Cowgirls Relying on Postseason Experience in Third-Straight Postseason
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State softball is set to begin postseason play Friday evening against Fordham in the Stillwater Regional. It marks the third-straight regional held in Stillwater dating back to the 2019 season.
The 2019 Stillwater Regional marked the first postseason tournament held in Stillwater since 2011, and the first NCAA regional since the 1998. Following that, the Cowgirls made their way down to Tallahassee and upset Florida State in three games to make it back to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 2011.
There are currently seven players on this year’s team who played on that 2019 squad: Chelsea Alexander, Kiley Naomi, Chyenne Factor, Sydney Pennington, Kelly Maxwell, Michaela Richbourg and Taylor Tuck. Which means they’ve played in two WCWS, two Super Regionals and this will be their third-straight NCAA regional, all in Stillwater, while trying to make it three-straight Supers and WCWS appearances.
“The experience is key, and I can remember the first time we went to the postseason, and you look down that roster and went ‘we have none, including me,’” said head coach Kenny Gajewski. “Then the next year we have a bunch, the following year we have a bunch. Then we hit a Super [Regional] and a World Series, and you start adding up all these extra games that you’re playing. It’s like bowl [games] for football. Our fans go, ‘why are we going to this bowl? The coaches go, ‘because it’s 15 to 20 more practices that these young guys get and when you start looking at these successful programs, it’s why going to a bowl game every year is so important and it’s no different for us. So, we do have a lot of kids with a lot of experience that the moment will not be too big and that should perform very well.”
However, it’s not just those seven players who have experience. There are several players on this team who played in last year’s NCAA regional, Super Regional and WCWS, plus a handful of incredibly talented and experienced transfers who have made big impacts this season, like Morgan Day, Miranda Elish, Morgyn Wynne, Julia Cottrill and Hayley Busby.
“I think it’s incredibly valuable to have that experience, combined with some young talent, some fresh energy and transfers and everything that that brings,” Chelsea Alexander said following Thursday’s practice. “You put two things together and it creates a great recipe, so it’s really valuable moving forward to kind of have that level-headedness and the ‘been here, done that’ mentality that we know how to go and perform in those situations.”