FAYETTEVILLE -- For the privilege of advancing to their first super regional after winning their first regional they hosted the first time, it seems the Arkansas Razorbacks' have been presented the women's softball equivalent to a firing squad.
The No. 13 Razorbacks (42-15) today at 4 p.m. on ESPN2 (Resort Channel 29) meet the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners (53-3) in Norman, Okla., in the best two out of three super regional. The winner will advance to the College World Series in Oklahoma City. Arkansas will play at noon Saturday and, if necessary, at noon Sunday, with both games broadcast on ESPN (Resort Channel 30).
Third-year Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel, inheriting a team that went 1-23 in the Southeastern Conference prior to her arrival and 1-23 in the SEC her first season, took the Razorbacks to regionals last year and this yearas all 13 softball teams in the SEC advanced to regionals. The Razorbacks won the Fayetteville Regional unscathed at Bogle Park over DePaul and Wichita State twice.
But coach Patty Gasso's Sooners are two-time defending national champions, 18-0 in the Big 12 and 28-0 at home.
"Hey, everybody's got a shot," Wichita State coach Kristi Bredbenner said after Arkansas beat her Shockers Sunday to clinch the Fayetteville Regionals. "They've got some elements. When you've got two pitchers (Mary Haff, 29-6, and Autumn Storms, 12-9) that can compete and have some kids that have some confidence, you've got a shot.
"We went into OU and had some confidence and put six runs (in a 7-6 loss) on them. They've got some vulnerabilities."
And Arkansas, Bredbenner said, "has nothing to lose."
"The key for Arkansas is to play loose and go out there and take it to them," Bredbenner said.
That seems to be Deifel's approach. Respect the Sooners as a team, and certainly Gasso as a coach and her assistants for whom Deifel once worked for as an OU graduate assistant.
"They continue to re-invent what they do and put themselves at the top," Deifel said, "but regard them as mortals that can be beaten."
"They're very good," she continued. "But they're just another softball team. When we show up on Friday, they don't get a head start because of all of the things they've done in the past -- or even what they've done over the course of the year.
"It's an even playing field when we start. It's going to be a battle. It's postseason. Anything can happen in the postseason. All I know is our girls have a lot of fight and a lot of heart."
Often a softball team is just as good as its pitcher. Oklahoma has two great ones, particularly Paige Parker (29-2, 0.89 ERA), a finalist for national player of the year.
But Arkansas has a great one, too, in Haff, with a school record for victories in a season 29-6, and a finalist for national freshman of the year.
"Pitching is the No. 1 thing," Bredbenner said. "You've got to have pitching, and Mary Haff has done such a great job."
Bredbenner implied after Haff won all of Arkansas' Fayetteville Regional games mainly with her rise ball might actually be better complemented against Oklahoma by Storms and her drop ball.
"I've always felt OU struggles a little more with the drop ball than they do the rise ball," Bredbenner said. "So, I will be interested to see how Mary does on the big stage versus how Autumn Storms can potentially do if she can get them chasing a little bit in the dirt."
Offensively, Arkansas is led by freshman outfielder Hannah McEwen, .341, 12 home runs and 56 RBI; senior slap-hitting third baseman Autumn Buczek,.318; designated player Katie Warrick, hitting .314 with eight home runs and 45 RBIs; and first baseman Ashley Diaz, .313, six home runs, 29 RBIs.
Oklahoma hits an astonishing .328 as a team, led by Sydney Romero, .430, and Jocyelyn Alo, .410 and 26 home runs.
Haff and Alo are two of the top three finalists for the 2018 Schutt Sports/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I National Freshman of the Year award.
Sports on 05/25/2018