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Patty Gasso has coached for 30 seasons, and this year, she led the Oklahoma Sooners women’s softball team to their eighth National Championship and fourth in a row. No team had won four consecutive titles before: UCLA had won three straight in the late 1980s.

At the end of it all, she said this was the hardest one yet. Gasso said of her ’24 team, “The thing about them is they're resilient. They have a lot of pride in that. With that, it's hard for me to comprehend. I continue to say this (season) was the hardest to manage.”

She didn’t elaborate much beyond that at the moment: Maybe it was just a sigh of relief from the stress and pressure from the hopes and expectations of everyone who followed the team and women’s college softball. From the beginning of the season, there was that question: could Oklahoma do what no Women’s Division 1 team had done and win a fourth straight title?

Turns out, they could.

Taking it all...again.

They finished in convincing style, sweeping the Texas Longhorns in the championship series, winning the two games by scores of 8-3 and 8-4. Pitcher ˚Kelly Maxwell, a transfer from rival Oklahoma State, went 5-0 in the WCWS with two saves and a 1.88 ERA. She was named the WCWS Most Outstanding Player.

The Sooners made it look easy at the end, but this season was more challenging than the players and Gasso expected.

Here’s a look at what the Sooners accomplished along their 2024 journey:

• The team entered the season after a tremendously successful 2023. They went 61-1, were 18-0 in the Big 12, and beat Florida State to win the National Title.
• The Sooners started the ’24 season 18-0. On March 3, Louisiana defeated Oklahoma 7-5, snapping the Sooners' 71-game winning streak. It took the Ragin’ Cajuns extra innings to do it. Oklahoma scored the tying runs in the 7th, but Louisiana fought back to win in eight innings.
• Arizona had the previous record of 47 straight victories (the Sooners beat that by 24 wins). The Sooners claim four of the five longest winning streaks in Division 1 play. They won 14 of their last 15 games and breezed through the Women’s Tournament undefeated to take the title.
• Oklahoma State won two of three games over the Sooners in the Bedlam Series in Norman. The Sooners finished second in the Big 12 behind Texas for the first time in over a decade.
• Oklahoma ended the season with a 46-6 record and was the fourth-seeded team heading into the NCCA tournament.

An impressive four-year run!

The Oklahoma Sooners have been dominant over the past four years on their way to four consecutive titles. Take a look at what the Sooners achieved over that span:

• They had a won/loss record of 235 – 15, for a 94% winning percentage.
• The Sooners amassed 114 shutout wins over their opponents during that stretch.
• 131 victories (56% of their wins) came via the run-rule.
• They did lose one game due to the run rule.
• They had a record of 201-0 when leading by more than four runs.
• Over the four-year stretch, they achieved the highest winning percentage in Division 1 history.

Looking ahead.

Gasso now has seven NCAA titles to her credit, one behind Mike Candrea of Arizona, who retired in 2021. The team achieved its eighth National Title, tying Arizona. Only UCLA, with 12 championships, is ahead of them.

Gasso is losing ten seniors from the current squad, one from practically every position. They’ll be returning 11 players (unless one exits through the portal) and bringing in a talented group of recruits who will be eager to go for consecutive title number five.

Resources: wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Oklahoma_Sooners_softball_team; oudaily.com/sports/sooners-defeat-texas-win-fourth-straight-national-championship; si.com/college/2024/03/03/oklahoma-softball-team-ncaa-record-71-game-winning-streak; oklahoman.com/story/oklahoma-texas-ncaa-softball-tournament-womens-college-world-series; oklahoma.rivals.com/news/top-takeaways; flosoftball.com/college-softball-mercy