'Heavy Is The Head The Wears The Crown': OU Softball Players, Coaches Cherish 4th-Straight Title

Oklahoma finished off its four-peat in style by taking down rival Texas on Thursday.

The Sooners are the only program to ever win four consecutive national titles.

During this historic run, OU and head coach Patty Gasso have gone 235-15. Nearly 50 percent of the Sooners victories have been shutouts and over 55 percent of them were run-rules.

In the championship series against the Longhorns, every pitch and every swing mattered for OU.

It all started when the Sooners had to come from behind, with Kasidy Pickering hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game.

Cydney Sanders then cleared the bases with a fourth-inning double that put the Sooners ahead for good.

Star pitcher Kelly Maxwell didn't start the game, but she came in and that's when it mattered for the Sooners.

Head Coach Patty Gasso said she's proud of her team and that reaching championship number four was not easy.

"It's probably one of the hardest coaching seasons I've had in a while. Because of a lot of the naysayers and it's heavy. I don't know how else to explain how heavy. Heavy is the head that wears the crown," said coach Patty Gasso.

Jayda Coleman expressed the same beliefs.

"Honestly the whole season was tough. For me personally, I know I had high expectations. So even right off the bat, even playing our first game, I felt the pressure, I felt the expectations. As we went on, if we lost one game, two games, lost to Texas, everyone had an opinion about us," Coleman said.

Tiare Jennings, a Sooner infielder and member of the 2024 WCWS All-Tournament team, says the team's togetherness is what got them back to the finals.

"We just did a great job of staying within each other. We didn't let it bother us at all. We came out here and stuck together and it's family," Jennings said.