OU softball with chance to clinch SEC regular season title at Texas A&M

OU and Texas A&M softball are finally going to meet in the SEC. This, of course, was supposed to happen in the 2025 SEC Tournament Championship game.

The two best teams in the entire nation to square off for the conference title. But Mother Nature had other plans. The game was canceled, and the teams were ruled as co-champions. Texas A&M became the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and OU was No. 2.

Fast forward to this weekend in College Station. Once again, it feels like the Sooners are battling for the No. 1 overall seed. In order to clinch the SEC regular season title, though, going to have to get by the Aggies.

One win during this three-game set (Thursday-Saturday), and OU will have its regular season title. But the best? Sooners firmly believe is still to come.

“I asked our team this, and I do believe them, I said have we peaked? Absolutely not,” head coach Patty Gasso said. “I said have you played your best game yet? No we have not. They are still very hungry for what’s going on right now. I also can tell you that they know what we’re walking into and they know they are going to have to be tough and gritty to handle the environment.

“So I feel like we’re pretty prepared. We’ve played in the Texas environment. We’ve played in our own environment. So there’s not much else we can do right now except just, it’s internal now.”

It was a weird scenario last year where OU clinched the regular season title without having to play a game. 

But it will be decided on the field this weekend. The Aggies will be yet another road test for OU, as the second half of this conference slate has tested the Sooners time and time again.

That is why you come to OU.

“They like to win,” Gasso said. “They came here for those reasons so we’re trying to set them up the best way that we can but at the same time make it really fun for them. It should be exciting. To me, this is something I would look forward to as a player and I’m definitely looking forward to it as a coach because I know we are going to get pushed.

“I know the fans, know their team. I know the coaches. Well-coached, very good team. Fan engagement. It’s coming to us and that is when you should be shining your best. That is what — if we’re really who we say we want to be, we would be maybe peaking on that weekend, this next weekend. We should be starting to move in that direction. You don’t want to finish before you’ve peaked, so we’ve got to start moving.”

Game 1 is 8 p.m. Thursday on SEC Network.

And, of course, with any OU game from this point forward, it is Kendall Wells watch. The star freshman is one home run (36) shy of tying the single-season NCAA record of 37 set by Arizona’s Laura Espinoza.

Wells hit two last weekend. The first one? Set the OU single-season mark, surpassing Joceyln Alo’s 34.

Scouting the Aggies

A&M enters at 35-16 overall and 15-6 in the SEC. The Aggies were 14-4 before dropping two of three at South Carolina last weekend.

“They’ve got speed, they’ve got grit, they got power. They do,” Gasso said. “Got pitching that’s been very good. Their coaches are very good. This is a top team in the SEC. So they didn’t — one weekend, which was last weekend — they lost by one run. Two games against South Carolina by one run. That really hurt them, because they were right in the middle of this race.

“So they’re not going to quit. They’re going to probably try to take it out on us this weekend. But I really respect Trish Ford. She’s part of this USA Softball coaching group as well, so she’s really good at what she does. Her assistants are very good at what they do, and they’re a feisty group.”