Oklahoma State Duo Continues Chasing Home Run Record as Cowgirls Beat Stanford to Advance to Region Finals

STILLWATER — For much of Saturday, it felt like Oklahoma State juniors Rosie Davis and Karli Godwin were participating in a home run derby instead of an NCAA Regional.

When Saturday’s game ended, Oklahoma State beat Stanford 7-2, almost exclusively based off their home run hits, and only one single homer separated the two across their entire careers.

“Ahhh, DANG IT!” Godwin shouted when she found out Davis led her by one home run in the postgame press conference. “Now there is (going to be some trash talk) now that you told me.”

Davis, OSU’s season-leader with 15, is tied for fourth all-time alongside former Cowgirl Julie Ward (2009-12) on Oklahoma State’s career home run list with 32 total.

Both juniors have a chance to catch third place this season, as Tiffany Mikkelson (2013-16) only hit 35. It’s not a certainty that either or both current Cowgirls will ever catch first place, as both Kiley Naomi (2019-23) and Sydney Pennington (2018-22) hit 47 homers, but they are nearly on track to do so.

“I think the reason they get along so well off the field as well is because they’re different,” Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski said. “And they can kind of balance each other out. Rosie is pretty chill, she’s competitive now, but she’s pretty chill, and so I think that’s good for her. And I think her (Godwin’s) mentality, the way she goes about things, kind of keeps Rosie from getting too chill. So you can kind of see that balance.”

Davis struck first on Saturday, giving the Cowgirls an early 1-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the first when she sent a ball 259 feet over left field.

Godwin then delivered a first-pitch homer to put three more runs on the board during her second at-bat. Seconds later, Davis threatened to pad the lead even more when she sent a missile toward the fence, but it lacked the distance and resulted in an out.

Fellow junior Tia Warsop hasn’t exactly kept pace with her classmates, entering Saturday’s game with only one career homer, but on Saturday, she held her own, hitting a 3-run bomb that landed in an OSU fan’s hands at the wall with two outs on the board to extend the lead even further.

Stanford finally responded with a two-run homer from Kyra Chan in the seventh. The final inning changed the way ace pitcher Ruby Meylan’s day looked on paper as she gave up three hits, including a double and Chan’s bomb.

“I think it was probably good for her, to be honest, to give up those runs,” Gajewski said. “Because she can lose focus at times, and it just helps you to reset and go. I can’t lose focus on any pitches.”

Meylan nodded along when her head coach said that, and she also agreed when Gajewski said she didn’t have her best stuff.

“I didn’t have my best stuff,” Meylan said. “We knew yesterday I didn’t have my best stuff, and I don’t know if that’s. I mean, just sometimes you just don’t have it, like that’s life. So that’s working through it. … sports psychologist, Ken Ravizza, I heard him say, ‘you don’t have to feel good to play good, you’re not that crappy of a softball player that you have to feel good to play good,’ so like feeling good is overrated.”​

As critical as Meylan and Gajewski were of her performance, Oklahoma State’s ace had impressively only given up one hit and one walk throughout the first six innings, and at one point recorded all of her strikeouts at once when she sent three straight Stanford batters back to the dugout.

Similar to other comments Meylan made this season, the pitcher said she wouldn’t have been capable of responding the way she did on Saturday earlier in her career.

“If I didn’t have a good bullpen before the game, it was, it’s going to be a bad day,” she said. “And yesterday didn’t feel great, but I just kind of worked through it this morning.

“Still didn’t feel great, but it was like this is like what we have to do to win, and I’m 230-some innings in. If you think I felt good every time, you’re wrong. Like, it’s about 50-50 to be honest with you. So, it’s, it’s cool to feel the (personal) growth.”

Meylan and the other Cowgirls can now enjoy the rest of the day while waiting to meet whoever emerges from Stanford, Princeton and Eastern Illinois for Sunday’s region finals set to start at 3 p.m. Oklahoma State only needs to win one game to advance to the supers, and the team will have two chances to get it on Sunday, if needed.

The favorite on paper to advance is Stanford, which only has to win one more game on Saturday, while the other teams must win back-to-back games.

“They’re all good and I hope they play 10-12 innings in each game,” Gajewski said. “Wish them the best of luck. … I told our team, you guys earned this, you earned the right to go home and watch everybody duke it out, but we need to make sure we stay focused and stay where our feet are, and come out tomorrow, and whoever we play, just take them to the deep end, and that’s all we want to do.”