Tag: Baylor Bears Softball

Oklahoma Sooners preseason voted No. 1 in Big 12 preseason coaches poll

The Oklahoma Sooners were voted No. 1 in Big 12 preseason coaches poll. How did the rest of the conference stack up?

Surprise, surprise. The three-time defending national champions were voted to win the Big 12. The Sooners have won 11 consecutive Big 12 titles and haven’t lost a regular season series in the conference since 2011 and are 121-4 in Big 12 play since 2016.

In 2023, the Sooners went 18-0 and outscored their conference opponents 123-17 along the way. The pitching staff threw 10 shutouts against Big 12 competition.

In the expanded Big 12, new foes await, but until someone’s able to knock of the Sooners, they’ll remain the favorite in the conference and for the national title.

When they begin the season on February 8 against Utah State, they’ll look to extend their 53-game winning streak and begin their trek to a fourth-straight national championship. No one has ever won four-straight titles, but this Sooners squad looks set up to make another run.

The Sooners return four All-Big 12 first-team selections, including Big 12 Player of the Year [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag].

Let’s take a look at the Big 12 coaches poll.

Note: Coaches could not vote for their own team.

Conference schedule revealed for Oklahoma Sooners final Big 12 season

The Oklahoma Sooners softball program now knows who their conference opponents will be in their final swim through the Big 12.

The Oklahoma Sooners will venture through the Big 12 one last time in 2024 and now we know the conference part of their schedule.

The Sooners have dominated the Big 12 since it was established in 1996. They’ve won 15 regular season conference titles, including the last 11. They’ve won eight tournament titles.

In 2023, Oklahoma completed the best season in college softball and set the record for consecutive wins at 53 straight and counting.

As Oklahoma looks to add to their trophy, here’s a look at their conference schedule for the 2024 season.

Updated Big 12 softball standings heading into final week of the regular season

What do the Big 12 standings look like heading into the final week of the regular season?

The Oklahoma State Cowgirls were nipping at the heels of the Oklahoma Sooners for much of the 2023 season. After being swept by Texas following Oklahoma’s sweep of the Longhorns, the Sooners created enough distance to clinch their 11th consecutive Big 12 championship.

The Sooners are 15-0 in Big 12 play as they prepare for their final weekend of the regular season, a road trip to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Oklahoma State’s playing for seeding this weekend and hoping to overtake the Longhorns, who will face Baylor.

Neither Texas nor Oklahoma State want to see Oklahoma in the semifinals of the Big 12 championships. They’d like to put that matchup off for as long as possible.

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Here’s a look at the Big 12 standings ahead of the final week of the regular season.

Big 12 standings update: Oklahoma sweeps Baylor, Longhorns sweep Oklahoma State

What do the Big 12 standings look like after Oklahoma and Texas completed their three-game sweeps in conference play?

The Oklahoma Sooners went on the road and swept a tough opponent to open their lead in the Big 12 standings to 3.5 games over the Texas Longhorns and four games up on Oklahoma State.

That provides the Sooners an opportunity to clinch the Big 12 regular season title when the Kansas Jayhawks come to town this weekend. With just two Big 12 series remaining before the Big 12 tournament, the Sooners are peaking with the postseason approaching.

The Sooners Tuesday night matchup against the Wichita State Shockers was canceled due to inclement weather.

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Here’s a look at the Big 12 softball standings after the weekend’s action.

Jordy Bahl, Cydney Sanders lead Oklahoma to 7-0 win over Baylor.

Jordy Bahl was sensational again, striking out 10 Baylor Bears to lead Oklahoma to a 7-0 win to improve to 40-1.

[autotag]Jordy Bahl[/autotag] extended her scoreless innings streak to 22.2 innings and the Oklahoma Sooners got to Doriana Orme early and often to pick up their 40th win of the season over Baylor 7-0.

After dropping their only game of the season to the Bears just over two months ago, Oklahoma has now won 32 in a row to improve to 40-1 on the season.

Bahl threw an efficient 5.2 innings with 10 strikeouts to pick up her 13th win of the season, and [autotag]Nicole May[/autotag] provided 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. Bahl and May combined for Oklahoma’s 24th shutout of the season by allowing just four hits in the win.

Oklahoma loaded the bases in the first inning but couldn’t cash in on Orme, but made the Baylor ace throw more than 30 pitches in the inning. [autotag]Tiare Jennings[/autotag] attempted to score on a [autotag]Haley Lee[/autotag] single through the right side, but was thrown out from right field at the plate. That was the closest the Sooners came to scoring in the first inning.

It was in the second inning that the Sooners broke through when Cydney Sanders hit her third home run of the season, a bomb to left field.

In the third inning, Tiare Jennings led off with a double, but Oklahoma couldn’t do much with it after Haley Lee popped out in foul territory and [autotag]Alyssa Brito[/autotag] struck out swinging. However, the captain, Grace Lyons, was able to punch a single up the middle, scoring Jennings to give Oklahoma a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, the Sooners broke the game open, taking advantage of back-to-back errors by the Bears and some timely hitting to take a 5-0 lead and force Orme from the circle.

The Sooners added a couple more in the fifth inning on a double from [autotag]Sophia Nugent[/autotag] and an RBI single from [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag].

With the win, Bahl improved to 13-1 on the season and has recorded 117 strikeouts in 88.1 innings pitched. She lowered her ERA to 1.12 on the season.

[autotag]Cydney Sanders[/autotag] had perhaps her best performance of the season, going 2-for-2 with a home run, a double, an RBI, two runs scored, and a pair of walks. It was her first game this season with multiple extra-base hits in the same game. In her last three games, Sanders is 4-for-6 with two home runs, two doubles, three RBIs, and five runs scored.

Alyssa Brito and [autotag]Grace Lyons[/autotag] each had multi-hit games in the Sooners win over the Baylor Bears.

The Sooners improved to 10-0 in Big 12 play and after Oklahoma State’s loss to Texas earlier, the Sooners now have a two-game lead for first place in the Big 12. Baylor fell to 4-6 in conference play.

The two sides meet up again at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday. Game two of the series can be seen on ESPN+.

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Updated Big 12 standings: Sooners only unbeaten team in Big 12 play after weekend’s upsets

Oklahoma remains the only unbeaten team in conference play after Oklahoma State dropped their Sunday matchup to last place Iowa State.

The Big 12’s bottom three teams, Texas Tech, Kansas and Iowa State were able to take a game from the teams that are two through four in the standings: Oklahoma State, Texas and Baylor.

Though each of the favorites earned series wins, it was surprising to see Iowa State take a game from Oklahoma State in extra innings and Kansas beat Texas by six runs.

Oklahoma State’s extra-inning loss to Iowa State prevented the Cowgirls from keeping pace with the Sooners and holding a four-game lead on the Texas Longhorns. Instead, the loss set up an opportunity for the Longhorns to catch the Cowgirls this weekend in their three-game series in Austin.

With less than a month to go in the regular season, here’s a look at the Big 12 standings ahead of some big-time matchups in conference play.

Updated Big 12 standings: Sooners sweep Texas Tech, Oklahoma State continues to roll

The Oklahoma Sooners continued to roll in Big 12 play, Baylor beat No. 4/5 Tennessee twice. Here’s an updated look at the Big 12 standings

The top four teams in the Big 12 had quite the weekend. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas each went 3-0 in Big 12 play, while the Baylor Bears went 3-0 with a pair of top 5 wins over Tennessee.

There’s still much to be determined in the conference landscape, but Oklahoma and Oklahoma State appear on a collision course to decide the Big 12 regular season championship. Again.

Oklahoma State biggest conference challenge remaining is Texas, and the Sooners still have to face Baylor, the only team to beat Oklahoma this season. However, with the way these two programs are performing on the diamond, it feels like an inevitability that the in-state rivals will contend with each other for the Big 12 title.

With week three of conference play in the books, let’s take a look at the up-to-date Big 12 standings and what’s on the horizon for each program.

Updated look at the Big 12 standings after Oklahoma’s sweep of Texas

An updated look at the Big 12 standings heading into week three of conference play.

Week two of conference play is behind us, and the Oklahoma Sooners are beginning to separate themselves from the pack after their three-game sweep of the Texas Longhorns.

The series sweep of Texas put the Sooners in the driver’s seat in the conference and put a sizable gap between them and their Red River rival. The Longhorns would need some help to get back into the Big 12 regular season title race.

With Oklahoma State on a bye last week, the Sooners are 1.5 games up on the Cowgirls in the standings but hold three more wins currently.

There’s a clear top three teams in the conference with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas.

Here’s a look at the latest Big 12 standings heading into week three of Big 12 play.

Big 12 Softball standings after first weekend of conference play

Taking a look at the updated Big 12 standings and what’s on deck for the conference this weekend.

The first weekend of Big 12 play saw the top of the conference hold serve as Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas each pulled off three-game sweeps on the opening weekend of Big 12 play.

There were a few tight ball games in Austin, Ames, and Stillwater, but the talent among the teams ranked in the top 10 was too much for Baylor, Texas Tech, and Iowa State, who dropped to 0-3 in Big 12 play.

This week features more intriguing matchups, headlined by the top 10 clash between Oklahoma and Texas. The Red River Rivals will meet at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in a rematch of last year’s Women’s College World Series championship.

Here’s a look at the updated standings ahead of week two in Big 12 play.

Big 12 softball standings ahead of conference opening weekend

A look at where the Big 12 stands ahead of the start of conference play this weekend.

The Oklahoma Sooners completed the nonconference portion of their schedule with a 5-0 weekend at the Hall of Fame Classic. At 27-1, and in the middle of a 19-game winning streak, the Sooners are playing some great softball.

In recent weeks, the Sooners have picked up big wins over top 10 opponents like UCLA and Florida State. Heading into Big 12 play, Oklahoma remains the favorite in the conference, but several challengers have emerged that could derail their title hopes.

Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor have had strong starts to the season and will be on the Sooners’ heels in the push to the Women’s College World Series.

Here’s a look at where the teams stand ahead of Big 12’s opening weekend.