The path is set for the Oklahoma Sooners to defend their National Championship.
OU’s full 2022 softball schedule was released on Tuesday afternoon, and it’s highlighted by some major non-conference matchups.
The Sooners will square off against 13 programs who qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament, including four teams that made it to the Super Regionals and three of the other teams that joined OU at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City last year.
OU will have an early season rematch with UCLA, as well as playing in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic and in the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu, HI.
The Sooners will open the season on February 10 at UC Santa Barbara, before taking on Loyola Marymount, Mississippi State, UCLA and UC San Diego in the Mark Campbell Invitational in Irvine, CA from Feb. 11-13.
OU will then head south and face off against McNeese State and Houston a pair of times, as well as play Texas State from Feb. 18-20 in the Houston Classic.
The next weekend, Oklahoma will head back to the West Coast for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic from Palm Springs, CA, on Feb. 25-27. OU will face off against CSU Fullerton, Long Beach State, Arizona, Tennessee and Utah during their stay in Palm Springs before finally opening up things in Norman.
The home opener will be played on March 6 against Minnesota at Marita Hynes Field before Oklahoma takes the long trip to the Rainbow Wahine Classic, where they’ll play Baylor, California and a pair of games against Hawaii.
Before opening conference play, Oklahoma will host the second Hall of Fame Classic at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City from March 18-20. OU will square off against Sam Houston State, Indiana, San Diego, Houston and Iowa at the Hall of Fame classic before opening Big 12 play against the Baylor Bears.
- READ MORE: OU Softball's Big 12 Schedule
After their first conference series against the Bears, OU will host Wichita State on March 29 for a non-conference battle, as well as a pair of games on April 1-2 against Alabama Birmingham and one contest against Tulsa on April 6 before diving back into their Big 12 slate.
The Sooners will be well traveled by the time postseason play rolls around, but they’ll have a much stronger schedule after the pandemic limited what they could do with their non-conference schedule last season.
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