Hailey Dolcini and Texas Snap Oklahoma’s 40-Game Winning Streak

Oklahoma’s bid to rewrite every page of college softball record book will have wait at least one more year after Texas snapped its rival’s 40-game winning streak Saturday in Austin. 

Fueled by Hailey Dolcini’s performance in the circle, the Longhorns defeated the Sooners 4-2 in the final game of a Big 12 series. It marks Oklahoma’s first defeat since losing to Florida State in the opening game of the best-of-three championship round of the 2021 Women’s College World Series.

Oklahoma’s 40-game streak was seven wins shy of Arizona’s NCAA Division I record set across the 1996-97 seasons. Oklahoma (38-1) owns three of the four longest streaks in Division I history. The streak that ended Saturday is tied for the third-longest with the 40-game streak that many of the same Sooners put together a season ago. Oklahoma also won 41 games in a row in 2019.

The Longhorns opened the scoring in the bottom of the fifth inning with Mary Iakopo driving in Lou Gilbert on a two-out single against Oklahoma freshman star Jordy Bahl. Far from wilting in the moment, the Longhorns added three insurance runs on freshman Mia Scott’s bases-loaded double in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

Those proved valuable when the Sooners finally got on the board in the top of the seventh on Kinzie Hansen’s two-run home run. But Dolcini retired the final two batters on pop-ups.

For Bahl, who still managed to strike out 23 batters in 13 innings in the series, the loss was the first of her college career. But a few hours after legendary Texas pitcher Cat Osterman’s jersey was retired, on her birthday, the day belonged to the other pitcher in the building. After limiting the Sooners to three hits, albeit two of them home runs, in a closer-than-expected opener, Dolcini allowed just two hits in Saturday’s game. The Fresno State transfer also got unusually reliable play behind her. A defense that is last in the Big 12 in errors didn’t commit any on a day when it was called on to complete 18 of 21 outs (Dolcini recorded the other three by strikeout). 

A star beyond the Power 5 a season ago, going 22-5 with a 1.12 ERA for Fresno State, Dolcini chose Texas for her final season of eligibility. She had been excellent throughout the season for her new team, but her willingness to go at the Sooners in both starts of the season’s biggest series harkened back to how coach Mike White described her in the preseason. 

“When we had her on the visit, she’s a go-getter, she a competitor,” White told D1Softball. “She wants the ball. I like that. I want to see everybody driving each other.”

It was growing difficult to envision the Sooners losing at all, let alone nearly getting shut out. The Sooners led the nation in scoring by nearly two runs per game. They led in slugging percentage, their .800 mark dwarfing the second-best mark of .658. They led in on-base percentage and batting average. Of their 38 wins this season, 31 came by the run-rule in fewer than seven innings. They have only needed to play seven innings in back-to-back games once all season.

The Sooners did manage to extend their streak of scoring at least one run to 128 games. The last time they were shut out was June 2, 2019, when Alabama blanked them over eight innings in the World Series.

Oklahoma falls to 38-1 on the season and 8-1 in the Big 12. Still fighting for a national seed in the NCAA Tournament, Texas improves to 31-12-1 overall and 7-2 in the conference.