photo by: Michael Sudhalter/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas junior Chloe Barber pitches in an NCAA regional game against Oklahoma on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at Love's Field in Norman, Okla.

NORMAN, Okla. — A matchup with an old foe yielded a disappointingly familiar result for the Kansas softball team.

KU managed just one hit and fell 9-0 in five innings to its former conference rival, No. 1 seed Oklahoma, in an NCAA regional matchup on Saturday afternoon at Love’s Field.

The Jayhawks and starting pitcher Chloe Barber limited OU’s offense reasonably well at first, outside of a pair of back-to-back home runs in the second inning, but a sixth-run fourth inning in which neither Barber nor Kaelee Washington could halt the Sooners’ attack did KU in.

“They’re a great hitting team,” KU coach Jennifer McFalls said. “I thought (Barber) spotted her pitches really well early on. They got a couple really nice swings off on some really good pitches. So I’m proud of her, I’m really proud of Chloe’s compete factor today. We got to bounce back, we got to see what they got and figure out how to get ready for the next game.”

KU has now lost 26 straight to the powerhouse Sooners and will be in line to face OU again if it can emerge from Saturday night’s elimination game, with first pitch set for 7 p.m. against an opponent yet to be determined.

Isabela Emerling, Gabbie Garcia and Kasidi Pickering batted in two runs each for the Sooners. OU’s starter Miali Guachino went all five innings and struck out six Jayhawks without issuing a walk.

“I thought she changed speeds well … and kept us off balance a little bit,” KU first baseman Anna Soles said.

Oklahoma’s Abby Dayton was positioned well to corral Presley Limbaugh’s grounder up the middle to conclude the game’s first at-bat, but her throw pulled Emerling off the bag. However, Guachino retired the next three Jayhawks with two strikeouts.

Ella Parker pushed Aynslee Linduff back to the warning track in right field with a deep flyout, but the Sooners ultimately got nothing against Barber in the first inning.

Again KU got a leadoff baserunner in Campbell Bagshaw, who singled to shortstop for the lone hit of the day, and September Flanagan bunted her over to second base. Ava Wallace got ahead 3-0 in the count but went down swinging before Linduff struck out looking.

Barber walked Garcia and then gave up OU’s first hit of the game in the form of a two-run homer by Pickering, and then Emerling took the very next pitch deep to center field to make it 3-0.

Wallace made a lunging catch on a fly ball from Kai Minor to halt the damage there.

Nothing else of note happened until the bottom of the fourth, when Wallace went for another diving play but couldn’t quite bring in a hard-hit line drive from Emerling, who doubled in Pickering. Dayton followed that up with another RBI double, which ended Barber’s day as KU brought in Washington in relief.

Washington gave up one run on a ball that Minor bounced into left field with one out. Parker flied out to the track again for the second out, bringing up Kendall Wells, who walked to load the bases for Garcia.

She singled to center field to drive in two more runs and put KU in run-rule territory. OU added another on a wild pitch as Washington continued to labor. A warning-track flyout from Dayton, the 12th batter of the inning, ended things at 9-0.

Guachino sent the Jayhawks down in order to seal the five-inning result.

“Hopefully (we) have a quick memory loss and move on to get ready for the next game,” McFalls said. “We just have to grow from this a little bit. If we win this game tonight, then we’re going to turn around and face them tomorrow, so we can’t hang our heads. We just got to go back in and talk about what adjustments need to be made for us to be able to compete a little bit better.”

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