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April 26, 2012

NORMAN, Okla. --No. 5 Oklahoma (39-7, 14-4 Big 12) takes a quick break from Big 12 action as it travels to Conway, Ark., to take on the University of Central Arkansas in a one game match up on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game is the sixth meeting between the two programs and the first ever away from Norman. Oklahoma is undefeated in the previous five meetings.

The Sooners are coming off their second Big 12 sweep after defeating Oklahoma State, 7-1, Wednesday night in Norman. With just six games remaining in Big 12 play, OU sits in first in the league with a record of 14-4 followed by Texas (11-5), Texas A&M (12-6), Missouri (11-7) and Texas Tech (10-8).

Oklahoma's pitching staff continues to sport the nation's top ERA, 1.01, while the team is the Big 12's second best hitting team with a cumulative batting average of .318. Central Arkansas enters the match up with a team batting average of .317 and an ERA of 1.96.

OU leads the Big 12 with 70 home runs and has six players with at least five home runs led by Big 12 leader Lauren Chamberlain who broke the OU single season record for home runs with two Wednesday night to up her total to 22 this season. The freshman also leads the Big 12 in runs batted in (57), total bases (124) and slugging percentage (.899). Keilani Ricketts leads the Sooners with a batting average of .391 and leads the Big 12 with an on base percentage of .539.

In the circle, the Sooners are led by the one-two punch of Ricketts (24-6) and Michelle Gascoigne (14-1). The two rank first (1.00) and fourth (1.12), respectively, among Big 12 pitchers for ERA in all games while ranking second (1.16) and first (1.12), respectively, in conference only games. Ricketts ranks second nationally in hits allowed per seven innings (3.71) and strikeouts per seven innings (10.8) while ranking third in strikeouts (292) and in ERA.

The Bears are led at the plate by Kelsey Britt who is hitting at a .436 clip and has 44 hits on the season. She is one of seven Bears hitting over .300. Britt and Tiffany Roby are tied with the team lead in home runs as the pair each have six of the team's 33 home runs.

In the circle, UCA's most experience pitcher this season is Kelsie Armstrong, who has a record of 22-11 and an ERA of 1.54. Cami Newsome (10-4) is second on the team with an ERA of 2.68.

THE SERIES
• Oklahoma has won all five games in its series with Central Arkansas.
• This is the first ever meeting between the two teams away from Norman.
• The Sooners defeated the Bears, 8-3, last season and 23-1 in the last meeting before that in 2008.

GET OUTTA OF HERE
The Big 12 leader in home runs with 70, the Sooners have hit multiple home runs on 19 occasions this season and at least three in 10 different games.

Oklahoma is undefeated in its 19 games with multiple home runs and have hit 28 in its 18 Big 12 games.

Six players have hit at least five home runs with freshman Lauren Chamberlain leading the way with a Big 12 leading 22. With two home runs against Oklahoma State, the first-year Sooner broke the OU single season record for home runs and is two away from the Big 12 season record.

The Oklahoma team single season record for home runs in a season is 85 set by the 2000 team.

THE SOONER STATE
Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State and with the March 28 win over Oklahoma State, the name applies in softball terms. In the 141st meeting between the two schools, the Sooners broke a series tie with a 4-0 win over the Cowgirls to earn a 71-70 edge in the series history that began on April 9, 1975, also a Sooner win.

The Sooners extended the series lead to 72-70 with an 11-1 run-rule victory over OSU on April 11 in Stillwater.

OU completed the sweep on April 25 with a 7-1 win over the Cowgirls and OU has now won 21 of the last 24 games in the Bedlam battle.

CHAMBERLAIN CHASING
The Big 12 leader in home runs with 22, Lauren Chamberlain broke the OU single-season record in Wednesday's win over Oklahoma State.

Chamberlain is now just two away from the Big 12 single season home run record of 24 held by three different players from league teams.

BIG 12 CHASE
OU leads the Big 12 title chase with six games remaining in Big 12 play. In its next Big 12 action, OU hosts Texas on May 4-6 before traveling to iowa State May 11-13.

Texas A&M, currently third, topped Baylor Tuesday night in a game that put them a half game behind Texas. A&M hosts Texas, currently second, in a three-game series this weekend.

BIG 12 SERIES
After capturing the Missouri series, Oklahoma is now 6-0 in its Big 12 series this season. Oklahoma had already captured the Bedlam Series presented by Farm Bureau with wins against OSU in Oklahoma City on March 28 (4-0) and in Stillwater on April 11 (11-1 in five innings).

GASSO HITS 1,000 WINS
Oklahoma Head Coach Patty Gasso hit a major coaching milestone as she hit the 1,000-win mark as her No. 7 Sooners defeated Virginia, 9-1, at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif. Gasso now stands at 856-276-2 at Oklahoma and 1,016-337-3.

Counting just NCAA Division I wins, Gasso entered the 2012 season 29th all time and has already moved up two spots to 27th.

HITS PARADE
Oklahoma has registered at least seven hits in every game but 10 this season and have hit double digits in the category on 10 different occasions including twice at the Judi Garman Classic with a season-high 19 hits against DePaul before collecting 18 against Virginia.

OU is 34-2 in the games it records at least seven hits with the only losses coming to Georgia when the Sooners out hit the Bulldogs, 7-4, but fell 3-2, and on April 6 when OU fell to Texas Tech, 5-4, despite collecting seven hits. Oklahoma is 4-5 in the seven games below seven hits.

Oklahoma has six starters hitting at least .327 and eight players with at least 28 hits.

SLUGGING AWAY
The Big 12's top team in slugging percentage with a .542 clip, Oklahoma owns three of the top six spots on the Big 12's individual slugging percentage list.

Lauren Chamberlain leads all Big 12 batters with a percentage of .899 while Keilani Ricketts is second with .800. Jessica Shults sits in sixth, slugging .685.

Nationally, the Sooners rank ninth in slugging while Chamberlain is 13th and Ricketts is 22nd. Oklahoma joins UTEP as the only school to have two players in the top 25 nationally in slugging percentage.

SCORING IN BUNCHES
During the 17-game winning streak, the Oklahoma team got it done at the plate and in the circle. Nothing illustrates that more than the fact the Sooners outscored their opponents 124-11 during the streak.

Three of the last 20 games have been run-rule wins while OU has shutout five of the last 20 opponents with eight others scoring just one run each. In the last 20 games, OU has outscored its opponents 97-30.

The Sooners have only been held to one run or less on four occasions this season, all losses.

RICKETTS SETS CAREER STRIKEOUTS RECORD
Keilani Ricketts needed just one appearance in the 2012 to capture the Oklahoma career strikeouts record. The junior pitcher entered the season with 798 strikeouts in her first two seasons and Norman and struck out 16 in her season debut versus UNLV to surpass the previous record of 805 set by Jill Most from 1994-97. Ricketts ended the opening weekend at the Sportco Kick-Off Classic with 36 strikeouts and 834 on her career.

With 292 strikeouts on the season, the fifth most in a season by an OU player, Ricketts now has 1,088 career strikeouts and is fourth in Big 12 history in the category (page 7). The junior is 64 strikeouts from moving up to third on the Big 12 career list. Cat Osterman of Texas (2002-03, 2005-06) holds the Big 12 career record in the category with 2,265 career strikeouts.

FIFTY FOUR STRAIGHT
When Kansas scored two runs on April 1, it marked the first time since OU's 4-2 win over Iowa on March 4 that Keilani Ricketts had given up a run, a streak that lasted 54 straight innings.

In her last 10 starts, Ricketts has allowed just 39 hits and has struck out 85 batters.

HOME SWEET HOME
With its sweep of Kansas and a win in the first game of the Texas Tech series, Oklahoma extended its home winning streak to 13 games dating back to its final home game of last season. The Sooners are now 14-1 at home this season.

Oklahoma has had eight home winning streaks of least 10 games, all under Patty Gasso. The Sooners record for consecutive wins is 45 as the Sooners did not drop a home game for two years, winning every game from April 14, 2000 to April 14, 2002. The longest home winning streak in a single season was 20 set by the 2007 OU squad as part of a 25-game winning streak.

RACKING UP THE Ks
Keilani Ricketts didn't stop racking up the Ks after reaching the OU career plateau. After striking out 11 Missouri batters on April 22, the junior now has 16 double-digit strikeout games on the season.

Ricketts has racked up 53 career games with at least 10 strikeouts and has eight games with at least 15 strikeouts including one game this season, 16 at UNLV, and the school record, 19 last season versus Iona.