University of Oklahoma’s Softball Dominance

Samanyu Ram

June 10, 2022

The University of Oklahoma just had a historic season in which they won the 2022 NCAA Division I Softball Women's College World Series. This accomplishment is tremendous, but how great was this team really?

To start off, let’s look at their record. The Oklahoma Sooners finished the year going 59-3 in wins and losses. They did not lose a single home game all season and went 17-1 in conference play. This is unheard of as the last team to lose as many games as the Sooner did this season was the University of Arizona in 1994 with a record of 64-3. They won 40 out of their 62 games by mercy rule. This means they are beating their opponents by eight or more runs in five innings or later. The game automatically ends and the winning team is given the win by mercy rule. Oklahoma achieved this six times against nationally ranked, top 25 teams, and two of these wins being in the World Series. To cap it off, they beat their last opponent, UT Austin 16-1 in their first game and 10-5 in their second game to win it all.

Now, let’s look at the stats. As a team, Oklahoma had the highest batting average out of any D1 softball program at 0.370. This means that out of five batters, about two of them would get a hit every time. Also, Oklahoma, as a team, had the lowest Earned Run Average in College Softball. Opposing teams, on average, would score less than a run per game against this team, with their ERA being 0.97. The Sooners’ best hitter, Jocelyn Alo was second in the country for batting average at 0.519. This means that if she had two plate appearances in a game, she would get a hit at least one out of those two. This team also had three pitchers post a sub 1.5 ERA with their best pitcher, Hope Trautwein, posting a 0.61 ERA. To top it all off, Oklahoma hit 153 home runs this season, 30 home runs more than second place.

This team didn’t just win the College World Series for Division 1 Softball, they also dominated the whole college softball scene in the process. The Sooners, this season, displayed a sense of dominance that has not been seen in college softball for decades. From winning 59 games, to having a sub one earned run average, to defeating number 16 ranked UT Austin in the 2022 NCAA Division I Softball Women's College World Series, this Oklahoma team was legendary.