OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Five Oklahoma softball student-athletes were named 2022 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Americans, the organization announced the honors Wednesday.

ARLINGTON, Texas – David Sandlin registered a season high 10 strikeouts over 7.0 innings and Peyton Graham homered to lead Oklahoma to a 4-3 win over Kansas State in the semifinals of the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship Saturday afternoon at Globe Life Field.

The Sooners will have an opportunity to defend their national championship in Oklahoma City, and I think we all like their chances.

With a 7-1 victory over the UCF Golden Knights, the Oklahoma Sooners (54-2) are headed to yet another Women’s College World Series. It’s the program’s 15th trip to the WCWS and 10th in its last 11 full seasons.

In her final game at Marita Hynes Field, Jocelyn Alo went 2-4, punctuating the performance with one last home run. The long ball was the 117th of her career, adding to the NCAA career record. Not to be outdone, senior Grace Lyons went 3-5 at the plate with two home runs and four RBIs. In total, the Sooners tallied 12 hits while only striking out three times.

Patty Gasso’s team will now head north to its second home of Oklahoma City, where the 2021 national champions will have the might of Sooner Nation behind them. As we’ve seen in the past, there’s plenty of parity in this event, and a championship is far from guaranteed. Having said that, if Jordy Bahl does indeed return to action next week, I don’t see who could legitimately prevent this group from defending its crown.

One thing’s for sure — we’re witnessing a coach who is currently leading a program as effectively as anyone in collegiate athletics at this time. If the statue isn’t already being sculpted for Patty, that needs to change soon.

Can OU put up another season of double-digit wins?

Before every college football season, I like to put together a win total projection for the Oklahoma Sooners. The process is kind of a combination of art and science:

• Using my own set of power ratings, I set a point spread for every game on OU’s schedule.
• Based on the point spreads, I determine the likelihood the Sooners will win each game.
• I convert that likelihood to a fraction of a win.
• Lastly, I tally up the fractions of wins to estimate a projected total for the end of the season.

Let’s use OU’s home date with Baylor on Nov. 5 as an example. On a neutral field, I would make the Sooners a 5.5-point favorite over the Bears this year. Since the game is being played in Norman, I’m adding 2.5 points to the OU side. That puts the point spread at eight. (I might have been inclined to shave off a half point or so in the past to reflect Baylor coach Dave Aranda’s track record against the Sooners; with Brent Venables and company on the sidelines now instead of Lincoln Riley’s staff, we’ll wipe the slate clean.) Teams favored by eight points win 73% of the time, so I add 0.73 wins to OU’s final total.

Last year, my projection overshot OU’s actual win total by a full game. Here’s what I came up with for 2022:

A total of 9.67 suggests the Sooners will win between nine and 10 games this fall. If you were an oddsmaker trying to establish an over/under bet based on this projection, you would probably set it at 9.5 with the juice solidly to the over.

A few notes:

*FanDuel Sportsbook has already set lines on a handful of these games, and it looks like the linesmakers in that shop have a lower opinion of this OU team:

• OU (-4.5) at Nebraska
• OU (+1) vs. Texas
• OU (-4) at Iowa State
• OSU at OU (-5.5)

FanDuel put the OU season win total at 8.5, paying -155 to the over and +130 to the under. Even at that relatively steep price, my projection points to an over bet.

*I don’t think it would be absurd to make Texas a slight favorite over the Sooners at this point, especially in light of how the Red River Rivalry tends to get bet in the offseason.

*I feel confident that I’m either too low on the spread in the Texas Tech game or too high on the West Virginia line.

*I did shade the lines downward a touch in a few cases. I gave an extra two points to Nebraska, for instance, because of the setting and circumstances in Lincoln. Despite my skepticism about Iowa State this season, I shaved off two points for playing in Ames on a Thursday night. I also revised the Bedlam game down, given that is, in fact, Bedlam.

This officially licensed product of Jocelyn Alo, Jayda Coleman, and the University of Oklahoma is part of BreakingT’s RAMP offering.

The Oklahoma Sooners are making yet another run at a national championship, and Sooner Nation is liking their chances. Who could blame them?

This OU team really doesn’t have a weakness, but the power is what always seems to stand out.With this in mind, our friends at BreakingT are here with yet another great t-shirt design. This one features Jocelyn Alo and Jayda Coleman, who have combined for 34 home runs, 103 RBIs and a .485 batting average in 2022. You can purchase it (and plenty of other officially licensed OU gear) right here.

• Officially licensed product of Jocelyn Alo, Jayda Coleman, and the University of Oklahoma, as part of BreakingT’s RAMP offering.
• Adult T-Shirt: Super-comfortable, cotton/poly-blended crewneck in crimson. Unisex sizing with a snug fit. S-5XL
• Youth T-Shirt: Super-comfortable, cotton/poly-blended tee in crimson. Unisex sizing. S=6/7, M=8, L=10/12
• Designed by Sami Cappa.
• Screened in the USA.