Oklahoma Softball: Sooners Prepared for Emotional Bedlam Bout

Expect emotions to run high this weekend in Bedlam.

The No. 1-ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the No. 7 Oklahoma State Cowgirls will have more than just bragging rights on the line again this year, as the regular season finale will also serve as the deciding series for the Big 12 regular season title.

But neither program is a stranger to the stakes at hand this weekend.

Last year, the Sooners and the Cowgirls met in Stillwater in the exact same scenario.

Kenny Gajewski's team topped OU for the first time since 2011 in Game 1 of the Bedlam series last year, but the Cowgirls were unable to come away with the series win, dropping the final two outings on their home field.

This year, to break thorough Oklahoma’s Big 12 stranglehold, Oklahoma State will have to win two of three at Marita Hynes Field.

The home crowd will add even more win to OU’s sails, but it’s an emotional charge that the Sooners believe they are prepared for.

“I’m excited to see how we respond in front of our home crowd because last year we were away at Bedlam,” Oklahoma second baseman Tiare Jennings said in a Zoom press conference on Tuesday. “… I think it's just gonna be a dogfight and these series are kind of what makes us who we are. Big time players step up in big time situations.”

A year ago, the Sooners had to deal with the emotions of coming from behind in the Bedlam series for the first time in over a decade. And while OU was able to rebound and notch victories in the final to games of the series, the contests weren’t without tense and chippy moments.

“I guess you could call it chippy just in the way of one particular situation at third base,” OU head coach Patty Gasso said Tuesday. “And there's so much at stake that the emotions are high. And so there'll be a lot of celebrations from one side or the other.”

Jayda Coleman the GOAT pic.twitter.com/acmpW3lS9A
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But that fire is far from a bad thing. The stakes involved this weekend and the raw emotion that comes with it from both sides will be what makes these Bedlam battles so memorable, Gasso said.

“When two teams are intensely trying to win a championship there's a lot of emotion,” she said. “But as a player, as a coach, emotion is fun. That is what it's about. These are games that you live for.

“We don't live for run rule games. We don’t.”

No matter who will end up posting with the Big 12 Championship trophy on Saturday, both of the squads will exit Marita Hynes Field better prepared for the postseason road ahead — one that both programs hope will start at Hall of Fame Stadium with the Big 12 Tournament and end in the same venue for the Women’s College World Series.

“This game, regardless of outcome, is going to make us better and prepare us for the Big 12 tournament, prepare us for postseason,” Gasso said. “And I would think that Oklahoma State could say the same. So anything that can help make us better on our road to winning a Big 12 regular season, Big 12 Tournament championship, but ultimately winning a national championship.

“Any games that we can play that can help us and lead us to get there is what we're looking for. And that's definitely what this weekend with is going to feel like.”

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