Oklahoma beat Florida State, 3-1, on Thursday to win its third straight softball national championship and 53rd consecutive game.

Why it matters: The Sooners are the first team to three-peat since UCLA in 1990 and have cemented themselves as the greatest dynasty in softball history.

By the numbers: The last time Oklahoma lost was 109 days ago (Feb. 19). During that 53-game winning streak, they outscored opponents by 371 runs.

• They recorded 35 shutouts this season and never trailed by more than three runs at any point.
• Four batters hit over .400, and three pitchers had a sub-1.00 ERA.

The big picture: The Sooners have won seven softball national titles, trailing only Arizona (8) and UCLA (12).

• They join Stanford men's gymnastics as the only Division I programs with an active three-peat.
• They're one of 27 programs to complete a three-peat this century, joining the likes of UConn women's basketball (2002-04, 2013-16) and Virginia men's tennis (2015-17).

🍿 Must-see catch: Jayda Coleman made the play of the night, robbing a three-run homer in the third inning.

Our coverage of the Lionel Messi blockbuster was supposed to go here. But then I received this email from a reader, and it was simply too good not to share. Messi will have to wait.

From Nick P. (New York):

Kendall,

First off, have to say that I am a big fan of the newsletter. I read it every morning either on my way to work or at my desk and I always enjoy it. The highlight of my morning is answering trivia.

Now, I have a story to tell you about the evolution of Axios Sports trivia at my office because I think you would get a kick out of it. I will try my best to tell the story here.

Since first signing up to Axios Sports ~2.5 years ago, I would occasionally do the trivia questions alone at my desk. I'm a big NFL and NCAAF guy so I'd always spend time on those, but would typically pass on NBA, NHL, or MLB trivia as I didn't follow these sports as closely.

After about a year, I started asking my colleagues that sit nearby select trivia questions. Again this was mostly NFL and NCAAF, but if it featured a New York sports team, I would always ask. But it was very casual and not very consistent.

About 7 months ago, someone new joined our team. He's a BIG sports guy. Lives, breathes and eats sports. So anyways, I would ask my typical questions and then one day he asks me, "Do you get trivia questions every day?" I told him yes, and from then on, we've done every trivia question. I would read the question, everyone would write down their answer, once we were all done, I would scroll to the bottom and reveal the answer.

That wasn't enough, though. After a month or two, we started keeping track. At this point, it was four fairly junior-level employees doing trivia every day and tracking points. Each question is worth 1 point, if a question has multiple answers, each correct answer gets prorated.

Every morning when we did trivia, people around the office would ask what we were up to when we'd get rowdy after a suspenseful answer reveal. So, we started extending offers to other colleagues to join our daily festivities. It started with four, then five, then seven, now, at the time of writing, we have 10 daily contestants, including the president of a multinational insurance company.

We've set rules and guidelines, and have a full process that we follow. We count points/questions by the month. At the end of every month, we count up the points and the contestant with the most points wins that month. Like any other competition, we needed a first-place trophy, something for the monthly champion to hold onto, rub into others' faces maybe, that lets everyone in the office know that he/she is the sports trivia king/queen.

Working at an insurance company, we didn't have much to work with in terms of potential prizes, but we did have a gigantic silver spoon laying around, so that was the first prize.

After a few months, the president personally ordered 12 smaller, engraved silver spoons. On the first of every month, we now hold our Sacred Spooning Ceremony whereby he crowns the champion and delivers him/her a new silver spoon. There were 12 silver spoons up for grabs. As for the original silver spoon, this goes to the winner as well, but this can switch hands each month depending on who wins that month.

The guy who joined seven months ago and is a big sports fan — he's won three silver spoons in a row. Nobody has beat him. And it's certainly got to his, already big, head. We can't let him go four months in a row. June is the month of the swoon and we are hopeful someone else will win. Pictures of the spoons to come at some point!

Carter Verhaeghe scored in overtime to lift the Panthers past the Golden Knights, 3-2, on Thursday night in South Florida.

Why it matters: The victory got Florida back into the series (down 2-1) and marks the franchise's first-ever win in a Stanley Cup Final. They were swept by the Avalanche in 1996 and lost the first two games in Vegas.

Wild stat: The Panthers have won 10 straight OT playoff games, the second-longest streak in NHL history, per ESPN. The Canadiens won 14 in a row from 1993-98.

🏈 Cook released: The Vikings will release four-time Pro Bowl RB Dalvin Cook, who was due to earn $11 million this season. The Dolphins and Broncos are reportedly among the 27-year-old's most interested suitors.

🏁 F1 alternate telecast: Three Formula One races, starting with next weekend's Canadian GP, will feature an alternate telecast on ESPN2 hosted by F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and actor Will Arnett.

🏀 Bonner goes off: DeWanna Bonner scored a franchise-record 41 points to lead the Sun past the Aces, 94-77, and hand Vegas its first loss of the season.

🇲🇽 Big 12 in Mexico: The Big 12 is launching a series of games in Mexico beginning in December 2024 across various sports. It's also considering a bowl game there as soon as 2026.

Luis Arráez won the AL batting title last year. Turns out he was just getting warmed up, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes.

Driving the news: Arráez raised his batting average to .403 on Wednesday. That's the seventh-highest by a qualified hitter through his team's first 63 games since 1941, when Ted Williams became the last MLB player to bat .400 over an entire season.

• Andrés Galarraga (1993): .435 (finished the season batting .370)
• Chipper Jones (2008): .420 (.364)
• Larry Walker (1997): .416 (.366)
• Williams (1941): .412 (.406)
• Rod Carew (1983): .409 (.339)
• Paul O'Neill (1994): .405 (.359)
• Arráez (2023): .403 (TBD)

State of play: The Marlins' second baseman is slashing .403/.452/.495, and his otherworldly performance atop the lineup has led Miami to a 35-28 record — its best start since 2004.

• He has 87 hits and just 11 strikeouts, good for an absurd 7.9-to-1 ratio. The next-best mark this season (min. 200 AB) belongs to Red Sox left fielder Masataka Yoshida, at 2.8-to-1 (68 H, 24 K).
• Absolutely wild stat: He's seen 839 pitches across 239 plate appearances, and he's only swung and missed 29 times.

Fun fact: The contact specialist has done all of this while hitting just one homer, but he made the most of that April blast, using it to become the first Marlin ever to hit for the cycle.

The big picture: It's June and we are legitimately on .400 watch. And even though history says Arráez is due for a regression, he could still be in line to have the greatest batting season ever compared to his peers.

• NL hitters are batting .250 collectively, giving Arráez a 161 AVG+ (61% better than league average). The current MLB record for AVG+ is 154, by Nap Lajoie in 1910.
• In other words, Arráez could fall short of .400 and still have the best league-adjusted average of all time.

ELMONT, N.Y. — Racing at Belmont Park was canceled on Thursday, and Saturday's Belmont Stakes could be canceled if air quality standards aren't met.

CLEVELAND — José Ramírez homered in his first three at-bats and hit his 200th career HR to power the Guardians to a 10-3 win over the Red Sox.

PARIS — Unseeded Karolína Muchová beat No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5, on Thursday to advance to her first Grand Slam final. She'll face No. 1 Iga Świątek.

Manchester City and Inter Milan will meet in Istanbul on Saturday (3pm ET, CBS) in the Champions League Final.

• City: If they win their first Champions League title, they'll become just the fifth team in Europe's Big Five leagues to claim a continental treble.
• Inter: The Nerazzurri are seeking their fourth title and first since 2010, when they claimed one of the aforementioned trebles.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA Finals: Nuggets (up 2-1) at Heat (Fri. 8:30pm, ABC)
• 🏒 Stanley Cup Final: Golden Knights (up 2-1) at Panthers (Sat. 8pm, TNT)
• 🎾 French Open: No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 3 Novak Djokovic (Fri. 8:45am, Tennis/NBC); No. 4 Casper Ruud vs. No. 22 Alexander Zverev (Fri. 11:30am, Tennis/NBC); No. 1 Iga Świątek vs. Karolína Muchová (Sat. 9am, NBC) … Men's final on Sunday (9am, NBC).
• 🐎 Horse racing: The 155th Belmont Stakes (Sat. 7pm, Fox)
• ⚾️ NCAA Baseball: Super regionals (Fri-Sun, ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU) … Eight best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the CWS.
• ⚾️ MLB: Royals at Orioles (Fri. 7pm, Apple TV+); Mariners at Angels (Fri. 9:30pm, Apple TV+); Diamondbacks at Tigers (Sun. 11:30am, Peacock); Red Sox at Yankees (Sun. 7pm, ESPN)
• 🏀 WNBA: 11 games (Fri-Sun, ABC/ION/CBSSN/ESPN3/League Pass)
• ⚽️ MLS: 14 games (Sat-Sun, Apple TV) … Six are free to watch.
• ⚽️ NWSL: Pride vs. Thorns (Sun. 7pm, CBSSN)
• ⛳️ PGA: Canadian Open (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf/CBS)
• 🥍 PLL: Week 2 (Fri-Sat, ABC/ESPN+)
• 🏁 Motorsports: 24 Hours of Le Mans (Sat. 10am, MotorTrend TV) … 100th anniversary race.
• 🏁 NASCAR: Sonoma Raceway (Sun. 3:30pm, Fox)
• 🥊 Boxing: Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez (Sat. 11pm, ESPN/ESPN+) … At MSG for the super lightweight title.
• 🏈 USFL: Week 9 (Sat-Sun, Fox/NBC/Peacock)

"American Ninja Warrior" is more than just a TV show. It's also the basis for a sport whose popularity is surging ahead of its possible inclusion at the 2028 Olympics, Jeff writes.

Driving the news: The show's 15th season debuted this week on NBC, and the 32 Ninjas who have emerged from qualifiers will now compete for the season's $1 million grand prize.

• The origins of the show — which features athletes completing various obstacles — are in Japan, where "Sasuke" first aired in 1997.
• The American spinoff debuted in 2009, and other versions are now recorded in 20 countries, notes SI's Brian Burnsed.

State of play: ANW's popularity launched a cottage industry of amateur ninjas who crafted courses at home. Soon, those makeshift courses gave way to gyms in converted warehouses.

• There are now nearly 400 such gyms nationwide, and leagues have also sprung up across the globe.
• Three leagues stand above the rest, per Burnsed: the World Ninja League, Federation of International Ninja Athletics and Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association.

Looking ahead: Obstacle course (essentially ninja) was already approved to replace equestrian in the modern pentathlon at the 2028 Olympics, and World Obstacle is pushing to make ninja a standalone Olympic sport.

Go deeper: Ninja warriors everywhere (SI)

Serbia is currently in the sports spotlight thanks to Nikola Jokić and Novak Djokovic. What’s the country's capital and largest city?

• Zagreb
• Podgorica
• Belgrade
• Ljubljana

Answer at the bottom.

The Nuggets are two wins away from breaking the Taylor Swift curse, Jeff writes.

State of play: 10 NBA playoff teams share a city with a stop on Swift's Eras Tour, and Denver is the only one still alive. The nine teams that lost: Hawks, 76ers, Celtics, Suns, Knicks, Nets, Lakers, Clippers and Warriors.

What to watch: Swift heads to Denver next month, but won’t be stopping in Miami. Will the Nuggets break the curse by winning a title? Or will the Heat come out on top and prove it’s real?