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May 29, 2012

NORMAN, Okla. --Fresh off the program's ninth Big 12 Championship, No. 4 Oklahoma (50-8, 19-5 Big 12) opens play in its seventh Women's College World Series Thursday at 12 p.m. as it takes on South Florida (50-12, 17-5 Big East) in its first round game. The Sooners enter the World Series having won eight straight games and 13 of their last 14. Thursday's game will be televised on ESPN2 with Pam Ward and Michele Smith on the call.

The Sooners swept Arizona (6-0 & 7-1) at home in the NCAA Super Regional to advance to the WCWS. OU opened up postseason action at home with wins over Lehigh (19-3), Tulsa (7-1) and Oregon State (6-0) in its NCAA Regional. In postseason play, OU has outscored its opponents 45-5 while hitting at a clip of .371 and holding an ERA of 0.85.

On the season, Oklahoma leads the nation in pitching with an ERA of 1.15 and is eighth nationally with a batting average of .321. The Sooners are tied for the nation's lead with 95 home runs and are sixth with a slugging percentage of .557. South Florida enters the game ranked second nationally with an ERA of 1.18 and 155th with a .262 batting average.

OU is led by USA Softball Player of the Year finalist Keilani Ricketts who is third nationally with an ERA of 0.99. USF's Sara Nevins is fourth at 1.03. At the plate, OU freshman Lauren Chamberlain is second nationally with 27 home runs on the year and leads an Oklahoma lineup that boasts at least seven hitters with a batting average of .333 or better.

Oklahoma is 7-10 all-time at the WCWS after dropping its two games to Arizona State and Missouri in 2011. The Sooners have faced one WCWS team this year, LSU. OU defeated the Tigers twice in March by scores of 7-0 and 5-0.

A LOOK AT SOUTH FLORIDA
The fourth-place team in the Big East, South Florida enters the WCWS with a record of 50-12 and was ranked No. 17 in the final RPI.

The Bulls are lead at the plate by Kourtney Salvarola with an average of .327. In the circle, Sara Nevins leads USF with an ERA of 1.03 and a record of 31-6. USF has

The Bulls are 6-4 in their last 10 games and advanced to the WCWS with a Super Regional win over Hofstra. After falling to Hofstra 2-1 in 11 innings, USF won two games with a 2-1 with the first lasting nine innings.

USF went 3-0 in its regional having defeated Central Florida (1-0), Florida Gulf Coast (8-3) and Florida (1-0).

COMMON OPPONENTS
OU and USF have four common opponents this season. The Sooners are 4-0 against those four while the Bulls are 3-1.

SERIES HISTORY
The two teams have played five times with South Florida holding a 3-2 advantage. All five games have come in the state of Florida with OU winning the last two meetings, both in 2003. The last meeting, an 8-0 OU win win, came at the 2003 NCAA Regional.

LOOKING AHEAD
The winner of the Oklahoma-South Florida game will take on the winner of the Cal-LSU first round matchup. Cal, the No. 1 postseason seed, enters the WCWS with a record of 56-5 while LSU, who went on the road all postseason, is 39-23. OU defeated LSU in two games (7-0, 5-0), at the start of March.

A LOOK BACK AT LAST YEAR
The 2011 season saw No. 13 Oklahoma advance to its sixth WCWS in program history. Hit hard by injuries, OU fell to eventual national champion Arizona State, 3-1, in the opening round as then-senior Haley Nix went 3-for-3 in the game.

Oklahoma was eliminated by Missouri, 4-1, in a game that saw two Sooners making their first career starts at their respective positions due to injuries to the Oklahoma roster. An uncharacteristic four errors from Oklahoma led to three unearned runs while then-senior Dani Dobbs hit a solo home run for OU's only run of the game.

STAT COMPARISON
See how OU and USF stack up against each other...

OU VS. THE NCAA FIELD
The Sooners have played 16 of the 64 teams in the NCAA field and are 21-8 against those 13 teams. OU was one of six Big 12 teams in the field of 64. OU has played just one of the remaining eight teams and is 2-0 with both wins coming against LSU.

GET OUTTA OF HERE
Now the Big 12 single-season record holder in home runs with 95, the 2012 Oklahoma team is tied for first nationally in the stat category.

The Sooners have hit multiple home runs on 27 occasions this season and at least three in 14 different games. Oklahoma is 27-0 in its 27 games with multiple home runs and hit 42 in its 24 Big 12 games.

Six players have hit at least six home runs with freshman Lauren Chamberlain leading the way with a Big 12 single season record of 27. With three home runs against Iowa State, the first-year Sooner broke the Big 12's single season record for home runs.

Entering the WCWS, the Sooners rank first nationally with 95 home runs.

CHAMBERLAIN CHASING
The Big 12 leader in home runs with 27, Lauren Chamberlain broke the conference's single-season record in the final weekend of regular season play..

The freshman ranks second nationally in home runs per game (0.46) and overall with her 27 home runs.

Currently Chamberlain ranks 11th in NCAA history with her 27 single season home runs.

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 867-277-2 at Oklahoma and 1,027-338-3.

Counting just NCAA Division I wins, Gasso entered the 2012 season 29th all time and has already moved up four spots to 25th.

HITS PARADE
Oklahoma has registered at least seven hits 46 games this season and have hit double digits in the category on 15 different occasions including twice at the Judi Garman Classic with a season-high 19 hits against DePaul before collecting 18 against Virginia. OU opened up postseason play with 17 hits against Lehigh.

OU is 44-2 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 6-6 in the seven games below seven hits.

OU has seven starters hitting at least .333 and eight players with at least 30 hits.

SLUGGING AWAY
The Big 12's top team in slugging with a .557 clip, OU owns four of the top five spots on the Big 12's individual slugging percentage list.

Lauren Chamberlain leads all Big 12 batters with a percentage of .869 while Keilani Ricketts is second with .841. Jessica Shults sits in fourth, slugging .775. Georgia Casey carries a .684 slugging percentage.

Nationally, the OU ranks sixth in slugging with Chamberlain 10th and Ricketts 12th. Shults is 31st and Casey 68th. OU joins UTEP as the only school to have two players in the top 15 nationally in slugging percentage.

RACKING UP THE Ks
Keilani Ricketts didn't stop racking up the Ks after reaching the OU career plateau. After striking out 13 Arizona batters on May 26, the junior now has 22 double-digit strikeout games on the season.

Ricketts has racked up 59 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.