Oklahoma's Women's College World Series Streak on the Line After Improbable Loss in Super Regional

NORMAN — After Friday's stunning 11-9 loss to Mississippi State, Oklahoma has to wrestle with a sobering fact.

With another loss in the best-of-three Super Regional against the Bulldogs at Love's Field, the Sooners would miss the Women's College World Series for the first time since 2015.

“It’s not anything unusual,” Sooners coach Patty Gasso said of her team being up against the wall. “It’s just one of those things that happens. But in life things don’t go well, what are you going to do about it? You either surrender or you step up and you say, ‘I’m going to make this right.’

“And so we’re going to woman up and give the Sooners fans and our program everything we have.”

Oklahoma will take on Mississippi State at noon Saturday needing a win to force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday for a WCWS berth.

The Sooners lost Friday despite leading 5-1 after three and 9-6 after six.

How stunning was Oklahoma’s loss?

The Sooners had won 250 consecutive games when scoring nine or more runs in a game.

Their last such loss came more than a decade ago — March 16, 2016 in a 12-10 loss to Minnesota.

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Gasso addressed the situation with the team immediately following Friday’s loss.

“We’ve already had that conversation,” she said during the postgame press conference. “They know exactly what we need to do, so it was short and sweet and to the point. They understand it. We’re all on the same page here.”

The good news for the Sooners is that there is plenty of precedent for teams dropping the opening game of a Super Regional before bouncing back to win back-to-back contests to advance to the WCWS.

In each of the last two tournaments, three teams have done it — Tennessee, Texas and UCLA last season and Alabama, Stanford and Texas in 2024.

Since the Super Regional format began in 2005, 34 teams have advanced to the WCWS after dropping their opening game of the Super Regional.

There have been only three tournaments where at least one team didn’t go that route to advance.

Oklahoma has been on the wrong side of two of those 34 instances.

In 2010, the Sooners beat Washington 6-1 in the Super Regional opener in Seattle before dropping the second game 3-0 and the third 4-0.

In 2015, Oklahoma knocked off Alabama 5-2 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., before falling 2-0 in the second game and 5-3.

That second loss to the Crimson Tide was Oklahoma’s last Super Regional loss before Friday’s stunner.

Friday’s loss snapped an 18-game winning streak in the Super Regional round.

Oklahoma is just 2-5 all-time when facing elimination in a Super Regional.

While the odds may not be great, they also aren’t daunting.

The Sooners lost back-to-back games just once this season — April 12 to Texas and April 15 to Oklahoma State.

“We understand what’s at stake, and we’re going to be ready to make this right,” Gasso said.

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