OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Oklahoma, making its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA softball championships, likes its prospects of making a run deep into the tournament.

"I feel we have as good a chance as anybody,'' said coach Patty Gasso, whose team begins play Thursday against Washington at Don Porter ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

"You look at all these teams and they all have World Series experience. Anybody could win it. Yeah, there are some front-runners. But in 2000, we were the seventh seed (and won the title). It's really up for grabs.''

Fourth-seeded Oklahoma (46-12) and Washington (46-16-1) were both top seeds at their regional tournaments, as were Arizona, UCLA, Texas and Alabama. All six won their regionals without a loss.

Oklahoma fell to fifth in the Big 12 standings after a loss to Oklahoma State a month ago, but got on a roll beginning with the conference tournament. At the NCAA regional, the Sooners hit .282 and scored 26 runs.

"We'll be going up against better pitchers at the World Series. It's going to be much tougher to get through,'' Gasso said. "But right now we're as hot as anybody. Let's see if we can keep that momentum going.''

Washington is in the Women's College World Series for the sixth time in 10 years and outscored its opponents 35-1 at the regional last weekend.

Gasso said the teams match up well.

"We both like to run, we both have pretty solid pitching staffs,'' she said. "It will come down to who can come through with clutch hits.''

The other first-day games have top-ranked and top-seeded Arizona (54-5) playing Alabama (49-19) at 10 a.m., third-seeded Texas (47-7) playing Louisiana-Lafayette (47-9) at 6:30 and No. 3 seed UCLA (49-6) playing defending champion California (45-18) at 9 p.m.

Two winners' bracket games will be held Friday night, with four elimination games Saturday. Teams will play Sunday for a berth in the title game Monday afternoon.