Shifting Priorities: Ruby Meylan’s Dominant 2026 Season Powered by Changes Made Outside the Circle

STILLWATER — Ace pitcher Ruby Meylan is no stranger to accolades for her prowess inside the circle, but behind closed doors, she hasn’t always received such ovations from teammates. In fact, some have given her quite the opposite.

“People didn’t like to be my teammate, and they were honest with me,” Ruby said. “Like, if I was pitching well, I’m the best teammate in the world. And if I’m not pitching well, it’s like hard to get behind me.”

Meylan didn’t elaborate whether these harsh truths came from fellow Cowgirls, her teammates at Washington, or perhaps both. Meylan chose to share this story during a conversation with reporters that focused heavily on her first career no-hitter back in February.

When she chose to pivot the conversation, Meylan fought off tears, but she didn’t fight the accusations those teammates confronted her with in the past.

“I was super emotional. … I think if you’re emotionally attached to results, the game’s a roller coaster,” Meylan said. “And you can ride the wave, and it makes it hard to be a good teammate, a good friend, a good softball player because you’re constantly in your own dome.”’

An elite softball player

Oklahoma State is back on familiar ground on Friday, when the Cowgirls host an NCAA regional after snapping a five-season streak of home regionals last year, when the team went on the road in the first round of postseason play and lost, which also ended the five-season streak of Women’s College World Series appearances.

Although familiar ground for the Cowgirls, this seeding would have been somewhat surprising at the midpoint of the season before Meylan and her teammates brought the team’s chances of hosting postseason play seemingly back from the dead, highlighted by an especially tough stretch against then-No. 1 Oklahoma and then-No. 4 Texas sandwiched around a weekend series against then-No 16 Arizona.

Meylan powered the program to wins over both former conference rivals and two wins against the Wildcats, striking out 22-of-125 batters faced (17.6%) while giving up only 11 earned runs across the four games.

Oklahoma Sooners coach Patty Gasso described Meylan as one of the best pitchers her team has seen this year, high praise considering the gauntlet her own group faced.

“Deception,” said Gasso, highlighting what makes Meylan elite. “She throws hard, but we were chasing pitches, and then that’s what she’s good at. It’s throwing balls out of the zone to make you swing at changing speeds. She’s throwing up, she’s going down, she’s changing speeds. It’s tough. It’s tough to square her up. And she was on one today. You can see that she was ready for this game. And that’s what competitors do. They step up in those big games.”

Although that’s never really been an issue for Meylan, her personal growth shone during an especially tough week, when she threw 499 total pitches.

Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski was walking past her ahead of the series finale against the Wildcats when Ruby flagged him down.

“She goes, ‘Hey, I’m gonna, I need you to stay with me here today,’” Gajewski recalled. “And she goes, ‘I’m exhausted,’ and I can see, like I could see her eyes kind of welled up, and I said, ‘Ruby, we got you like you just give us what you can. We’ll take care of you. I promise you we got you.’ We talked through that. Last year, I’m just telling you, it would have been a meltdown.”

Gajewski has talked at length about the changes he’s seen out of Meylan in just the last year alone. It became one of the defining talking points of his introductory press conference this season.

When that pivotal game against Arizona finally began, things couldn’t have started much worse for Meylan and the Cowgirls, who gave up four runs in the first inning.

“I just heard her say, ‘Hey, just get give me a couple back, and I got you guys,’” Gajewski said. “And we ended up getting four. And it like, gave her this reset, and it was really cool to be able to watch and see. … Her emotional growth is something to talk about. It is just so incredible how she’s grown.”

Her father, Wayne Meylan, found himself admiring his daughter’s growth exactly one week earlier after Ruby gave up a two-run home run in the fifth inning at Iowa State. Instead of run-ruling the Cyclones that inning, the Cowgirls had to go the distance with them in a series that felt equally critical at the time, given the aforementioned challenging upcoming slate.

“After the game, we were sitting right behind home plate, and she (Ruby) walked by, and she goes ‘I just didn’t want to stop playing at five innings, I want to play seven today,’” Wayne said. “And I just kinda shook my head, but that is something in the past that probably would eat her alive.”

Learning to let go of the losses from an emotional standpoint was the key. Not that she had much practice lately, as Meylan powered the team to 16-straight wins in games she pitched before snapping the streak in a loss to Arizona State in the conference semifinals on Friday night. That extended run of success no doubt played a huge part in Meylan’s recent Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honor.

“I think once you can separate the emotional connection to result, you start to see your full potential,” Meylan said.

Later in the same conversation, Meylan circled back to the topic of separating emotions from individual game results and added, “I think I’ve shifted that. And whether I pitch good or bad, I love them (her teammates), and I want to be there for them, and they don’t really care about the result of how I pitch. They care about how I treat them.”

A good teammate

Her parents noticed a difference in their daughter early on this season. Her mom, Heidi Meylan, even asked what changed.

“She goes, ‘we enjoy playing ball together,’” her father said, recounting Ruby’s response. “I think she recognized … she has some responsibility for herself. It is not always someone else’s fault, or it is not this person is not doing it right. And she has to be a better teammate.”

Multiple Cowgirls interviewed described a much different ace than the one they had last season.

“I feel like she’s a whole different person in the circle this year because she’s so focused,” junior Rosie Davis said. “But at the same time, she’s able to, like, laugh some things off, and so, like, I think that just helps her overall mindset as just going into games, it’s like it’s all right to mess up. You’re gonna mess up. Let’s just get back right to focus.”

Karli Godwin makes it sound like Meylan’s growth has inspired a similar process in her own life.

“She’s really good for me,” Godwin said. “Because in some sense, we had some of the same qualities. Like when things aren’t going well, you’re not in the best mood, and she’s always the first person that comes up to me and just pats me on the back, or tells me good job, or that I’m going to be all right. So it’s been really nice, and I think it’s only helped her in the circle.”

Senior Lexi McDonald is living with Meylan this season, which has given her a front-row seat to the changes the senior pitcher made in her life.

“I think she is a far better teammate than she was last year,” McDonald said. “I think she’s a far better person. She’s just grown as a human, and I think that is with her relationship with Jesus. And I think it’s really cool to watch.”

Her former high school coach, Keith Engelkamp, can’t always get out to watch her in person, but he sees a huge difference in her demeanor even when watching Ruby on TV.

“I think Ruby is having a lot more fun,” he said. “I see her giving a lot more high fives. … Even when she talks with me (on the phone) I think she is less stressed.”

A great Cowgirl

Like most elite players, Ruby has long dreamed of winning the big one in OKC. Shortly after last season ended, Ruby made the decision to back that dream up with money out of her own pocket if it helped the team.

“(She) said, ‘If you need anything I have back, just tell me,’” Gajewski said, recalling Meylan’s offer to rework her deal with OSU. “I don’t think you’re going to find too many kids around the country that are willing to give back anything that they have for the team.

“I challenge you to find that, and I have kind of kept that down because I just, I try to protect my whole program in a way. But, we talk about the leadership and all that kind of stuff, that’s leadership in a different way, right? That’s maturity, that’s growth.”

She made the offer without consulting either parent, who didn’t learn about that display of maturity until much later.

Speaking of her mom, Heidi said she’s particularly in awe of the bond Ruby formed with pitching coach Carrie Eberle Parker and the uncharacteristic way she responds to the assistant coach during games.

“Carrie is hard on her, and Ruby needs that, and she responds to it,” Heidi said. “And I don’t know if it’s that they’re closer in age than what she’s had in the past or what, but they really click well. … I see the respect that Ruby has for her every time Carrie goes out on that field to talk to her during innings, and I just watch Ruby’s face, and she just, she just shakes her head yes, like, ‘Yes ma’am, yes ma’am.’ It’s kind of cool.”

But Heidi’s also enjoyed watching her daughter learn how to be a better, often more understanding leader, while finding a wealth of support both inside the program and around Stillwater.

“When she goes into Sprouts, and she runs into people from the university or fans or whatever, that is really cool for an athlete to have that support. … In Seattle, there was none of that,” Heidi said. “No one knew who she was on campus even, not even the students. It was just too big. … That means a lot when people support you, and that is what Stillwater is.”

Ruby said for so long she focused her energy on chasing stats, awards or even her dream of winning a national championship. She’d be lying if she said none of that stuff mattered now, but all of it matters so much less compared with her new perspective on the sport and, really, life itself.

“Whether this game goes good or bad, like, I know they love me,” said Meylan, referring to her teammates. “My parents love me. I have a fiancé that loves me. God loves me, so like, I can’t earn that.

“Like, whether I pitch good or bad, I might piss our fans off (when she pitches poorly), but like, at the end of the day, they love me too. So, yeah, results are just results. And again, you can’t be tied to them, or else you’re gonna sink in. This game isn’t a forgiving game, like you either have it or you don’t, and once you go down, it’s hard to come back up.”