Big 12 Softball Bracket Released

The Cowgirls’ path to a Big 12 title is set.

Oklahoma State earned the 4 seed in this week’s Big 12 Championship. The Cowgirls will start the tournament with a game against 5 seed Arizona State at 11 a.m. Thursday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. The game will be televised on ESPN+.

OSU finished 13-9 in Big 12 play — unable to get to a full 24 games after the fires in Stillwater saw two of the Cowgirls’ games against Houston get canceled. OSU finished behind Texas Tech (20-4), Arizona (17-7) and Iowa State (15-9).

OSU and Arizona State didn’t play in a conference series this season, but the Cowgirls did make a stop in Tempe while going out to play Arizona. OSU beat the Sun Devils 4-0 in a Ruby Meylan shutout.

The Cowgirls started the Big 12 season on the road against top-seeded Texas Tech and reigning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year NiJaree Canady. OSU went 1-2 in West Texas, getting run-ruled in the first game and doing the run-ruling in the third.

The Cowgirls also played 2 seed Arizona on the road, going 1-2 against the Wildcats in early April. OSU went 1-2 against Iowa State, playing the Cyclones at Cowgirl Stadium.

OSU closed the regular season on a four-game winning streak, including sweeping Utah this past weekend.

“Now we’ve put ourselves in a spot to be in fourth place, which is obviously — hey, we just want to have a chance,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “So, we have a chance. We’ll play the 11 o’clock game on Thursday, and we”ll see where we go.”

The 11-team tournament starts Wednesday with the 8/9, 7/10 and 6/11 matchups. Here is a look at the full bracket: