OU softball season ends in shocking loss to Mississippi State, 6-0

That is just not how it was supposed to finish for OU softball in 2026. And you could feel the energy at Love’s Field, all afternoon, attempting to carry the team.

But inning after inning, out after out, the Sooners simply had no answers for Mississippi State pitcher Delainey Everett.

Not Alyssa Faircloth, not Peja Goold. Little-used Everett put on the performance of a lifetime in ending the OU season with a complete game, 6-0 shutout Sunday in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Norman Super Regional.

OU misses the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 2015. For MSU, it will be its first-ever appearance at the WCWS.

OU finishes the season at 52-10 overall and the SEC regular season champion. It is the first time in 399 games that OU has been blanked (2019, Alabama). First time shutout at home since April 16, 2015 (Baylor).

Everett had thrown a mere 13.1 innings this season before Sunday. All she did against the best offense in softball? Go seven innings, allow three hits (not one for extra bases) with three walks and three strikeouts.

Stunned.

“I think sometimes when you want something so bad, sometimes it just doesn’t come out that way,” OU head coach Patty Gasso said. “This team wanted it bad. They’ve taken hacks, we just kept flying out. I think sometimes we were just over-swinging or our angle was wrong. We got some to the wall but just nothing hard-hit, ground-ball, line-drive through the middle. That is not lack of ability; it’s lack of focus.

“It’s just lack of wanting to be more than that, and we just kept taking big swings over and over and over again and wanting like we needed not one hero, but we needed 20. But we needed everybody—somebody to get on, move them over. We needed a little bit of that. We just couldn’t find any juice in the way of moving runners. The dugout was engaged. Everybody wanted it. Everybody was ready.”

MSU was especially ready. A key when you are going up against a crowd of 4,250 fans, with most clad in the crimson and cream, is a fast start.

The Bulldogs put up two runs on OU starter Miali Guachino in the first inning. Tacked on one more in the third, same in the fourth.

And as you kept waiting for that OU burst, it just wasn’t happening.  

“It’s just they punched first, and they punched good, and we usually punch right back and didn’t—and then they punched again,” Gasso said. “We usually punch back, but we didn’t. We just feel our press a little bit, and that caught us.”

Guachino departed after the 4-0 deficit. Gasso went with freshman Berkley Zache, who got out of the fourth inning. A leadoff walk in the fifth had Gasso turn to ace, Audrey Lowry.

But it just wasn’t meant to be. Lowry gave up a two-run home run in the fifth that kind of took away some of the juice at Love’s.

“The balls were hard hit up the middle,” Gasso said. “They just swung hard. Found holes, and it just kind of carried on. They had a lot of momentum; they had a ton of confidence. You could feel that.”

It is going to feel strange when the WCWS gets going Thursday at Devon Park and not see the Sooners. A lineup that had five players with at least 20 home runs is sitting at home. Freshman star Kendall Wells finishes her remarkable season with 39 home runs. She stands alone as second all-time in a single season in NCAA history, trailing only UCLA’s Megan Grant, who has 40 this season.

A lot of accomplishments. A lot of good, but the page will have to turn toward 2027.

“So I just have to say how proud I am of this team and their accomplishments, and the freshmen are just really something to look forward to,” Gasso said. “And we wouldn’t have gotten this far without our senior class. And I look at these two (Ailana Agbayani, Abby Dayton) and the great season they had. Bela Emerling was amazing.

“Berzon had great innings, KD has as well, but KD has been that Steady Eddie four year committed athlete that we appreciate so much. So, there’s a lot to be proud of, but there’s also a lot to look forward to in the future. And I know these guys know it, and I know they’re going to be following it, but they helped this young group learn.”

OU returns a bevy of talented players, both in the lineup and in the circle. And, of course, has, perhaps, the best recruiting class coming in. It will be an interesting few weeks to see what exactly the Sooners attempt to do in the transfer portal. There’s not a lot of holes, and as OU fans would say, In Gasso they will trust.