This team is historically good and making everyone look foolish.
The Sooners won’t just beat you, they will destroy you. In the span of a Thanos snap Oklahoma softball will turn your team to dust, make you question not only why you stepped on the field against them, but why you contemplated taking up competitive sports all together.
Normally that kind of overwrought hyperbole deserves to be laughed at, but when it comes to the Sooners it’s deserved. We are witnessing one of the most dominant teams in the history of any sport, and they’re making a mockery of the entire competitive process. On Thursday Oklahoma entered the College World Series against No. 9 Northwestern, and the Wildcats couldn’t even make it an entire game. They were saved from the Sooners’ wrath after five innings by the NCAA’s “mercy rule.” They were losing 13-2 at the time.
As it stands the Sooners have an unfathomable record of 55-2. Their only two losses came on short rest against ranked teams Texas and Oklahoma State. The Sooners’ .965 win percentage is the greatest in NCAA softball history, passing the legendary 1997 Arizona Wildcats, who finished the season 61-5 and National Champions.
If Oklahoma continues on its tear (and there’s no reason to expect they won’t) they will have cemented themselves in the record books with one of the most unbeatable records of all time.
So, on any given day you walk on the field with roughly a 3 percent chance of winning. Remember when I said you’re more likely to be embarrassed by them? This is quantifiable. A total of 35 of Oklahoma’s wins have ended due to the mercy rule. This is triggered when a team is up by eight runs after five innings. This means that when you see Oklahoma on your schedule and you decide to put on the uniform, there’s a 61.4 percent chance you’re going to lose to the mercy rule.
The Sooners don’t just squeak over this line either. It’s not like they’re hitting 8-0 and getting an early break. Even the most staunch opponents of the idea of “mercy” in team sports have to admit that some of these games were ludicrously out of hand.
There are just the most dominant wins. The Sooners schedule is littered with huge mercy rule wins in games that were never close from the opening pitch.
Simply put, everything. The Sooners lead the NCAA in team batting average with .369. Three members of their lineup are batting better than .400. Three players are in the Top 15 in the country in home runs.
Oklahoma’s batting is so dominant that they’ve scored an NCAA-leading 515 runs, a full hundred more than second place Wichita State — and remember, 35 of their games ended early. As ridiculous as those batting figures are, they pale in comparison to the team’s pitching.
As a team Oklahoma has an ERA of 0.80. The Sooners have only given up 37 earned runs all year. Ranked by ERA this team has THREE pitchers in the Top 5.
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It’s that first name, Hope Trautwein that deserves special discussion. Trautwein already holds an NCAA record with a 21 strikeout perfect game that she pitched for North Texas in 2021, and following the season she transferred to Oklahoma.
Trautwein moving to the Sooners took this team from great, to absolutely unfair. She’s more or less unhittable, allowing just 39 hits this season in 104 innings pitched — and she’s one of three aces the Sooners have.
Then, you have fielding, which ... you guessed it, the Sooners are incredible at as well. Their .977 fielding percentage is 13th in the NCAA, and only five teams have committed fewer errors.
This all combines into a scenario that’s pretty easy to understand: Oklahoma will smack you all over the park, you won’t score against them, and if you’re lucky enough to get a hit — they won’t grace you with a mistake.
Oklahoma plays Texas in their next game in the college world series on Saturday, June 4 at 2 p.m. on ABC.
The teams met three times in 2022, with the Sooners holding a 2-1 advantage, with one of their only losses coming against the Longhorns. It should be noted, however, they Texas also suffered a mercy rule loss to Oklahoma in a 9-1 beatdown.
Should the Sooners win, they would then face UCLA for the first time, or Texas or Northwestern again, due to the CWS’ double elimination format before heading to the best of three.
Oklahoma is unquestionably the favorite to win the National Championship this year, and cement themselves as not just the best college softball team of all time, but one of the most dominant teams in sporting history.
