Patty Gasso reacts to reaching historic 50-game win streak, focused on WCWS title

Oklahoma had already broken the record for longest winning streak prior to Saturday’s game, but the Sooners reached another accomplishment with their 9-0 win over Tennessee. Patty Gasso’s squad have now won 50 straight games.

But for Gasso, winning 50 in a row doesn’t matter to her.

“Nope,” Gasso said. “It means we’re winning a lot of games. But I’ll say it again. Nobody seems to want to believe what I’m saying. We don’t talk about it. We don’t. We really don’t. Because what we want to do is bring a national championship back to the University of Oklahoma and the state of Oklahoma because that will never be taken away from us. You can never take that away. It will live forever.”

The dominant victory over the Volunteers was the 34th shutout of the season for Oklahoma, breaking the program record. The previous record was set last year.

Jordy Bahl earned the victory after pitching 3.2 innings with only one hit and one walk allowed. Gasso then used her other three pitcher to close out the game.

It was the first time Tennessee has been shutout all season.

The Sooners now had an off day as they have made the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series for the seventh consecutive season. They will play the winner of Sunday’s elimination game between Stanford and Washington.

Oklahoma has been the home of many record breakers over the years. Just last year, two-time National Player of the Year Jocelyn Alo broke the all-time career home run record.

The previous record holder was another Sooners alum, Lauren Chamberlain.

Gasso has seen the records rise and fall. She knows many of them won’t last. But there is something the 2023 Sooners can accomplish that they guarantee can last forever.

“But I do know ’cause I’ve been in a lot of these races where there’s a lot of records that people are breaking,” Gasso said. “Will Alo’s home run record live forever? I doubt it. I don’t think so. I thought no one would break Lauren’s. No one thought Stacey Nuveman’s would break.

“Records are being broken all the time. It’s an honor. I had a conversation with Mike Candrea, which was really wonderful. We connected throughout the season. He’s just very congratulatory. That is great. But it’s just moving on. It’s taking things home that no one can take away. That’s what we’re about.”