5 takeaways from Oklahoma Softball’s sweep of the Baylor Bears
With the Oklahoma’s sweep of the Baylor Bears, the Sooners are now 42-1 on the season and are riding a 34-game winning streak. They moved to 12-0 in Big 12 play and now hold a 3.5-game lead on Texas for first place in the conference.
The Oklahoma Sooners put together another strong reminder as to why they’re the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation, remaining undefeated in top 25 matchups — Baylor was unranked when they beat Oklahoma in February.
The Sooners got a great all-around effort with fantastic pitching from the circle, timely hitting at the plate, and phenomenal defense in the field. In the stands, Sooner Nation showed out. They had a strong presence in Waco, helping to fill up Dave Getterman stadium for Oklahoma’s return trip to the site of their only loss this season.
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Here are our five takeaways from the Sooners’ weekend in Waco.
Shutout Central
Oklahoma’s Nicole May (19) celebrates after an out in the second game of the championship series in the Women’s College World Series between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Thursday, June 9, 2022. Oklahoma won the second game 10-5 to sweep Texas for the NCAA softball title. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
The Oklahoma Sooners have six straight shutouts against Big 12 opponents dating back to the Texas Tech series. Against Baylor, the Sooners’ triumphant trio of Jordy Bahl, Nicole May, and Alex Storako were fantastic, yet again, keeping the Bears in check.
The Sooners’ pitching staff gave up just 10 hits and eight walks in 21 innings of work.
After Bahl struck out 10 Bears, Baylor responded by putting the ball in play, but the Sooners’ defense was up to the task. Oklahoma didn’t commit a single error over the weekend and came up with some timely defense in tight ball games.
Oklahoma led the nation in team ERA heading into the weekend and promptly lowered it to 0.83. Through 43 games in 2023, the Oklahoma Sooners have 26 shutouts. In 59 games in 2022, the Sooners had 33 shutouts.
This season they’re shutting out their opponents 60% of the time. A year ago, they had a shutout percentage of 55%.
Cydney Sanders is officially on fire
Oklahoma’s Cydney Sanders (1) celebrates beside Auburn’s Carlee McCondichie (12) after hitting a double in the third inning of a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Auburn Tigers at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Saturday, March 18, 2023. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Don’t look now, but Cydney Sanders is inching closer to pushing her batting average over .300 on the season. After a strong weekend at the Miami (Ohio) Tournament, she followed it up with a fantastic weekend in Waco.
In the first two games, she went 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double, five RBIs, and three runs scored.
It’s been a slow start to her Oklahoma Sooners career, but now’s the time to get going. With the Big 12 tournament inching closer, it would be perfect timing if Sanders were to really turn it on now ahead of the postseason.
As a true freshman for Arizona State in 2022, Sanders hit .425 with 21 home runs, 63 RBIs, and had an on-base percentage of .562 and a slugging percentage of .952.
Enough Offense
Oklahoma’s Tiare Jennings (23) hits a three-run home run in the second inning of a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 31, 2023. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
The Oklahoma Sooners’ offense may not be on the torrid pace they were a year ago, but they still have the best offense in college softball.
They’re doing what they have to do against some tough pitching teams and taking advantage of their dynamic pitching staff. It may not resemble last year’s squad, but this team is still hitting a ton of home runs. They hit four more this weekend and scored 13 runs.
The 4.3 runs per game against Baylor was well under their season average. Their 2-0 win on Saturday was just the third time this season Oklahoma’s offense has been held to two runs or fewer in a game.
One more interesting note is that the Oklahoma Sooners batting average for 2023 stands .01 points higher than the team average from the record breaking 2022 squad.
Loss Revenge
Oklahoma’s Jayda Coleman celebrates with coach Paty Gasso at third base in the first inning of a college softball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Friday, March 31, 2023. Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
The Oklahoma Sooners have been excellent over the years at battling back after losing to a team. You might be able to beat them once, but that’s all you’re going to get. This team bounced back from the loss earlier in the season and made Baylor ace Doriana Orme work on Friday night for the win.
Oklahoma’s ability to get “loss revenge” has served them well over the past few years, especially in the postseason. They’ll have challengers for their crown, but the thing that the Sooners have going for them that others don’t is the knowledge that they don’t get beat twice.
Bear Poked the Sooner
The Pressure is on Oklahoma.
That's how @BaylorSoftball feels as the Sooners come to town with one blemish on their record which the Bears put there. @KCENSports | #SicEm pic.twitter.com/0pNHeqd5aE
— Matt Lively (@mattblively) April 21, 2023
According to Baylor softball, all the pressure was on Oklahoma. If that was the case, the Sooners rose to the occasion to blank the Bears in their three-game sweep.
Oklahoma is on an incredible run the last three seasons. From 2021 to present, the Oklahoma Sooners are 157-8. They win 95.15% of the time. Again, you may get Oklahoma once, but the odds say you’re not going to beat them again.
Perhaps after Baylor’s “pressure” miscalculation, teams will take a different approach when the Sooners line up on the other side of the diamond.
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