Georgia stuns OU softball, complicating Sooners’ path to No. 1 NCAA seed

Oklahoma softball headed to Lexington, Kentucky, for the 2026 SEC Softball Tournament as the favorite the 15-team bracket for the second consecutive season.

The top-seeded Sooners were eliminated on Thursday.

Oklahoma looked to be headed for its 49th win after taking a 5–0 lead through three innings, but Georgia erased it with 10 unanswered runs to send coach Patty Gasso’s team home with a 10-5 loss at John Cropp Stadium — matching the largest comeback in SEC Tournament history.

"There was a disconnect, especially in the fourth, once they scored five and tied us, our pitching staff started to get anxious," Gasso said after the loss. "I felt our hitters get anxious. I felt our defense get anxious. There's a glazed look on some of the faces. I was concerned about it, and I don't think we had enough to come back from that."

The Sooners' offense went ice cold after the third inning.

Oklahoma managed two hits in the final four innings of Thursday's SEC quarterfinal off Georgia freshman left-hander Presley Harrison, who struck out seven and gave up just one run on three hits in 6 2/3 innings of relief. As noted by The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network, Harrison retired 12 consecutive Sooners at one point in the game.

To put into perspective the rarity of the loss Oklahoma sustained on Thursday, it was just the second time this season the Sooners have allowed double-digit runs to an opponent, and the first time since early February when they gave up 11 runs in a loss to Arizona.

Oklahoma star freshman Kendall Wells went 0-for-3 at the plate with a walk and a run. She'll head into the NCAA Tournament sitting on home run No. 36 and one away from tying the NCAA single-season home run record.

The loss makes the Sooners one of the six teams in the top 10 of the SEC tournament bracket to lose, and the second team in the top five of the bracket.

"I love it as much as I hate what I feel right now," Gasso said. "I love it because I know what this team is going to do to respond. Sometimes we need to get kicked in the mouth and learn how to fight back a little bit harder. So I love winning, as does everyone, but as hard as it is, I know that it's needed right now.

“Because if it doesn't happen right now, we're going to be done with our postseason way sooner than we expect.”

The Sooners' struggles offensively vs. the Bulldogs on Thursday were a slight carryover from their end to the regular season. Three of Oklahoma's first four hitters in their lineup — Gabbie Garcia, Wells and Ella Parker — are a combined 7 for 38 in the Sooners' last four games, a .184 batting average.

Those numbers, in addition to Kasidi Pickering's production at the plate (8 for her last 41 at-bats), will need to be improved going into the NCAA Softball Tournament and Women's College World Series if the Sooners want to win their fifth national title in the last six years.

"We all had a conversation and decided to go back to Norman and just practice harder and do things sharper, like clean up practice instead of going through motions like, 'We got it,'" Gasso continued on Thursday. "... We’re going to press you every day throughout the entire practice to the point of exhaustion. And you should keep asking for more. And more and more and more. (Until) your hands bleed. That’s the mentality that we want our players to have instead of we're good.

"... We're not good, and we showed that. That is going to be our approach."

Oklahoma's loss also removes the Sooners' control of the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners stayed at No. 6 in the RPI rankings and have 15 wins over top-25 opponents. But, two teams to watch for the top-overall seed — depending on how they finish their respective conference tournaments — are Alabama and Nebraska, the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the RPI, respectively, a statistic metric that the NCAA selection committee tends to put a ton of weight on.

The Sooners, now back in Norman, will reset and await their learn next opponent, which will be revealed on the NCAA bracket show on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, Sunday).

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