Oklahoma Softball: More Than Bragging Rights are Again on the Line in Bedlam

The eyes of the softball world are on a top 10 battle in the Sooner State that will decide the Big 12 Regular Season Championship.

Postseason play has arrived a weekend early in Oklahoma.

Well, Bedlam will at least feel like a postseason matchup.

The No. 1-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the No. 7 Oklahoma State Cowgirls are set to battle on the final weekend of the regular season, but this 2022 Bedlam bout has all the makings of a postseason slugfest.

For the second straight year, the winner of the Bedlam series will capture the Big 12 regular season crown and take the top seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament, something the Sooners (45-1 overall, 14-1 in Big 12 play) have accomplished in nine straight seasons.

Standing in its way, OU will have to again top their in-state rivals in the Cowgirls (38-9, 14-1) who have once again matched the Sooners blow for blow in conference play.

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When, How to Watch:

• Game 1: Thursday, 7 p.m., ESPN

• Game 2: Friday, 6 p.m., ESPN2

• Game 3: Saturday, 4 p.m., ESPNU

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“They’re a strong team and I’m just excited to compete in the atmosphere,” OU sophomore second baseman Tiare Jennings said during a Zoom press conference on Tuesday. “Bedlam is just so amazing and so fun that I think just the competitive spirit, you feel it.

“So I think Bedlam is going to be a good one. It’s just going to be a dogfight.”

Clutch hitting helped provide run support to the pitching staff, helping propel the Cowgirls over the Sooners in Game 1 of the series last year, and Oklahoma State will need its bats to rise to the occasion again to topple OU in Norman.

“We’re very much alike in the way of just — they’ve got power,” Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso said on Tuesday. “They’ve got speed on the base paths. They’ve got power at the plate. They’ve got playmakers offensively.”

As a team this year, the Cowgirls enter the series with the 44th best batting average in the country (.299) and Oklahoma State is ranked No. 26 in home runs per game (1.30). Oklahoma leads the nation in both categories, entering the weekend with a team batting average of .379 while launching 2.52 home runs per game.

OSU will have a major question mark surrounding one of its veteran leaders, however.

Texas transfer Miranda Elish exited a contest against her former team in the Longhorns on April 23 with an apparent injury.

The Cowgirl star only played in one of Oklahoma State’s two contests against Florida State last weekend, only entering the game as a batter in the second game against the Seminoles without throwing any pitches from the circle.

Elish leads OSU in batting average, though her current mark of .378 on the year would rank seventh for the Sooners behind Jocelyn Alo, Grace Lyons, Rylie Boone, Jayda Coleman, Taylon Snow and Jennings.

Sydney Pennington, Chyenne Factor and Julia Cottrill are all tied for Oklahoma State’s lead in home runs this year, as all three Cowgirls have launched 10 bombs on the season so far.

Last year’s Bedlam hero for OSU, Hayley Busby, only has four home runs on a .235 batting average so far this season, but Busby hit the go-ahead home run that helped end OSU’s near decade-long losing streak to the Sooners.

True freshman pitcher Jordy Bahl will be tasked by Gasso to help shut down Oklahoma State’s lineup.

Entering her first Bedlam experience, Bahl ranks eighth in the country in earned run average, and is ranked 13th in the country averaging 11.1 strikeouts per seven innings.

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Read More Bedlam Softball:

• Sooners Prepared for Emotional Bedlam Bout

• This Weekend's Bedlam Spectacle is a Showcase for the Entire State

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The Sooners are far from a one-woman show in the circle, as Hope Trautwein leads softball with an astonishing 0.09 ERA, and Nicole May currently sits sixth in the nation with a 0.84 ERA.

The battle in the circle will take center stage all weekend, as the Cowgirl pitching staff is once again the strength of their team.

“Very good pitching,” Gasso said. “… Their defense has shown to be very solid. Their pitching staff has been outstanding.”

Kelly Maxwell has taken another step forward on the mound to lead the Oklahoma State staff.

The redshirt junior’s ERA of 1.04 ranks ninth in the country, and Maxwell is second in the nation averaging 12.1 strikeouts per seven innings.

But while Maxwell has anchored the OSU staff this year, Oklahoma has had plenty of success off of her in the past.

In 6 1/3 innings of action against the Sooners in 2021, Maxwell surrendered seven runs on 11 hits, striking out eight Oklahoma batters while allowing six walks.

Oklahoma didn’t hit any home runs off of Maxwell, but OU’s continually made solid contact off the Cowgirl pitcher to plate plenty of runs.

Alo went 3-of-4 last year against Maxwell with three RBIs, as the Sooner slugger had little problem finding gaps off of Maxwell’s delivery.

On top of Alo continuing her excellent play, Lyons, Lynnsie Elam and Alyssa Brito are also enjoying career years at the plate. 

Lyons is third on the team in home runs with 17, and Elam and Brito have also rocketed 13 homers for the Sooners this year, meaning the Cowgirl pitchers will have to be weary of OU's game changing power from every spot in the lineup. 

Elish rallied from a slow start as Oklahoma State’s other weapon in the circle this year, but it’s unclear if she will be cleared to pitch in the series. So far in 2022, Elish has a 2.09 ERA, and is allowing opposing lineups to hit .201 off of her.

If Elish is unable to give it a go in the circle, OSU head coach Kenny Gajewski will have to turn to Morgan Day, who has a 2.40 ERA on the year.

The series is likely to be won in the margins, which is something Gasso often preaches ahead of Oklahoma’s massive tilts.

Across Oklahoma’s three victories over the Cowgirls a year ago, OSU committed six defensive errors to OU’s two, something else each defense will have to be on top of in an emotionally charged atmosphere.

The weekend’s Bedlam spectacle will more resemble Super Regional action than a regular season series, something neither team is going to shy away from.

“When you look at a lot of our numbers and comparisons,” said Gasso, “there’s a reason why this is gonna be a good matchup because these two teams are pretty equal in a lot of ways.”

Both sides will get their chance to strike an early blow on Thursday. The first game of this year's series is scheduled for 7 p.m. from Marita Hynes Field, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN. 

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