For the first time ever, Oklahoma Baptist won the Great American Conference regular-season title on Sunday.
OBU has had an incredible year, one worthy of even more praise and accolades than they have received: The Bison are 43-9 overall and 28-5 in GAC play. The squad finished a solid two games ahead of the second-place team in the conference and ended the regular season on a 17-game winning streak.
An early season non-conference win over then-#6 Texas A&M-Kingsville marked the highest-ranked opponent that OBU has beaten since joining Division II. The #1 seed in the conference tournament is the highest-ever postseason seed in program history.
Five OBU hitters are batting over .300 this season, including Emily Adler’s .423 mark at the plate. Kayleigh Jones has shown herself as one of the nation’s best in the circle and boasts a 0.66 ERA, 30 wins, and 302 strikeouts on the year.
The progress this season also marks the most recent step in a program turnaround under 5th-year head coach Sam Maples.
Since Maples arrived ahead of the 2019 season, the Bison have gone from winning 17 games overall and missing the postseason entirely to nearly doubling that many wins in conference play alone. The turnaround has taken some time, but seen progress at every step along the way.
In 2020, before the season’s abrupt end, the Bison were 10-2 in conference play. In 2021, the program reached the GAC tournament for the first time. One year later, in 2022, the Bison returned to the GAC tournament on the back of 33 wins overall and 19 wins in conference play.
Now, they’re the champions.
The Bison’s success is also indicative of wider success amongst college softball programs across the state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Sooners, of course, are the greats of the college softball world at this point and are the clear-cut favorites to win their third consecutive Women’s College World Series this season.
Last year, Oklahoma State won the Big 12 tournament – beating OU to secure that championship – and reached the WCWS semifinals, finishing one win away from playing for a national championship. Rogers State won the Division II national title last season, while Central Oklahoma won their fifth MIAA conference title in ten years on Sunday. At the NAIA level, Oklahoma City and Science & Arts of Oklahoma are both top-10 programs with postseason berths already secured.
With a regular-season title in hand and a program rebuild at its highest point of success, OBU has secured their position in the conversation with those same championship teams across the state.
