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Oklahoma

Oklahoma softball sets all-time NCAA record with 48th straight win

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•05/27/23
Oklahoma Softball
The Oklahoma softball team celebrates at the plate during a game on May 19, 2023. (Sarah Phipps / USA TODAY Sports)

The 2023 Oklahoma Sooners just keep smashing records. After throttling Clemson in a 2-0 sweep at this weekend’s Super Regional round in Norman, OU Softball is officially headed back to the College World Series. But in a year full of historic feats, Saturday’s win may have a special page reserved in the Sooner record books. In their final postseason game at the legendary Marita Hynes Field, Oklahoma won their 48th straight game this season, which sets an NCAA record for number of wins in a row in the history of the sport of softball.

That’s a heck of an afternoon, isn’t it? Oklahoma got to bid their stadium a final farewell in the postseason by winning a Super Regional while also smashing an NCAA record for consecutive victories. It really doesn’t get much better than that and you’d be hard pressed to find an on-campus college softball game that has ever possessed such importance.

As for the game itself, Oklahoma wasted no time getting a handle in their second meeting with Clemson. The day before featured a slightly out-of-character performance for OU, especially with the defensive errors, but they got back to their domineering ways during the first at bat of Saturday’s win.

Jayda Coleman sent a solo shot to dead center to get Oklahoma on the board in the opening swing of the ball game, and she was followed by Tiare Jennings, who clocked her own home run over the right field wall to make it two runs after two batters. Clemson would battle back and even take a commanding 7-4 lead late in the game to put the Sooners on the brink.

But by what seemed like divine intervention, in the top of the seventh inning, with the Sooners down to their final strike, with two runners on base, Kinzie Hansen blasted a three-run homer to tie the game 7-7 and keep the winning streak alive.

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The Sooners would surge ahead in the ninth inning after a scoreless eighth.

Second baseman Tiare Jennings put Oklahoma up 8-7 with a solo bomb to center field to lead off the ninth inning. The Sooners then turned to pitcher Jordy Bahl to close things out in the bottom of the ninth, and she did just that to make history.

What a day and what an achievement for Oklahoma breaking the 26-year-old record which was previously held by Arizona, who won 47 straight games between the 1996 and 1997 seasons. However, behind that streak, Oklahoma already held the second, third and fourth-longest winning streaks — and they now hold the No. 1, 3, 4 and 5 spots. Take a look:

Top five winning streaks in NCAA Softball history

  1. 48: Oklahoma, 2023
  2. 47: Arizona, 1996-97
  3. 41: Oklahoma, 2019
  4. 40: Oklahoma, 2021-22
  5. 40: Oklahoma, 2020-21

What more can be said? Oklahoma is absolutely dominating softball at the college level. They just set the record for wins en route to possibly winning their third straight national championship. It’s almost scary how superior the Sooners have been to every other program in the country — they are lapping the field at this point. Another title here in a few weeks would only further hammer home that point to the rest of the country.