Pennington's Home Run Symbolic of Program's Rise
STILLWATER – The ball came off that bat and had a fairly high trajectory. From up in the stands in Cowgirl Stadium it was hard to tell if the ball had enough on it to leave the yard. It did as the ball landed in a pair of hands connected to outstretched arms on the second row of the left field corral.
With that Sydney Pennington, the Cowgirls senior third baseman from Sand Springs, Okla. had eclipsed the career home run record at Oklahoma State. She had been tied with former player and graduate assistant coach Tiffany Mikkelson at 35, but now Pennington had the record with her 36th and her 12th of this season.
“When I hit it, I thought it was going to go out,” Pennington said. “It was a high pitch. Then it went out and I couldn’t stop smiling after that. It was a good moment.”
Mikkelson was actually in the stands and saw the home run go out.
As Pennington rounded the bases with that smile, the ball was already rounding it’s way to Pennington’s dad Brett, who regularly watches from out there.
The fans literally passed the ball down the line until it got to Sydney’s parents as her mom Amy was out there as well.
“I think I saw that,” Pennington said when asked if she knew her parents had the record home run ball. “I was trying to aim for my dad again.”
“I think that is a cool story that we will look back on when Sydney’s playing days are done,” Oklahoma State head coach Kenny Gajewski said of one his star’s record accomplishments. “I think right now I’m not going to get caught up in that. The thing that is really cool right now and I told her is she’s done this in three and a half years and there is going to be no asterisk next to her name. It wouldn’t bother me if there was an asterisk next to her name, but she’s done it in three and a half years!”
There may be an asterisk when her final total of home runs hit is posted in the media guide. You see Pennington is a senior, but with the grace the NCAA is giving, she has told Gajewski that she plans on coming back for another season.
The player when Gajewski first got the job that he was afraid he wasn’t going to keep. Pennington had committed to the previous head coach and staff.
“This kid had a chance when the previous coaching staff left, she could have left here easily,” Gajewski said of Pennington. “She could have been right down the road wearing crimson and cream if she wanted to. She decided to hold this out and see this through. It was one of the toughest recruiting conversations that I’ve ever had in my whole life.”
Gajewski said he got super prepared and put on a recruiting presentation to try and keep Pennington and other players that had committed to the Cowgirls.
“I laid out our plan,” Gajewski said. “I laid out how important she could be, and I told her (staying) would take guts.”
Gajewski said he was sweating it out and wasn’t getting any warm fuzzies from Sydney and her family.
“After I was done, her dad (Brett) looked at her and said, ‘Syd, do you want to tell him?’ and I was like this is going to be a beat down. She said, ‘I’m coming.’ I looked at her and said, ‘you could have told me in the first five minutes of this conversation.’”
The new head coach now had warm fuzzies he wanted to share. He had no idea that he was locking down the program’s future home run record holder.
“I remember calling the staff and telling them that we were okay. We were on the right track and we got the best player in the state,” recalled Gajewski.
After all that Gajewski spilled out following the 10-2 run-rule win over Mississippi State he pulled back just a little as this is time to focus on the name on the front of the jerseys and not one on the back.
“I know we could be talking about history, but right now we’re on an incredible run and I don’t want to look past that,” the head coach added.
“The last couple of weeks I’ve been focusing on taking quality at bats and not trying to do too much,” Pennington explained staying humble. “I think that’s helped me. Nothing changed today. I knew I could break that record, but nothing changed in my mind in the box. I’ve been trying to stay patient and let it work out on it’s own.
That is exactly what it did, a regional win and a new home run record all in one afternoon.