For the third straight season Oklahoma will enter the NCAA Softball Tournament as the Number 1 seed. That will extend a streak of being a national seed for each of the last 15 seasons and make the 28th straight season of being in the tournament. At 49-2 on the season, 17-1 in the Big 12, the Sooners are one of two Big 12 schools to host a regional to open the tournament. Big 12 Tournament champion Oklahoma State will also host and both programs should be in line to host a Super Regional should they advance to the second weekend.
OU will host Texas A&M (29-26, 6-18 SEC), Minnesota (26-24-1, 11-12 Big 10), in Prairie View A&M (20-27, 16-8 SWAC) at the Norman Regional. The chase for the championship gets underway in the regional at 4:00 p.m. on Friday when the Aggies face the Golden Golphers. The Sooners and the Panthers will play the regional’s second game at 6:30 in a contest that will be aired on ESPN+.
Friday’s winners will face each other in the first of three games Saturday, while the two losing teams will play in the regional’s first elimination game in the second of Saturday’s tripleheader. The loser of Saturday’s first game will take on the winner of the first elimination game in the day’s finale with the loser of that contest heading home. The winner of Saturday’s final game will take on the winner of the day’s first game on Sunday with an if-necessary rematch scheduled for later that afternoon.
The winner of the Norman Regional will face off against the winner of the Orlando Regional where Central Florida is hosting Michigan, South Dakota State, and Villanova.
The biggest question surrounding Oklahoma heading into the tournament is about the health of freshman pitcher Jordy Bahl. Oklahoma’s ace didn’t play in the conference tournament bringing around concerns that there may be something bigger than just soreness happening with her. Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso said during Sunday’s selection show on ESPN2 that she’s optimistic about Bahl playing but ultimately was noncommittal.
“We’re optimistic. We’re just gonna take it day-by-day and see how we’re going along. We’re not going to press anything.”
Patty Gasso on freshman pitcher jordy bahl
At 21-1 on the season, Jordy Bahl is the winningest pitcher in the Big 12 this season. She has the second best ERA in the conference (0.95) and has struck out 199 batters which is the second most in the conference.
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