No. 6 Oklahoma State Cowgirls Run Rule Utah 8-0 to Advance to Next Round of WCWS
The No. 6 seeded Oklahoma State Cowgirls rolled through the No. 15 Utah Utes with an 8-0, five-inning run rule win to advance forward in the 2023 Women’s College World Series.
With the win, the Cowgirls move 47-15 on the season and will face the loser of Oklahoma-Tennessee on Sunday, June 4, at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
“Well, obviously a really nice game for OSU,” said head coach Kenny Gajewski. “I told our team after last night's game that I couldn't wait to see what their response would be. I had a good feeling. Not sure I could tell you we were going to come out and run rule, but I figured we'd play well. There's too much experience here. There's just too much talent here. There's too many great kids and great coaches. I felt good; I felt good all day. Excellent pitching. I thought Lexi was on point. Defense making plays. We hit the ball like I know that we can. When we do that, we're pretty dang good. Good win.”
Lexi Kilfoyl was the winning pitcher having thrown just 53 pitches in five innings. She gave up just three hits in 19 batters faced, which included three strikeouts and just one walk.
“I guess just try not to think of it as than elimination game because that's when you're going to fail,” said Lexi Kilfoyl. “So, I went in there and I knew I was going to take groundballs, my defense was going to have my backs. At-bats came right from the first inning, and they were just non-stop.”
Katelynn Carwile and Morgyn Wynne each recorded multiple RBIs, with Carwile leading the way going 2-for-3 from the plate with three RBIs. Wynne finished the game also going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
The Cowgirls struck first in the bottom half of the first inning. Rachel Becker drew a walk to kick things off and was advanced to second with a sacrifice bunt by Chyenne Factor. Kiley Naomi drew a one-out walk and both were advanced to second and third as Morgyn Wynne smoked a ball into left field to load the bases.
After going 0-8 last in the WCWS last season, Katelynn Carwile got some redemption as she recorded a one-out single to bring home both Becker and Naomi to put the Cowgirls up 2-0.
The Pokes were solid defensively in the top half of the second as Utah was retired in order all via ground balls.
The floodgates opened up in the bottom of the second for the Cowgirls. They loaded the bases with no outs, bringing Factor to the plate. With a 1-0 count, Factor drove the ball into the left field to score Taylor Tuck from third, putting the Pokes up 3-0 with zero outs and forces Utah to change pitchers. That, however, didn’t matter as Naomi recorded an RBI single scoring Megan Bloodworth from third and putting the Cowgirls up 4-0, still with no outs.
Becker scored from third on a wild pitch from Morris, which was followed by a bases-clearing double to the wall by Wynne to put them up 7-0 with zero outs. Carwile singled up the middle to score Wynne from second to go up 8-0 before Micaela Wark flew out to center for the first out of the inning.
Tallen Edwards reached first on a fielding error by Belarde at second, advancing Carwile all the way to third from first. The inning came to an end though when Tuck struck out, but obstructed a through down to second to try and get Edwards out who was stealing.
That was more than enough for Kilfoyl as she gave up just two hits in the final three frames of the game to secure the win for the Pokes.