Oklahoma Heads to Texas With the Present — and Future

Ella Parker was a wide-eyed freshman when Oklahoma visited Texas in April 2024.

Parker’s only real road experiences to that point in her career were at Texas Tech and Kansas, two teams the Sooners swept by a combined score of 70-7.

Oklahoma dropped that series in Austin, losing two of three to drop their first back-to-back games in more than four years and their first conference series in 13.

That experience, though, helped the Sooners go on to win their fourth consecutive Women’s College World Series title.

“That was my first sense of almost what I would feel at a World Series so being able to experience that before the World Series was really cool and I feel like just knowing that that environment prepared me for other series to come,” Parker said. “The energy is insane, it’s really loud and yes, definitely prepared me for another series.”

Parker and the second-ranked Sooners (38-3, 11-1 SEC) make their first appearance in Austin since that series two seasons ago with a three-game series at Red & Charline McCombs Field beginning at 6 p.m. Friday.

“This is really important for me to see how tough we are, because this is not an easy environment,” Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said. “This will be the toughest place that we have played. We played at LSU. This is different. … You’ve got to let it fuel you. That’s what I love.”

How to Watch Oklahoma at Texas

Game 1: 6 p.m. Friday, ESPN2
Game 2: 7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN
Game 3: 1 p.m. Sunday, ESPN

In practices this week, the Sooners played plenty of loud noise over the Love’s Field speaker system to try to replicate what they’ll face in Austin.

“Would you rather play in sounds, whether they’re for you or against you, but it’s loud, or just play with no sounds around you?,” Gasso said. “Adrenaline is in that game for both sides. So can we contain ourselves? Can we stay forced? If we make a mistake, we’ve got to be able to rebound quickly and not let it simmer and affect the way we do things going forward.”

Only three players remain on OU’s roster who played during their last trip to Texas — Parker, Kasidi Pickering and Kierston Deal.

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Parker and Pickering went a combined 4-of-14 at the plate in that series, with Parker delivering a solo home run in the Sooners’ eventual 2-1 loss in the series finale.

But the two freshmen bounced back in a big way two months later when the teams met in the WCWS Championship Series, going 6-of-15 with four runs and four RBIs in Oklahoma’s sweep.

Pickering homered in each game.

With the Sooners relying on a handful of freshmen this season — Kendall Wells, Kai Minor, Allyssa Parker and Lexi McDaniel among them — this weekend’s series is not only important for the present but also for what the Sooners face down the road.

“We talked about just not letting this moment become too big,” Parker said. “We’re just going to go out and play our game and play the best we can and just have fun with it.”