OU to host regional
Oklahoma will host an NCAA softball regional, which includes Tulsa. Oklahoma State has been assigned to Fayetteville, Ark.
Oklahoma lost only three games all season, and now, the Sooners will have a chance to avenge one of those losses in the first game of the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 4-seed Sooners will host the Norman Regional and take on Boston University on Friday (6 p.m., ESPN2)
The Terriers beat the Sooners 4-3 at the Troy Cox Classic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in February, handing the then-No.1 Sooners their first loss of the season. OU was also in the midst of battling a team-wide stomach bug during that tournament.
Since then, OU has only dropped two other games.
The Sooners are also very familiar with the other teams in their regional.
Tulsa (33-23), a team that nearly ended OU’s season in last year’s regional, will be in the Norman Regional along with Missouri (28-27). Pitchers Paige Lowary and Parker Conrad began their collegiate careers with the Tigers before transferring to Oklahoma.
Missouri and Tulsa will square off at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, and tickets for the Norman Regional will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m.
The Sooners (50-3) learned they would be one of the top-4 seeds 30 minutes before the selection show when the NCAA Softball Twitter account unveiled the top-4 seeds in alphabetical order. OU was also a top-4 seed in 2016 when it won the Women’s College World Series as a No. 3 seed.
A year ago, Oklahoma had to climb to its WCWS title from a No. 10 seed.
This time around, the Sooners will have a guaranteed home field advantage throughout the tournament as they pursue a third consecutive national title.
Oregon, Florida, UCLA, Washington, Florida State, Georgia and Arizona State grabbed the other spots in the coveted top-8 national seeds. All of the top-8 seeds will have the opportunity to host super regionals should they advance out of the first weekend.
The winner of OU’s regional will then face the winner of the Fayetteville Regional. If OU makes it out of the first weekend, it could face DePaul, Wichita State, Oklahoma State or Arkansas.
After winning the Big 12 Championship title in a 6-4 defeat of Baylor on Saturday, the Sooners’ biggest priority is getting a little bit of rest ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s probably the most important thing we can do right now,” coach Patty Gasso said after Saturday’s Big 12 Championship title win. “Just get rest, go back and just chill. A lot of recovery, light hitting, just kind of keeping them fresh, off heavy practicing for the next couple of days, because finals drains you, as well as practice and the grind of two games, one early and one late. It almost gets monotonous.
“It’s what postseason is about. It’s about who can be standing at the end.”