OU Travels to LSU for Ranked Midweek Matchup

¹ Oklahoma

^12/11 LSU

April 11 / Baton Rouge, La. / Tiger Park

WEEKDAY BASICS

• Top-ranked Oklahoma travels to Baton Rouge, La., for its 14th top-25 matchup of the season on Tuesday night at No. 12/11 LSU. The Sooners and Tigers meet for the 19th time in the history of the programs, with OU holding a narrow 10-8 advantage.

• The game will be shown to a national audience on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. CT with Beth Mowins and Michele Smith on the call. The contest can be heard via 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma and nationwide on The Varsity Network app.

• Oklahoma (36-1, 9-0 Big 12) breaks from Big 12 play for Tuesday's clash vs. an SEC foe. The Sooners are 7-0 vs. Southeastern Conference opponents in 2023 and hold a 17-1 mark since 2021.

• OU is on a 28-game win streak dating back to the Sooners only loss of the season, Feb. 19 at Baylor in a non-conference matchup in Waco.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Sooners moved to 9-0 in conference play and won their 51^st consecutive Big 12 conference series with a three-game sweep of Texas Tech in Norman (3-0, 6-0, 7-0).

• OU shut out Tech (28-15, 2-7) in all three games, outscoring the Red Raiders 16-0 and outhitting their conference foe 19-9 on the weekend. Dating back to 2021, OU has shut out Tech in nine consecutive regular season conference games and outscored the Red Raiders by a combined score of 99-0.

• Haley Lee led the hitters with a 4-for-7 (.571), 3 HR, 4 RBI weekend, while Jayda Coleman blasted a pair of homers in OU's game two win.

• The pitching staff was exceptional, tossing three straight shutouts and striking out 25 batters while surrendering just 9 H on the weekend. In game two, Jordy Bahl struck out a season-high 12 in 6.1 IP.

SEASON STORYLINES

• The Sooners are 13-0 in ranked matchups on the season, highlighted by wins over then-No. 1 UCLA, No. 6 FSU and a three-game sweep of No. 9/8 Texas. The Sooners are currently first in the NCAA RPI and hold the No. 14 strength of schedule in the country (1^st in the Big 12).

• OU is outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 316-33 on the season, surrendering an average of 0.89 runs/game. The pitching staff has been exceptional, tossing shutouts in 22 of OU's 37 games to lead the country.

• Junior Nicole May and sophomore Jordy Bahl combined on the staff's first no-hitter of the season on Feb. 18 vs. Army before Alex Storako threw an individual no-no vs. No. 17/16 Kentucky on March 3 and Bahl completed a perfect game last Friday vs. SELA. The staff has thrown four games where an opponent had just one hit.

• May leads the pitching staff with a 0.43 ERA and 98 strikeouts, while all four pitchers hold ERAs under 1.50, including two in May and Storako (0.73) with earned run averages under 1.00.

• As a team, OU is batting a nation-best .380 with 69 home runs. Seven Sooners have hit six or more home runs, paced by Jayda Coleman and Haley Lee's 11 a piece. Jennings leads the team with 39 RBIs while four other Sooners have 30-plus runs batted in.

Lead, Storako Tech G1

A LOOK AT THE OPPONENT

• LSU: OU holds a 10-8 all-time record against the Tigers and won the last matchup between the two teams in the 2016 Women's College World Series, a 7-3 OU win in OKC.

• OU is 1-3 vs. LSU in Baton Rouge, with the Tigers taking two the last time the teams met at LSU in 2015. The previous two matchups happened in 2004 (6-4 OU win) and 1999 (7-3 LSU win, NCAA Regional)

• Familiar faces: Howard Dobson, 12-year assistant coach at LSU, previously coached under OU head coach Patty Gasso for five seasons (2003-07) and helped the Sooners to two WCWS appearances in 2003 and 2004.

JENNINGS NAMED NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• Oklahoma junior second baseman Tiare Jennings was named the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Player of the Week (4/4) following her performance in OU's three-game sweep of Texas.

• Jennings batted .727 on the weekend with two home runs, eight RBIs and a double for a 1.364 slugging clip. The two-time unanimous All-American registered her first four-hit game of 2023 and fifth of her career in Sunday's run-rule win over the Horns, finishing a perfect 4-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs.

• In Friday's 8-1 win in OKC in front of a record-breaking crowd, Jennings went 3-for-4 with a home run, double and four RBIs. In the field, the second baseman helped turn two double plays and went error-less with seven putouts and eight assists.

• On the season, Jennings is batting .457, leads the team with 39 RBIs and is tied for the team-lead with nine home runs.

• The honor marked Jennings' second career national player of the week accolade with her first coming Feb. 16, 2021.

COLE WORLD

• Oklahoma centerfielder Jayda Coleman has showcased her versatility for the Sooners since she stepped on campus as a freshman in 2021 and her productivity from the leadoff spot for OU has been pivotal to the Sooners success.

• Coleman has started every game for the Sooners since 2021, 159 straight, and batted leadoff in 78 of those 159, including 42 straight contests and 53 of OU's last 54 games. In those 78 games when Coleman has started in the leadoff position, OU is 76-2.

• The triple threat has shown her power in 2023 with 11 home runs, nine doubles and a triple, her home run count is tied for the team lead. For comparison, Coleman hit nine homers as a freshman in 2021 and eight total last season.

• Of Coleman's 28 career home runs, eight of those have been leadoff blasts. Additionally, four have been in the first OU at-bat of the game.

• The two-time NFCA First Team All-American paces OU in batting average (.464), SLG% (.918), OB% (.600) and stolen bases (11-11) and is tied for the team lead in hits (45) and home runs (11). She ranks in the top-10 nationally in on-base, batting and slugging percentages and runs/game.

HOMER HAPPY

• As OU paced the country in home runs each of the past two seasons (NCAA-record 161 in 2021; 155 in 2022), the Sooners are off to another scorching pace in 2023, having blasted 69 so far in the early season, good for second in the country and just eight off the lead.

• In 2023, the Sooners have homered in 32 of 37 games, including 18 games with multiple home runs. OU hit single-season high six blasts vs. No. 1/1 UCLA (Feb. 26), No. 17/16 Kentucky (March 3) and at Iowa State (March 25). The Sooners have hit two-plus in 18 games, three-plus in nine games and six three times in a game this season.

• Individually, 13 Sooners have already hit a long ball in 2023 out of the 16 active non-pitchers on the roster. Of those 13, nine have multiple homers, including eight with three-plus and eight with five or more, paced by Jayda Coleman and Haley Lee's 11 a piece.

• Brito, Coleman, Hansen and Lee all have multi-homer games on the season (Hansen twice).

• Additionally, OU has hit five homers in one inning once this year (vs. Kentucky, 3/3), hit four in an inning twice, three-plus in three, and two-plus in seven.

• The Sooners have hit back-to-back blasts six times this season and three consecutive once.

• 142 of OU's 316 runs on the season have come via home run (44.9%)

Lead, Lee Team Tech G3

OUT OF THIS WORLD OFFENSE

• Since 2021, Oklahoma has paced the country offensively in several categories. OU led the nation in home runs in 2021 (161) and 2022 (155) and sit in the top two with 69 in the early 2023 season. Their 2021 mark broke an 11-year NCAA record for single-season home runs.

• In OU's recent span of offensive domination, the team has led the country in batting average for three straight seasons: 2021 – NCAA-record .405; 2022 – .371; 2023 – .380

• Additionally, the team has paced the country in runs, runs per game and slugging each of the past three seasons. The 2021 team's 638 runs, 10.63 runs/game and .778 SLG % all stand as NCAA records.

• In 2023, OU paces the country with:

• 8.54 runs/game

• .380 batting average

• .692 slugging percentage

• .469 on-base percentage

• 2.02 doubles per game

ELITE IN THE CIRCLE

• OU's pitching staff has been equally as dominant as the offense the past three seasons. The staff has led the country in shutouts the last two seasons (23 in 2021, school-record 33 in 2022) and are first in 2023 with 22 in OU's 37 games.

• The Sooner arms led the country in ERA a season ago with an exceptional 1.05 mark and are off to a dominant start in 2023, ranking second with a 0.91 earned run average.

• The staff has three no-hitters under their belt already in 2023 and one perfect game. Nicole May and Jordy Bahl combined to no-hit Army on Feb. 18 before Alex Storako threw her second career individual no-no vs. Kentucky on March 3 and Bahl completed a perfect contest March 10 vs. SELA. These come a year after the staff had six no-hitters and two perfect games a season ago.

• All four of OU's pitchers hold ERA's less than 1.50, led by May's second-nationally 0.43 average and Storako's top-ten 0.73. The other two OU arms: Kierston Deal – 1.19 and Jordy Bahl – 1.42.

• The quartet has fanned a combined 295 batters in 2023 to go with 61 walks. May leads the group with 98 K's to Bahl's 92 and Storako's 83. The four have allowed opponents to bat just .150 against them and surrendered 29 earned runs (33 R), an average of 0.8/game. In OU's 15 games that they've allowed a run across, the staff has limited the damage with no opponent scoring more than four runs in 2023 (done thrice).

CONFERENCE DOMINANCE

• OU finished the Big 12 regular season 17-1 en route to winning its 14th regular season crown and 10th consecutive in 2022 and goes for its 11^th in a row in 2023, starting conference play 9-0.

• The Sooners have won 85 of their last 87 Big 12 regular season games. Their streak of 57 consecutive that ended in Stillwater with a narrow loss to the Cowgirls in 2021 was the longest in conference and program history.

• OU has won 51 consecutive conference series (43 sweeps), is unbeaten in their last 69 (65-0-4 in that span) and have not lost a conference series since 2011.

• OU has finished first in the Big 12 over the past 10 seasons with a combined record of 170-15. Prior to OU's current run of 10 straight regular season titles, no team had ever won more than two consecutive.

• Overall, the Sooners have 21 Big 12 titles with 14 regular season crowns and seven Big 12 tournament championships, all under head coach Patty Gasso.

• OU currently holds the nation's longest active win streak at 28 games.

• Oklahoma has won 151 of its last 159 games (.949 win %) dating back to the start of the 2021 season.

• Of those 159 games, 95 have been run-rule victories (60%).

• Of OU's 13 games against top-25 competition, five have been run-rule wins. Furthermore, in those 13 ranked victories, the Sooners have outscored opponents 108-18.

• OU's defense ranks first in the country with an exceptional .988 fielding percentage, committing just 10 errors on the season. The defense has turned 15 double plays already in 2023.

• Oklahoma has outhit its opponent in 34 of 37 games on the season, and in the one game they didn't outhit the opposition (vs. Texas A&M, 2/24), the Sooners won 8-0 in run-rule fashion in five innings (five hits to A&M's six). The other two games the hits were tied with OU winning 2-1 over Northwestern and 3-0 over Texas Tech.

• The Sooners have been dominant across all innings in 2023, but specifically the second inning, outscoring teams 87-1 in the second. The team has surrendered just one run in each the second and sixth innings on the season.

• OU has been an exceptional two-out hitting team in 2023 with 127 of 316 (40%) runs coming with a pair of outs.

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARITA HYNES FIELD

• 2023 marks the 25^th anniversary of historic Marita Hynes Field in Norman. The iconic field that has housed the nation's premier program opened its gates in 1998 and the Sooners have since gone 540-62-1 (.895).

• The field, named for former softball coach and senior woman administrator Marita Hynes on April 24, 2004, has a current capacity of 1,378 with standing room for over 2,000. The largest crowd to ever watch an OU softball game at the venue was May 4, 2019, with 2,076 in attendance for Bedlam vs. Oklahoma State.

• Oklahoma has gone undefeated on its home field four seasons since 1998, including each of the past two years, for a home winning streak of 57 straight. The Sooners last home loss was Feb. 29, 2020, a narrow 4-3 decision to North Texas. Over the past five seasons, OU holds a 107-2 mark at MHF.

• 2023 is anticipated to be the final season played at Marita Hynes as OU looks to open the state-of-the-art Love's Field in 2024.

CHAMPIONSHIP MINDSET SERIES STREAMING NOW

• The University of Oklahoma Athletics Department and its multimedia rightsholder, LEARFIELD, launched in January "Championship Mindset" – a brand-new original content series exclusively featuring Oklahoma softball.

• As the 2023 OU softball team prepares its competitive journey to a third straight national championship, the five-part series delivers authentic, behind-the-scenes access for fans.

• "Championship Mindset" will feature never-before-seen interviews with the team's coaches and student-athletes, giving fans a special and unique look into the legacy that is Oklahoma softball.

• All five episodes can be viewed on ESPN+, YouTube and on a dedicated page within SoonerSports.com, including snippets on Oklahoma softball's official social platforms.

• Four episodes have been released, with at least one more episode to be released later this season.

• LEARFIELD's dedicated content team, LEARFIELD Studios, produced and directed the series in complete collaboration with Oklahoma's athletics administration.

THE TROPHY CLUB

• The Oklahoma softball program has announced the launch of its restructured booster club under a new name, The Trophy Club.

• The Trophy Club replaces the former Diamond Club as the program's premier booster initiative to continue to enhance the student-athlete experience at Oklahoma, both on and off the field.

• Softball fans can join now and take part in exclusive events, including the annual golf tournament, coaches luncheon and more.

For membership details and how donations will be utilized, visit The Trophy Club landing page on SoonerSports.com.

• Gifts to the Trophy Club and Oklahoma softball will be utilized for: resources for the development of our student-athletes, facility upgrades to enhance recruiting and student-athlete experiences and improved quality of travel to increase academic participation by our student-athletes.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma softball, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_Softball) and like Oklahoma Softball on Facebook.