Gene's Blog: Fun win streaks to celebrate, Sooner or later

For the third year in a row, Oklahoma Softball has been crowned national champion at the Division I College World Series.

The No. 1-ranked Sooners (61-1) broke the Division I Softball all-time win streak of 47 in May at the NCAA Super Regional tournament. They claimed their 52nd and 53rd consecutive wins, all this season, with two defeats of Florida State this week that let them take the best-of-three championship title. They have built a three-year record of 176-8. This year's OU team scored 501 runs over 62 games.

Oklahoma will go into the 2024 season needing a 3-0 season start to break the NCAA all-division record of 55 consecutive wins set 18 years ago by Division II's Northern Kentucky.

Guess which Upper Midwest university is on that all-division softball consecutive victory list? If you said the St. Thomas Tommies, you have a good memory.

Coach John Tschida's 2004 and 2005 Tommie teams won 43 games in a row, including the final 40 contests of the 2004 season en route to an NCAA championship. The 2005 Toms won their final 18 games in repeating as D-III national champs. The 2006 Toms started that season 48-2 before losing two one-games to Rutgers-Camden and taking second place in the national tournament.

In that three-year run from 2004-2006, Tommie Softball built a combined 96-4 record in MIAC games and in May NCAA tournament play, with all four losses recorded by one-run margins. The two 2006 losses to Rutgers-Camden ended the Toms' 30-game postseason win streak.

Longest NCAA Softball Win Streaks/All Divisions

55, Northern Kentucky, D-II (Feb.-May 2005)
53, Oklahoma, D-I (Feb. 2023-current)
53, Tufts (Mass.), D-III (May 2014-May 2015)
51, North Georgia, D-II (Feb.-May 2010)
47, Arizona, D-I (April 1996-March 1997)
43, St. Thomas, D-III (March 2004-March 2005)
41, Oklahoma, D-I (Feb.-May 2019)
41, Virginia Wesleyan, D-III (May 2017-April 2018)

Other Notable Tommie Win Streaks

Here are some other impressive St. Thomas win streaks:
40: Tommie Women's Basketball (Jan. 1991-March 1992)
35: Tommie Volleyball (Sept.-Nov. 2012)
31: Tommie Softball (March-May 2011)
30: Tommie Men's Basketball (Nov. 2008-March 2009)

27: Tommie Men's Basketball (Nov.-March 1995)
27: Tommie Softball (March-May 2013)
27: Tommie Softball (March-May 2008)
27: Tommie Softball (March-May 2006)
25: Tommie Softball (April 2005-March 2006)

19: Tommie Men's Soccer (Sept.-Nov. 2017)
19: Tommie Football (1912-14)
18: Tommie Volleyball (Aug.-Oct. 2013)
18: Tommie Volleyball (Aug. Oct. 2008)
18: Tommie Volleyball (Aug.-Oct. 2007)

Notable Tommie Unbeaten Streaks

37: Tommie Women's Hockey (30-0-7 W-L-T, Jan. 2018-Feb. 2019)
21: Tommie Women's Soccer (16-0-4 from 2018-20)
20: Tommie Women's Soccer (15-0-5 from Oct. 2007-Oct. 2008
17: Tommie Men's Soccer (14-0-3 from Sept.-Oct. 2016)

Football Win Streaks

Tommie Football did two things in 2022 that were unprecedented in program history. First, the Tommies played an 11-game regular-season schedule. Second, they closed the season on a 10-game winning streak.

After opening last fall with a road loss at Southern Utah, the Purple reeled off 10 consecutive victories, including an 8-0 run through the Pioneer Football League.

Several times in the 118-year history of St. Thomas football did our teams produce unbeaten seasons. That list includes teams from 1907 (7-0), 1913 (9-0), 1923 (9-0), 1942 (8-0), 1944 (7-0) and 1956 (8-0). The Tommies have played 10 regular-season games 46 times since they first did it in 1968.

Coach Glenn Caruso had several teams here that built a double-digit win streak to start their seasons. His three most accomplished Tommie teams started 13-0 in 2011 and began 14-0 in both 2012 and 2015. But last fall was the first Caruso squad to win its final 10 games.

Tommie Football also comes into the 2023 season with the longest on-campus home win streak in NCAA football at 26, just ahead of North Central (Ill.) at 22, and Alabama and Montana State at 20.

Oral Roberts' 2023 Baseball Run

It's safe to say that we have found the best baseball team ever to play on St. Thomas' campus at Koch Diamond: The 2023 Oral Roberts squad.

The No. 10-ranked Golden Eagles (49-11) take a 21-game win streak into this weekend's NCAA Super Regional road series against the Oregon Ducks. They are the first Summit League baseball team since 2006 to advance into a Super Regional. They edged No. 11-ranked and host Oklahoma State 6-4 and also took close wins over Washington and Dallas Baptist to win last weekend's Stillwater regional. Closer Josh Denton and CF Jonah Cox made D-I All-America. ORU is averaging 8.4 runs a game and its pitchers are averaging more than nine strikeouts a contest.

The Eagles' 26-1 run against conference teams over the 2023 regular season and playoffs included six wins over the Tommies: three wins at home March 17-19, and another 3-0 sweep at St. Thomas May 5-7. In the March 17 contest in Tulsa, OSU led just 3-2 after six innings but went on to win 10-2. In the May 5 game in St. Paul, the teams were tied 2-2 after seven innings before Oral Roberts scored three runs in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth and claimed an 8-3 win.

Jonah Cox is batting .424 and has a current 44-game hitting streak through last weekend's regional tourney. In six games vs. the Tommies, Cox batted .593 with 16 hits in 27 at bats with 10 runs and nine RBI.

Gene's Blog is a sports column penned by Tommie sports information director Gene McGivern. Gene is working his 29th season at St. Thomas and 35th overall with Twin Cities college athletics teams. He blogs periodically on various topics regarding the Tommies and college sports.

If you have comments or questions, e-mail Gene at ejmcgivern@stthomas.edu

University of St. Thomas Athletics

Gene's Blog: Fun win streaks to celebrate, Sooner or later

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