Poullard Pounds the Ball, Kilfoyl is Perfect, and the Cowgirls Advance
STILLWATER – Two Oklahoma State fans sitting on the top row of the seats at Cowgirl Stadium and one said to the other, “you can just call her Jilyen Jack.” He was referring to Oklahoma State center fielder Jilyen Poullard, who took a 3-2 delivery from Northern Colorado starter Erin Caviness in the bottom of the third and sent it way out over the left field wall and into the fans deck out there. It was to the delight of almost everybody in the stadium that was weathering the bright sun and the 90-degree late afternoon temperature. No breeze, but Poullard’s wallop made it seem like there was one. That made the score 2-0 Cowgirls. Later Poullard may have been robbed of another and what would have been her tenth of the season. It was the key moment on offense as the Cowgirls ran their record to 45-10 with the 6-0 victory and a move on in the winner’s bracket of the Stillwater Regional.
“She had some really good at bats,” head coach Kenny Gajewski said of Poullard. “I thought after that first at bat that she was really dialed in. Up and down I thought we really did good. It was good to see Karli (Godwin) get a hit in her first postseason at bat and Rosie as well. I thought our crowd was great.”
“I think the craziest part about it was I didn’t think I hit the ball very well on that at bat or the other one later,” Poullard said in postgame. “ I thought I kind of missed it and thought they were going to be fly balls to the warning track. You could probably see me saying, ‘go ball’ and that is kind of my thing. I was generally surprised with both of those balls and how far they went.”
Oklahoma State added to the lead before the end of the inning as Tallen Edwards followed the homer with a double off the wall in left field. Edwards would advance to third later on a wild pitch. With two outs, Rosie Davis hit a nubber back to the pitcher that glanced off her glove to the shortstop, but no play available with Davis sprinting to first. Davis sprinted home with the third run.
“I can honestly feel how much we all love one another,” Davis said. “i think that is what makes this team so special.”
At that point It was all they would need because the pitching was perfect. Okay, really it was near perfect. On Thursday in the pre-regional press conference the Cowgirls ace and college softball top 10 finalist for National Player of the Year Lexi Kilfoyl told the media that she had extra days off and that she almost always threw harder with extra time off. She threw it hard enough that Northern Colorado couldn’t hit her. She faced 15 batters in five innings and all of them went back to the dugout empty-handed. The Kenny Gajewski brought in Ivy Rosenberry and she kept the perfect effort going through the sixth inning but there was a hit allowed in the top of the seventh but Rosenberry finished it out allowing the only two hits of the game for UNC.
“I felt pretty good today and kudos to our defense today because I think I only had one strike out and they handled everything today,” Kilfoyl said of her five innings of no hits and facing the minimum. I feel good. I’m honestly ready to throw another 70 (pitches) if I needed to.”
The best defensive play of the game was a running catch by Claire Timm that drew admiration from everybody.
“We see Claire make those kind of catches everyday in practice,” Kilfoyl said. “She is just a shy girl usually, but that was really great to see her potential.”
“I was very surprised because immediately I was screaming, ‘back, back.’ I’m glad she couldn;t hear me,” said Poullard.
The Cowgirls scored first in the bottom of the first when Caroline Wang started a two-out rally with a single to center. Karlie Godwin followed that up with a single to left. Davis got the first RBI with a double to left center over the head of the leftfielder trying to flag it down. Wang scored for the 1-0 advantage.
Oklahoma State scored in the bottom of the sixth for some insurance as Lexi McDonald, who left and then returned had an RBI single to make it 4-0. Then with two runners on and two outs, Poullard came up and hit the ball what look liked was over the wall in left center. She circled the bases and the scoreboard lit up 7-0 Oklahoma State. UNC’s head coach Dedeann Pendleton-Helm asked for a review and the umpires determined the ball hit the top of the wall and came back to the field. The two runners scored, but Poullard was sent back to second with a ground rule double.
Gajewski left in a rush after answering a few minutes of questions as he was working to make it to his son’s graduation from Stillwater High School. A great night all around for the Cowgirls head coach.
Oklahoma State now advances to the winner’s game at noon on Saturday against No. 2 seed in Stillwater in Kentucky (31-22). The Wildcats battled Big Ten Tournament champion Michigan (41-17) down to the bottom of the seventh and right fielder Peyton Plotts looped the ball into short right-center and just over the head of Michigan second baseman Indiana Langford for the winning run as Erin Coffel scored the 4-3 walk off. Oklahoma State and Kentucky, the top two seeds with a chance to move to Sunday needing to win just one and with a loss to give.
“They’ve always been a good program,” Kilfoyl said adding that she has played them a lot in the past when she was at Alabama. “They come in and give us their best. We’ll watch film and see what we’re working with, get a plan, and as long as we stick with our plan we’ll be fine.”