Arkansas softball’s postseason of firsts ends against Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. — Having reached a new level of program success with its first-ever appearance in a super regional, the No. 13 Arkansas softball team closed its season with Saturday’s 9-0 loss to host Oklahoma.

In her final game, senior Tori Cooper registered her eighth multi-hit effort of the season. The Razorbacks ended the season with a 42-16 overall record.

“I’m incredibly proud of this team,” head coach Courtney Deifel said following the game. “What they’ve done over the course of the year is pretty remarkable. I’m just really proud that I get to coach them every day.

“(This team) exceeded our expectations, and not because we had low ones. Last year, we got our feet wet with postseason so they knew what they were striving for, and that was always the goal going into this year: to make the postseason. But not just to make it but to make an impact in the postseason and this team did that.”

Arkansas’ 42 wins are the third most in program history, and the highest total by a Razorback team since the 2000 campaign. The team earned the program’s first-ever NCAA national seed and hosted the Fayetteville Regional on its way to securing a spot in this weekend’s Norman Super Regional.

Playing as the visitor in Saturday’s game, Oklahoma (55-3) jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage in the first inning. Arkansas had opportunities to get on the board with runners in scoring position in the third and fourth frames but came up empty. The Razorbacks had at least one runner on base in six of seven innings.

The combination of Autumn Storms and Mary Haff kept Oklahoma to the two runs through the first four innings. In the fifth, the Sooners pushed their lead to 5-0 with a three-run home run by Fale Aviu before Oklahoma added two scores in each of the last two innings.

With a hit apiece, senior Autumn Buczek and freshman Hannah McEwen ended the year with 64 hits, tied for the eighth-highest total in a single season in program history, and the highest figure since Jessica Bachkora had 66 hits in 2010. Junior Ashley Diaz had a sixth-inning single to extend her hitting streak to eight games.