Softball Makes 17th Appearance at WCWS

NORMAN – The three-time defending NCAA champion Oklahoma softball team makes its eighth straight and 17th overall appearance at the Women's College World Series in 2024.

Oklahoma is vying to become the first softball program to win four straight NCAA titles. The Sooners and the 1988-90 UCLA Bruins are the lone two programs to have won three consecutive national championships. An OU title would be the program's sixth in the last eight seasons and the program's eighth all-time.

The No. 2-seeded Sooners meet No. 7/4-ranked Duke Thursday in their WCWS opener, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT on ESPN with Kevin Brown and Amanda Scarborough on the call. Alyssa Lang will serve as the field reporter.

All games can be heard via 107.7 FM The Franchise in Oklahoma or nationwide on The Varsity Network with Chris Plank and alumna DJ Sanchez on the call.

2024 marks OU's 12th trip in the last 13 competed postseasons to OKC. No other program in the country has made as many trips to the WCWS as OU since the 2011 season.

SCOUTING THE BLUE DEVILS

No. 7/4-ranked Duke enters the WCWS 52-7 on the season following a three-game super regional thriller at Missouri, taking games one and three to punch its ticket to the program's first WCWS. The Blue Devils earned the No. 10 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, winning the Durham Regional by going 3-0 before advancing through the Columbia Super Regional.

Duke's top-of-the-order arguably stands as one of the nation's best, tableset by leadoff hitter D'Auna Jennings (.402, 20 RBIs, 14 SB). ACC Player of the Year Claire Davidson leads the lineup in batting average (.439), home runs (18), doubles (19), RBIs (67) and OPS (1.420) while defensive player-of-the-year Aminah Vega provides protection with 12 homers, 18 doubles and 52 RBIs.

The Blue Devil pitching staff is formidable, led by ACC Pitcher of the Year Jala Wright and stellar southpaw Cassidy Curd. Wright is 19-2 on the season with a 1.28 ERA and 187 strikeouts across 153.1 innings of work, tossing eight complete games and five shutouts. Curd holds opponents to a .147 batting average and is 13-3 with a 1.29 ERA, boasting 159 punchouts to 29 walks over 119.1 frames. As a whole, the Duke staff has pitched to a 1.53 ERA with 427 strikeouts and a .184 opponent average.

LAST TIME OUT

OU swept No. 15-seed Florida State in the NCAA Norman Super Regional to advance to OKC, run-ruling the Seminoles 11-3 in game one before clinching the series with a 4-2 win on Friday.

Kelly Maxwell tossed a complete game in the opener while Alyssa Brito went 3-for-3 with two homers, a double and three RBIs. Kasidi Pickering homered and drove in two while Ella Parker reached in each of her four trips in the clincher.

Pickering batted .667 (4-for-6) over the weekend and drove in three while Parker went 3-for-5 (.600) and reached in six of her eight plate appearances.

Oklahoma closed its inaugural season at Love's Field with a 24-4 home record, drawing an incredible 108,156 fans for an average attendance of 4,326.

POSTSEASON: SOONER SEASON

Oklahoma has made the NCAA Tournament 30 straight seasons and every year of head coach Patty Gasso's tenure since 1995 (tournament was not played in 2020). The Sooners are tied with Washington for the longest active postseason run and recently broke its own record for longest NCAA Tournament win streak, currently standing at 18 games.

OU has been a national seed for each of the past 16 seasons. The 2024 season marks the 17th WCWS appearance for the Sooners, who have won five of the past seven WCWS crowns.

With seven national titles (2000, '13, '16, '17, '21, '22, '23) Oklahoma trails only UCLA (12) and Arizona (8) for most in NCAA history. No other team has more than two national championships.

PLAYOFF ACES

Sooner pitchers Nicole May and Kelly Maxwell have enjoyed terrific postseason success across their careers and will close their final collegiate season at the WCWS.

Maxwell is now 10-5 across 17 NCAA Tournament appearances (16 starts) and has pitched to a stellar 1.71 ERA over 90.0 postseason innings. She has punched out 137 while walking just 26, striking out 39.0% of batters faced with a .164 batting average against.

May charters a 10-2 record in NCAA postseason play and has lowered her career tournament ERA to 2.64 in 74.1 innings, logging a 74:14 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

SOONER SUCCESS AT THE WCWS

Oklahoma's senior class enters its fourth WCWS in as many seasons and is within reach of multiple individual career records.

Tiare Jennings is four home runs and eight base hits from tying Jocelyn Alo's career records of 12 and 32 respectively. Jennings is a lifetime .358 hitter in 19 games at the WCWS, collecting eight home runs and six doubles with a WCWS-record 29 RBIs. Jayda Coleman needs four runs scored to tie another Alo record of 22.

OU sparkplug Rylie Boone is a .515 hitter in her career at the WCWS, ranking second in career batting average at the championship. Kinzie Hansen bats .333 at the WCWS with five home runs, two doubles and 15 RBIs.

TIA TIME

Senior shortstop Tiare Jennings leads OU with 21 home runs, 62 RBIs and 14 doubles entering the Women's College World Series and is the lone Sooner to have started all 60 games this season. She slashes .372/.466/.817 for a 1.282 OPS, drawing walks at a 15.5% clip while scoring 51 runs. In the field, Jennings has played 355.0 of the Sooners' 370.0 innings at shortstop, converting 170 of her 172 chances for a .988 fielding percentage with just two errors.

Over the course of the 2024 season, the All-Big 12 First Team selection established OU's career doubles record (63) while recording both her 300th hit and 300th RBI. She is one home run away from passing Lauren Chamberlain for sole possession of third on the NCAA all-time list and needs seven RBIs to move into fourth on the NCAA's career leaderboard.

FRESHMEN PHENOMS

OU freshmen left-handed hitters Ella Parker and Kasidi Pickering have complemented the loaded Sooner upperclass by anchoring the top half of the order. Should Pickering drive in at least two runs at the WCWS, the duo would become the first pair of OU freshmen to both homer 10+ times and record 50+ RBIs in their debut seasons.

Parker has served as OU's designated player throughout the 2024 season, blasting 12 home runs and 14 doubles while ranking third on the team with 57 RBIs. The NFCA Freshman of the Year finalist currently leads Oklahoma in batting average (.419), on-base percentage (.526) and wOBA (.567) while producing a whopping 1.268 OPS.

Pickering made an immediate impact in her first collegiate at-bat, blasting an opposite-field grand slam against Utah Valley on February 8, and has since started 58 of 60 games. She slashes .394/.517/.697 for a 1.214 OPS while producing 10 home runs, eight doubles and 48 RBIs.

The duo lands one-two among OU's batting average leaders in the NCAA Tournament, capping their debut seasons with incredible postseason efforts. Pickering has homered three times in the tournament, batting .583 and driving in seven to lead the club in both categories, while Parker is hitting .500 with five RBIs.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

Oklahoma's dangerous lineup has taken its collective approach to another level in 2024, posting some of its best walk and strikeout marks in program history.

The Sooners are walking in 16.4% of their plate appearances, up from 12.6% in 2023, which would also stand as the program's second-highest clip all-time. OU's walk rate is the highest since it drew walks at a program-record 17.5% rate in 2013. The lineup's 314 walks drawn are the second-most in program history (348, 2013).

As a lineup, Oklahoma strikes out in just 8.1% of its trips, currently standing as the second-lowest mark in program history. The OU K rate is down from 8.7% in 2023 as the Sooners hold a 156:314 K:BB ratio at the plate.

RUNS, RUNS AND MORE RUNS

The Oklahoma lineup continues to roll in 2024, leading the nation in on-base percentage while ranking third in runs per game and home runs entering the WCWS.

OU plates 8.05 runs a game and slashes .366/.473/.653 for a 1.126 OPS, blasting 110 home runs. The Sooners' incredible plate discipline sees them strike out in just 8.1% of their trips while walking at a 16.4% clip. As a club, OU owns a .487 weighted on-base average (wOBA).

Four everyday players are batting .400 or better while nine of 11 position player with at least 15 starts are batting .320 or better. A whopping eight Sooners with at least 120 plate appearances boast an OPS mark above 1.000, six have driven in 40 or more runs and six have left the yard at least 10 times.

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