Softball Hosts Okana Invitational

Saturday, March 7

2 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

Abilene Christian

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Gabbie Garcia hitting a home run against Southeastern Louisiana

Photo by: Peyton Martin/University of Oklahoma

March 06, 2026 | Softball

Live Stats SEC Network+Sooner SeatShare Tickets Game Day Program OU Game Notes

NORMAN — No. 4/6 Oklahoma stays home for the second-consecutive weekend as it hosts Abilene Christian and Louisiana for two games each beginning Saturday, March 7. Oklahoma was originally slated to play one game Friday, two Saturday and one Sunday before expected inclement weather shifted the weekend schedule.

Ticket Info:
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Schedule
Saturday, March 7 at 2 p.m. vs. Abilene Christian
Saturday, March 7 at 5 p.m. vs. Louisiana
Sunday, March 8 at 12:30 p.m. vs. Louisiana
Sunday, March 8 at 3 p.m. vs. Abilene Christian

All four games will be broadcast on SEC Network+, with commentary being provided via a radio simulcast. KRXO 104.5 AM and KEBC 1560 AM will carry each game.

FIRST PITCH

• Oklahoma has won via run-rule in eight consecutive games, while playing only 40 innings over the last eight contests. The Sooners have hit 42 home runs over that stretch, while scoring 147 runs (18.4 per/game). Kendall Wells has hit seven home runs during that period, while Ella Parker has driven in 17.

• OU has hit 91 home runs. The Sooners have hit more home runs than 152 teams' run totals across Division I. OU's 310 runs is 68.2 percent of its total run total from all of last season. The Sooners set the NCAA single season runs record with 638 in 2021, doing so in 60 games. Oklahoma averaged 10.6 runs per game that season. The Sooners are averaging 14.09 runs per game through 22 contests this season, on pace for 760 runs alone in the 2026 season.

• OU's offense features 14 players with at least three home runs. Six players have at least eight home runs, while in all of 2025 seven players had eight home runs or more. OU's batting averages range from .370 to .576, with 13 of 14 players with an at-bat batting above .400. Ella Parker hit .423 last year, the lone Sooner to hit above .400 in 2025.

• OU is 4-1 against ranked teams this season, tallying two victories against No. 17/18 Arizona (21-3 and 5-4) as well as a win against No. 14/20 Duke and No. 23/RV Washington. Three of those four victories have been via run-rule as the Sooners have outscored ranked teams, 58-14, this season.

• The Sooners are coming off a historic home-opening weekend. Oklahoma set a program record for most runs scored in a home opener in a 32-0 win against Alabama State Thursday. It turned out to be the first chunk of a massive 116-run output over the 6-0 home weekend as the Sooners also set a program record with 21 runs in the third inning against Alabama State Feb. 28. That mark was also good for second in NCAA Division I history for runs in one frame. 15,723 fans took in a weekend that saw the Sooners hit 30 home runs.

A RECORD PACE

If the season were to conclude today OU would still finish 10th in its record book for home runs in a single season. OU's 91 homers are its most through 22 games in program history. Over the past five years at the 22-game mark OU has stood with:

2025: 46 home runs
2024: 39 home runs
2023: 36 home runs
2022: 52 home runs
2021: 77 home runs

OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT

Oklahoma is slashing the national lead while pacing the country in 10 different offensive statistical categories this year. OU stands atop the country through 22 games in:

Batting average (.469)
Hits (301)
Home Runs (91)
Home Runs/Game (4.1)
On-Base Percentage (.559)
RBIs/Game (13.82)
RBIs (304)
Runs/Game (14.1)
Slugging Percentage (.969)
Runs (304)

EVERYBODY HITS

• OU's lineup has produced from every angle this season. All 14 Sooners that have had an at-bat this season have hit at least three home runs, while five Sooners have had a multi-home run game. Allyssa Parker, Ella Parker, Lexi McDaniel, Gabbie Garcia and Isabela Emerling are all in that group, while Emerling and Ella Parker have both hit three home runs in a single game.

• Each position player that's played has played in at least 16 of 22 games, while 13 of 14 players have greater than a .400 batting average and three have at least a .500 batting average.

FRESHMAN PHENOMS

• OU owns the nation's top recruiting class in 2025 and this spring that group will take the field for the first time. Lexi McDaniel (INF, St. Joseph, Mo.), Kai Minor (OF, Irvine, Calif.), Allyssa Parker (RHP/UTL, Pocola, Okla.), Kendall Wells (C, Bogart, Ga.) and Berkley Zache (RHP, Niles, Mich.) round out the 2025 signing class. Freshman Jerrell "Ori" Mailo joins the Sooners early after signing this past November as part of the Sooners' top-ranked 2026 signing class.

• McDaniel, Parker, Wells and Minor have had staggering success at the plate this season. McDaniel is hitting .538 with five home runs and 17 RBI, with four of her homers coming last weekend. Wells is tied for the national lead with 16 homers, Minor is on a 17-game hitting streak and leads the team with a .576 batting average. Allyssa Parker's 1.711 OPS is also a team best.

SOPHOMORE ARMS

• Sophomore pitching duo of lefty Audrey Lowry and righty Miali Guachino have combined for a 16-1 record, 69 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 75 innings of work. Lowry started the season going 8-0 in her first eight decisions, while Guachino picked up a pair of wins against (RV) San Diego State and No. 23 Washington at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. Both hurlers have a sub-.90 WHIP.

NATIONAL NOD

• Freshmen Kendall Wells and Lexi McDaniel went back-to-back weeks earning national honors. Wells was named D1Softball Player of the Week and Softball America Freshman of the Week Feb. 24, while Lexi McDaniel earned D1Softball Freshman of the Week honors March 4.

SEC HONORS

• OU has earned SEC weekly honors in three of four weeks to start the season, with two of them being freshmen.

• Lexi McDaniel, a freshman out of St. Joseph, Mo., is the latest Sooner to earn SEC Freshman of the Week. The infielder hit four home runs and while going 10-for-13 with 11 runs, 12 RBI and a 1.769 slugging percentage last week. She homered twice Feb. 28 and hit a grand slam to propel OU to a record-setting 21-run inning.

• Freshman Kai Minor was named SEC Freshman of the Week as well, hitting .692 with seven runs, three doubles, one triple, two homers and nine RBI. She tripled and homered in the same game and scored in all five contests on the weekend. The speedy centerfielder is hitting .576 with a team-high 34 hits and seven stolen bases.

• Junior Kasidi Pickering was named SEC Player of the Week Monday, Feb. 16, the first such award in her career. She earned the honor after hitting .833 (10-for-12), with 13 runs, 11 RBIs, three home runs and six walks.

CIAO BELA

• Redshirt-senior Isabela Emerling has nine home runs through 19 games played, just three short of her total in 58 games played a year ago. Emerling tied the program record for homers with three against Montana last month, while coming up just inches from another three-homer game Tuesday at North Texas.

• Emerling is hitting .489, .277 points higher than her 2025 season total. With one more grand slam she would be tied for seventh in NCAA history for career grand slams. She currently sits at six, with 41 career home runs to her name. Emerling is slugging 1.156, well above her previous career high of .685 set as a sophomore at North Carolina. She is just three runs scored short of her total of 24 from last year and six hits shy of the 28 she had in 2025.