team, OU is 75-130 (.577) with a runner on third and less than 2 out