NCAA Super Regional Softball: Alabama Crimson Tide vs Oklahoma Sooners

The Crimson Tide (40-21) and Sooners (48-7) will play a best of three series with the winner moving on to the Women’s College World Series (WCWS). This is Alabama’s first trip to Norman, Oklahoma.

ACCOLADES

Softball America named Audrey Vandagriff (.406 BA, .507 OB%, 51 R, 50 SB) as Second Team All-American and Freshman All-American. The big one is the NFCA that comes out later in the month.

She is also one of three finalists for the NCFA Freshman of the Year. The other two are Oregon’s Rylee McCoy (.396, 19 HR, 58 RBI) and the favorite, Florida’s Taylor Shumaker (.387, 21-83).

SCHEDULE

GAME 1: Friday, May 23, 4pm/5pm – ESPN2

GAME 2: Saturday, May 24, 2pm/3pm – TV TBA

GAME 3: (if necessary) Sunday, May 25, Time & TV TBA

HOW TO WATCH

The first game will be on ESPN2. The others have yet to be decided. We are thrilled to announce that the commentator team of Eric Frede and Madison Shipman will be calling the action. Nebraska vs. Tennessee get stuck Beth Mowins et al.

NORMAN WEATHER

Mostly sunny with temps in the 80s for all three games. SPF 50 recommended.

HISTORY

ESPN… oops, I mean the NCAA knew what they were doing when they set these two teams opposite each other in the bracket. The Sooners are the big bad black hat New York Yankees and the Crimson Tide are the more appealing Jedis who are going up against all odds. And somehow, Bama tends to have more luck against OU than most teams. The Sooners lost only seven games this season, but two of them came against the crimson and white. That is not the first time Okie has struggled with the Tide. Bama holds a 10-7 advantage which includes wins in the 2012 WCWS.

THROW THE BALL

Where would Okie be without Sam Landry? The bespectacled senior came over from ULL and has been the ace of a staff that has not been the strong suit of the team. She is 22-4 with a 2.00 ERA. She has been known to throw in the low 70s MPH and has a nice change-up to go with it. Landry has whiffed 165 and walked 49 this season.

The rest of the staff is pretty mediocre – all with ERA over 3.15.

Against Alabama earlier this season, Landry threw a complete game three-hitter in a 5-1 win for Okie. She did not participate in the second game in the series – a 6-1 Bama win. In the finale, she again went 7.0 innings but took a 2-1 loss when Vandagriff hit a walk-off solo homer to lead off the 8th inning.

HIT THE BALL

Leadoff hitter Kasidi Pickering (.419 BA, 54 RBI) hit 17 homers and scored 56 runs this season but had none from either category against the Tide in their three game set. The same goes for Ella Parker (.409, 12 HR, 46 RBI). Gabbie Garcia (.355, 18 HR, 54 RBI) was a big fat 0 for 10 against the Tide. Nelly McEnroe-Marinas (.347, 14-47) hit a round-tripper against Bama, but it was her only hit in 10 at bats.

As a team, the Sooners hit .190 (15 for 79) against the Crimson Tide.

CATCH THE BALL

Oklahoma is tenth in the nation in fielding percentage (.978), fifth among Power teams. No one player has more than five errors.

ALABAMA

The Crimson Tide has been playing better of late. The defense has been stellar, the pitching improved, and offense is just good enough. Oklahoma is Oklahoma. But now they have plenty of bulletin board material to help get them hyped.

With Okie’s deficiencies in pitching after Landry, Alabama should be able to steal at least one game. Winning two games on the Sooners’ field will be a tall order, but not out of the realm of impossibilities.

POSITIVE THINKING SCHEDULE

Thu May 29 – Fri Jun 6: Women’s College World Series, Oklahoma City, OK

OTHER STUFF

After LSU’s latest collapse, star pitcher Sydney Berzon has entered the transfer portal. A two-time All-American, Berzon owns a career 2.02 ERA with 52 wins and 416 strikeouts in 486.1 innings of work. She was 18-8 with a 2.46 ERA in 2025, her junior year.

Can you blame her? It is the second time in her career in Baton Rouge that the Tigers were bounced from a home Regional. In 2023, they lost to ULL. This year it was SELA who eliminated them but Nebraska advanced. Last year, they lost to Stanford in the Supers. LSU has not been to the WCWS since 2017. You have to wonder if coach Beth Torina is on the hot seat. You may recall, she was the hire after Patrick Murphy did his little head fake down on the Bayou.

As far as the possibility of Berzon-to-Alabama goes, Murphy doesn’t seem to have the ability to pull someone like Berzon into Tuscaloosa. He likes looking for projects or diamonds in the rough.

Also in the TP is D-I’s top strikeout thrower, Maya Johnson (24-6, 1.52 ERA, 366 K) of Belmont. This might be more Murphy’s speed.

OTHER MATCH-UPS

Two series got started on Thursday and both had the lower-seed road team winning.

• No. 12 Texas Tech 3 No. 5 Florida State 0 – NiJaree Canady two-hitter, 3 FSU errors.
• No. 11 Clemson 7, No. 6 Texas 4 – Double-digit hit from both teams.

The rest get going today.

• Georgia @ No. 3 Florida – First meeting between these two rivals this season.
• Ole Miss @ No. 4 Arkansas – Rebs took 2 of 3 in Oxford in March.
• Nebraska @ No. 7 Tennessee – First game of the season, the Vols topped the Huskers 7-1 in Clearwater.
• No. 9 UCLA @ No. 8 South Carolina
• Liberty @ No. 16 Oregon – One of these underdogs will be in.

#RollTide #Team29