As Bedlam nears, OU set for 4-game trip
NORMAN — OU softball maintained its dominance over the Big 12 over the weekend, sweeping Iowa State to stretch its streak of unbeaten conference series to 64 dating back to 2011.
The Sooners are 60-0-4 during the stretch and have won 69 of their last 71 Big 12 regular-season games.
OU also maintained its dominance against the Cyclones, stretching its winning streak over Iowa State to 43 — the Sooners' longest active streak against a Big 12 opponent.
The Sooners' last loss to Iowa State came April 22, 2006.
Their next longest active winning streak over a Big 12 opponent is 30 against Texas Tech.
Here's a look at what we learned about the Sooners following their dominant performance against the Cyclones and what to look forward to this week and beyond:
Sooners show off speed
About the only area where it could be said the Sooners had a deficiency offensively this season was on the bases.
OU entered the weekend outside of the top 100 nationally in stolen bases per game at 0.95 (38 stolen bases in 40 games).
That was before Friday's series opener, though.
Playing a rare down-to-the-wire game, the Sooners got aggressive on the base paths with seven steals — their most in a game since stealing eight against SIU-Edwardsville more than eight years ago.
Taylon Snow had a pair of stolen bases and Jocelyn Alo even got into the act, with her 11th career stolen base (second this season).
The aggressiveness paid off in the third, as Tiare Jennings followed a double steal by Alo and Jayda Coleman with an RBI single. Grace Lyons — after Jennings swiped second — drove in another run with a single before Jennings came around to score on Kinzie Hansen's groundout.
Coleman leads the Sooners with 11 stolen bases.
The Sooners' 6-4 win was just their eighth game to go seven or more innings this season.
Big 12, national race
As the regular season enters its last two weeks, it's clear the conference title will come down to the Bedlam series to end the season.
Oklahoma State is 14-1 in the conference entering next week's Bedlam showdown in Norman. The Cowgirls will go outside the conference this weekend to take on Florida State.
The Sooners are 11-1 in the conference with only this weekend's series against Kansas (15-28, 2-10 Big 12) remaining in conference play before Bedlam.
The Sooners maintained their top spot in the rankings — including the NCAA RPI — after sweeping the Cyclones and appear to have a firm grasp on the No. 1 overall seed as the season nears its end.
In the RPI, Virginia Tech (36-6) is No. 2, followed by Alabama (39-8), UCLA (36-5) and Florida State (43-5).
OU is 19-0 in neutral-site games this season. No other team has more than 17 neutral-site victories.