What's next for Oklahoma State softball after loss to Kansas? 'Just gotta keep fighting'
The Oklahoma State softball team’s impossible-to-understand late-season slump took yet another odd turn in an 8-7 loss to Kansas in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Cowgirls have now lost 11 of their last 13 games, and for all sorts of reasons.
This time, it was a late defensive collapse that cost the third-seeded Cowgirls, who had three errors in the last two innings that helped sixth-seeded Kansas rally with five runs in that span, including four in the top of the seventh.
“It’s tough,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “This team works so hard. We take a lot of pride in our defense and it’s really let us down. That part of it’s tough. Our offense is coming around and starting to do the things that I know it can do and it has done for the majority of this year.”
OSU was in the top five nationally in fielding percentage virtually all season and was still eighth at .979 entering Friday.
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OSU shortstop Kiley Naomi had a fielding error and a throwing error on the same play in the sixth inning that allowed a run to score, cutting OSU’s lead to 5-4.
In the seventh, she failed to get to a grounder up the middle that is typically within her range, though it was ruled a hit, with a run scoring to make the score 6-4. The play would’ve led to at least one out, but instead left Kansas with runners on first and second and a wild pitch moved them each up a base.
Moments later, a run came in on a grounder to shortstop. Naomi threw home and the runner was initially called out on the tag by catcher Taylor Tuck, but review overturned the call, scoring the tying run.
A single scored another, and an error by third baseman Megan Bloodworth allowed the final run in.
The Cowgirls had multiple errors in a game just six times over the first 42 games, of which they won 39. But during the recent struggles, they’ve had multiple errors in seven of 13 games, including eight total errors in the last three.
“It’s weird,” Gajewski said. “I’ve never been through this, so I don’t have a lot of answers. I’m glad I don’t have the answers, because that means you’re going through it a lot.”
OSU entered Friday morning trailing 3-1 in the top of the fourth inning of a game that had been suspended because of weather on Thursday night.
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The Cowgirls exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fourth, including a three-run home run by Katelynn Carwile, her second of the season and first since Feb. 24.
The junior from Purcell added an RBI on a groundout in the sixth inning that made OSU’s lead 6-4.
“I wasn’t trying to do anything big in the moment,” Carwile said. “I was just trying to stay where I was, do what I could for my team to help them out as best as I could.”
Tuck, who has been hot at the plate lately, gave OSU a final gasp of life with a run-scoring triple in the seventh inning that cut the deficit to 8-7, but she was stranded at third to end the game.
The loss wiped out OSU’s final opportunity to add something positive to its résumé for seeding in the NCAA Tournament bracket.
The Cowgirls will now await their fate — with dissipating hopes of earning a top-eight seed — in the NCAA selection show, set for 6 p.m. Sunday.
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“I know we’re gonna be right there,” Gajewski said of the potential seeding, adding he could see his team land anywhere between No. 7-10. “Our body of work is still good. The only thing that’s gonna hurt us is our last 10 when it comes down to it.
“You can’t change it. It’s out of our hands. And we didn’t make it hard on anyone.”
The early exit will give OSU players a couple of days away from softball.
“I think it’ll be good for these guys to figure out what the next couple weeks will look like,” Gajewski said. “I think we’re in this infancy of learning how to play where people give you their best every day. It’s a new thing. It’s been hard on us.
“I think this team, once they figure it all out and get to see it, I think you may see a little bit of a different look. Their mentality has been awesome. They’ve been working. We’ve been practicing hard. … I think it’ll be good on these kids to just be normal for a couple days and then we’ll get regrouped and go.”
As he has done the last two years after the Big 12 Tournament, Gajewski will take his team to the Broken Bow area on Sunday for a brief retreat. They’ll watch the NCAA selection show from there and try to reset for the regional round, which they are sure to host at Cowgirl Stadium next weekend.
“I think our team is right there,” Carwile said. “And we always have been. We just gotta keep fighting and showing how resilient we are every single inning of every single game.”
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Oklahoma State vs. Kansas suspended due to weather
With the threat of thunderstorms nearing USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, officials for the Big 12 Tournament postponed play in the last of three quarterfinal games on Thursday night.
With sixth-seeded Kansas leading third-seeded Oklahoma State 3-1 in the top of the fourth inning, OSU coach Kenny Gajewski came onto the field to make a pitching change, but before new pitcher Kyra Aycock could throw a pitch, players were told to leave the field.
The conference immediately made the call to postpone the game until 10 a.m. Friday.
Oklahoma State took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by catcher Taylor Tuck in the bottom of the second inning. To that point, Cowgirl pitcher Kelly Maxwell had looked like her old self, rather than the pitcher who had struggled through her previous few outings.
Maxwell breezed through the first two innings, but the Jayhawks got to her in the third. She issued her first walk of the game, then gave up a single before leadoff hitter Haleigh Harper lined a two-run double to left-center field.
Presley Limbaugh singled to score Harper for the 3-1 advantage.
Kansas got two more runners on in the top of the fourth with a walk and an OSU throwing error with one out.
Maxwell got the second out, and had a 2-1 count on Limbaugh when she was removed from the game.
The winner of the game is slated to face third-seeded Texas at 4 p.m. Friday, following the 1 p.m. semifinal matchup between top-seeded Oklahoma and No. 5 Iowa State.
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Texas 7, Texas Tech 6 (8)
A thrilling rally ended in less-than-dramatic fashion as Texas hit three home runs between the sixth and seventh innings to rally from a four-run deficit and escape with a 7-6 win in eight innings against Texas Tech on Thursday in the first round of the Big 12 softball tournament.
Then the winning run scored on a Texas Tech wild pitch to ruin the upset bid.
Tech broke a 2-2 tie with a three-run home run by Riley Love in the top of the fourth, then went up 6-2 with another run in the fifth.
But Texas got home runs from Bella Dayton, Katie Cimusz and Vanessa Quiroga to tie the game.
The Longhorns loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth when Dayton scored on a wild pitch by Tech’s sixth pitcher of the day, Erna Carlin.
Texas will face the Oklahoma State/Kansas winner from Thursday’s late game at 4 p.m. in the Friday semifinals.
Iowa State 8, Baylor 1
Angelina Allen had four hits to lead fifth-seeded Iowa State’s offensive onslaught, while pitcher Ellie Spelhaug allowed a run on two hits to secure the quarterfinal upset.
The Cyclones had 16 hits in all, with Kasey Simpson and Sarah Tyree — a Bixby native — adding three each. Allen and Mikayla Ramos drove in two runs apiece.
Spelbaug took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, before the Bears managed a single and double to produce their only run to cut the deficit to 4-1.
But Iowa State responded with four runs in the top of the seventh to widen the gap.
Iowa State will face top-seeded Oklahoma at 1 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball falls to Kansas in Big 12 Tournament opener