Practice Day for the Stillwater Super Regional, Cowgirls Nice, but Winning Hosts
STILLWATER – Both Oklahoma State and Arizona practiced at Cowgirl Stadium on Thursday and then met with the media. Some might think the homestanding and No. 5 seeded Cowgirls got a break when Arkansas, for the second season in a row went two and (barbe)cue in their own regional. The Razorbacks flunked final exams and packed up the gloves, bats, and balls while Arizona celebrated on their field about heading to Stillwater for the Super Regional.
Oklahoma State has been to the past four Women’s College World Series and OSU has a strong past tradtion in softball, but it isn’t nearly as prevalent as Arizona. The Wildcats program has seen 110 All-American citations, 35 NCAA Tournament appearances, 25 Women's College World Series appearances, 12 conference championships, and eight national championships in 50 years.
With the demise of the Pac-12, Arizona is not only in Stillwater for this weekend’s Super Regional, but they are coming to the Big 12 as a member next school year.
“We’re really excited about adding them to the Big 12, but we want to do everything we can to keep them down coming into our league,” Cowgirls head coach Kenny Gajewski said. “I say that with respect.”
Gajewski is on a mission with his young team. They are now 47-10 this season. As a team they are eighth in home runs and ninth in sluggling percentage. Last weekend they used the long ball to put away all three of their regional opponents as they sailed through 3-0 and moving on to their fifth super regional in a row.
Gajewski is doing it again this season his way. His young line-up with four sophomores and two freshmen playing a bunch make it one of the youngest line-ups among the top seeds in the tournament.
“I love to play young kids because they don’t seem to know what is at stake. They play like the eight-year-old kids in the backyard,” Gajewski said. “What that does for our older, grandma players that are trying to keep their body intact, they look over and say, ‘see that Rosie Davis play. She is awesome.’ They find joy in that and it keeps them playing even when they see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the joy of watching them play. It’s the jioy of watching them screw it up and get better.”
Roommates off the field, freshmen Rosie Davis and Karli Godwin have been mainstays in the OSU lineup, with Godwin the only Cowgirl to start every game this season. Both NFCA Freshman of the Year Top 25 Finalists, the pair are both among the top three on the team in batting average (.338 for Davis and .339 for Godwin) and they combine for 79 RBIs to go with 21 home runs and 22 doubles.
Arizona is an older team, and one that has spent most of their recent postseason weekends on the road. Head coach Caitlin Lowe seemed fine and even confident when she met with the media with two of her players.
“I think this is all our first time here and just happy to be in Stillwater,” Lowe said. “Excited to compete against some great competition. (I’m) excited the way we performed last weekend. We got to see some of the games at Oklahoma State and excited for the competition and the opportunity to keep moving on.”
Lowe had plenty of good things to say about the Cowgirls.
“Great pitching and they have a lot of different looks,” the Arizona head coach described. “Obviously Kilfoyl is a great ace for them. I think they are coached really well and have a lot of hitters that can do a lot of different things for them. They have just a lot of tools and we’ve been prepping all week for them and trying to have a plan against each pitcher and a defensive plan for each hitter that we face.”
Arizona leads the overall series with Oklahoma State 21-13, but since Kenny Gajewski became coach, Oklahoma State leads two-games-to-one. That’s all you need this weekend, two-games-to-one.