🥎 OU opens regionals without Bahl
🥎 OU opens regionals without Bahl
Oklahoma will be without its ace this weekend as NCAA regional play begins in Norman.
✌🏽 Happy Friday, friends. Let’s ride.
📖 Word count: 743 (About five minutes)
📱 Follow Eyes on Oklahoma on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
🥎 Hello, postseason
The NCAA softball tournament returns to Norman this weekend with the top-seeded Sooners hosting Minnesota, Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M.
OU is the heavy favorite to come out of its regional site, but the Sooners will be without their star freshman pitcher.
Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso listed Jordy Bahl as “day to day” when talking with reporters on Tuesday. She later went on the Oklahoma Breakdown podcast and revealed Bahl suffered a forearm fracture and will be out for the weekend.
The Sooners will lean on Hope Trautwein, Nicole May and perhaps Macy McAdoo in the circle.
“We've got three pitchers that can handle the business on the mound with an offense that can score them runs and a defense that's been the hottest as of late than they have all season,” Gasso said. “We don't have to depend on pitchers throwing shutouts. Last year, it became a hitter's team. We were trying to out-hit teams. And I don't foresee us having to handle those types of things this weekend.”
Eyes on Oklahoma will have complete coverage of this weekend’s events.
Here is the schedule:
Friday, May 20 (all times in CT)
Game 1: Minnesota vs. Texas A&M (ESPN2), 4 p.m.
Game 2: Oklahoma vs. Prairie View A&M (ESPN+), 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 21
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (TV TBD, ESPN Networks), 1 p.m.
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser (TV TBD, ESPN Networks), 3:30 PM
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser (TV TBD, ESPN Networks), 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 22
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner (TV TBD, ESPN Networks), 1 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (TV TBD, ESPN Networks), 3:30 p.m.
🎾 Among the elite
Oklahoma women’s tennis will compete in the Elite Eight tonight against Texas A&M, and it’s the first time in program history the Sooners have made it this far in the NCAA tournament.
Eyes on Oklahoma took a look at the program’s rise from a perennial middle-of-the-pack squad to one of the nation’s best.
It all starts with Audra Cohen, who has transformed OU women’s tennis into the school’s newest juggernaut.
🚨 New pod
We have a good, old-fashioned beef between Alabama coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher. Sean Forster, my former podcast host of The C3 Show fame, and I caught up to discuss the wild events around Saban alleging Fisher’s program is paying for recruits and what the future of name, image and likeness holds in the latest Eyes on Oklahoma podcast episode. Click here to listen or watch it on YouTube.
Where you can subscribe to the Eyes on Oklahoma podcast:
🏟 Around campus
⛳️ OU men punch ticket to NCAA Championship: The Sooners posted the top score at the NCAA Norman Regional this week. Led by three top-five individual finishes, the OU men's golf team led the field by 10 shots to secure their spot at the NCAA's national championship event in Scottsdale, Arizona, later this month.
⚾️ Sooners inch closer to Big 12 crown: OU baseball won its series opener against Texas Tech 13-8 on Thursday. If OU wins its next two against the Red Raiders, it will claim a share of the Big 12 regular season title with TCU. (Read more at soonersports.com)
🥎 Softball project receives gift: Robyn and Mike Batson have pledged $1 million to the OU softball program. The gift will go toward constructing Love's Field. The new stadium, set to hold 3,000 spectators, is expected to break ground this year and be ready for the Sooners' 2024 campaign.
🏀 OU men to face familiar foe in Big 12-Big East Battle: The Sooners will travel to Villanova for next season's Big 12-Big East Battle series. The Sooners and Wildcats, who last saw each other in the 2016 Final Four, will face off on Dec. 3.
🏀 OU women add transfer: Oklahoma announced the signing of Iowa State transfer Aubrey Joens on Thursday. The incoming junior guard shot 42.5% from the 3-point line last season and adds 61 games of experience to the Sooners' lineup.