After tying its series with No. 1 Oklahoma at one game apiece in dramatic fashion last night, No. 5 Texas beat OU again this afternoon to claim the series, two games to one. Both Longhorn wins were by a 2-1 score, after the Sooners had taken the opener, 5-2. According to this article , "The series loss in the Red River Rivalry was OU’s first conference series defeat since losing to Missouri in 2011, and the first series the Sooners dropped to Texas since 2009." The key hit of today's game was a two-run blast by UT's Katie Stewart in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1 ( video ). In the top of the seventh, after the first two Sooners were retired, there was a whisper of OU's patented two-out magic, with Tiare Jennings stroking a single up the middle. However, Alyssa Brito popped up to short. Two other series this weekend featured Top 10 matchups. No. 4 Tennessee (ESPN/USA Softball poll) beat No. 3 Georgia 3-1 this afternoon to win two of three over the Bulldo

No. 1 Oklahoma, which rarely loses (one loss all of last season and one loss so far this season), will now be batting in the top of the seventh, trailing No. 5 Texas, 2-1, on ESPN. It looked like the Longhorns had scored a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-1 but, as described below, a Texas baserunning error negated the two runs. Longhorns' center-fielder Kayden Henry makes an amazing catch ( video ), rushing in on a hard, but rapidly sinking, liner for the first out of the seventh inning... Ground-out to third for second out... 0-2 count on Kinzie Hansen... Hansen singles up the middle on 1-2 count... Pinch-runner to first... Rylie Boone up... Boone drives one over the center-fielder's head, giving Sooners a chance to score the tying run... Strong throw and relay to plate allow catcher to tag OU runner out ( video )... Oklahoma claims obstruction by catcher, but umps uphold original call of "out," ending the game. What a dramatic finish,

The Pacific 12's motto " Conference of Champions " has applied particularly well to softball. Member schools have captured 24 (UCLA 12, Arizona 8, ASU 2, Cal 1, Washington 1) of the 40 NCAA titles awarded in the sport.  However, the 2024 Pac 12 season, which begins this weekend, will be the last.* UCLA, Washington, Oregon, and (non-softball) USC will be leaving for the Big Ten; Arizona, ASU, Utah, and (non-softball) Colorado will head to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal will join the Atlantic Coast Conference. Oregon State will be the only remaining softball school, as Washington State does not field a team in the sport. As shown in the following graph, the three teams going to the Big Ten (UCLA, Washington, and Oregon) were consistently among the best in the Pac 12 over the past decade, with the exception of a Duck downturn when Coach Mike White moved to the University of Texas (the grey bar denotes the cancelled COVID-19 season in 2020). Stanford and Utah have been r

Oklahoma's enormously long winning streak had to end sometime. However, it seemed unlikely that an opponent with a losing record would be the one to knock off the Sooners. So is the mystery of sports that Louisiana-Lafayette, which brought a 9-12 record into today's game with OU, would do the unthinkable. The final score was 7-5 Ragin' Cajuns, in eight innings, ending the Sooners' win streak at 71 games ( box score ). ULL led 4-2 as OU came up in the bottom of the seventh. The Sooners quickly found themselves with two out and a runner on second. Oklahoma had been in precarious spots before during this streak, but always managed to pull through. Lightning struck again today -- for a while at least -- as OU put together two singles (the latter with an ULL error added on) to tie the game ( video ).  In the past, Oklahoma would have shut ULL down in the top of the eighth and scored the winning run in the bottom half. Not today. A single, OU error, and another single loaded

Oklahoma-transfer Jordy Bahl announced that she injured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her first game pitching for Nebraska and will redshirt this season. Best wishes to her for a full recovery!

SATURDAY Texas won its second game vs. UCLA a little more decisively than it won its first contest with the Bruins -- 16-0 . Kentucky defeated No. 3 Stanford for the second day in a row, but the Wildcats fell to San Diego State later in the day. Texas Tech dropped a heartbreaker at Florida State, as the Seminoles scored two in the bottom of the seventh for a 9-8 victory. FSU trailed 8-7 with two on and two out in the bottom of the seventh before getting a walk to load the bases and a two-run single to finish it off ( video ).  Michigan earned one of its best wins in a while by edging No. 18 Florida , 2-1. FRIDAY No. 1 Oklahoma had a close call with No. 10 Washington Friday night. The Sooners scored a single run in the top of the sixth to tie the game and a go-ahead run in the eighth, en route to a 4-3 victory over the Huskies in the Puerto Vallarta tournament. No. 5 Texas has held off No. 8 UCLA by a 3-2 score Friday night in Los Angeles. The Longhorns led 3-0 going into the botto