The Oklahoma Sooners softball team is an unprecedented dynasty. Not only has it won the last three NCAA national championships and attracted the country's top recruits and transfers each season, but it was also riding an NCAA-record 71-game winning streak entering its game Sunday against the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns.
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Then Louisiana defeated Oklahoma by a score of 7-5.
While Louisiana was in control of the three-time defending national champions for most of the game — largely due to the complete game that Chloe Riassetto pitched — a costly error in the bottom of the seventh inning allowed Oklahoma to tie the score at 4 and send the game into extra innings.
Then, in the eighth inning, Louisiana broke through when Samantha Graeter singled to shortstop to give Louisiana a 5-4 lead. The Ragin' Cajuns added two more runs in the frame, giving them a 7-4 lead heading into Oklahoma's home half of the eighth.
THE RAGIN' CAJUNS DO IT
Louisiana upsets No. 1 Oklahoma ending their 71-game win streak. The final score: 7-5!#NCAASoftball x 🎥 ESPN+ / @RaginCajunsSB pic.twitter.com/N5iMxzLjPU
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) March 3, 2024
Despite a solo home run by the Sooners' Cydney Sanders, Louisiana held on to win the game 7-5 — handing Oklahoma its loss since Feb. 19, 2023.
It was an uncharacteristically sloppy contest for the Sooners, who had three errors on the day — including two in the final two innings. For context, Oklahoma had only tallied four total errors in its 18 games in the 2024 season prior to Sunday.
Not only was Sunday's loss the first in over a year for the Sooners, but it was also the first defeat they've suffered at home in over four years.
While this loss was certainly a surprising hiccup for an Oklahoma squad that has looked unstoppable for the past half-decade, the program had to lose eventually. Still, nobody could have predicted it would do so at home against an unranked, sub-.500 Louisiana team.
Still, this setback will likely have little effect on the Sooners' hopes of becoming the first four-peat champions in NCAA softball history.
Regardless of whether Oklahoma will secure the championship this season, its 71-game winning streak is extraordinary. The second-longest win streak in NCAA softball history is held by the Arizona State Sun Devils, who won 47 games in 1996-97.
Now, it's time for Oklahoma to start another winning streak — and we wouldn't be surprised if it takes another year before they lose again.
