Cowgirls in Unfamiliar Territory, Headed to Fayetteville Regional

STILLWATER — For the first time since 2018, the Cowgirls will begin the postseason on the road.

“This is what we’ve earned,” Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski said. “And like we talked about as a group, we’re going to be thrilled wherever it goes, wherever it happens to be.”

Oklahoma State will compete in the Fayetteville Regional against a field that includes host No. 4 seed Arkansas (40-12, 14-10 SEC), Indiana (33-18, 10-12 Big Ten) and Saint Louis (34-22, 18-7 A10). Oklahoma State will open the regional against Indiana at 3 p.m. Friday on ESPN2.

The Razorbacks won 10 of their final 13 games including two of three over No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M. Arkansas also played Oklahoma close, falling 8-6 in the SEC Tournament.

“Arkansas is a really awesome stadium, they’ll be full,” Gajewski said. “Their fans are really good. So I look at it as they’re the ones, like Arkansas has got the pressure in this regional, right. They’re supposed to win this. So like I told our team we got nothing to lose. Let’s go take it.”

The Cowgirls hosted a regional during the last five postseasons and capitalized on the opportunity to earn a spot in the Women’s College World Series all five times. During the last four years, OSU also had the benefit of hosting a super regional.

Oklahoma State began the season ranked fourth in the nation, and the team could still make good on that potential with a sixth consecutive WCWS bid if the Cowgirls can go on a run in postseason play.

OSU seemed to right the ship a bit late, winning six of its final eight games, including a 2-1 loss to Arizona State in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament. Still, with an overall record of 33-18, these Cowgirls have already lost more games than any group since the 2018 team finished 39-22 after failing to make it out of the regional round.

And yet as usual, Oklahoma State enters the postseason with a number of noteworthy wins against top teams. The Cowgirls finished 6-9 against the top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament this season with victories over six different host teams this weekending including No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M in the only meeting with the Aggies this year. Oklahoma State went 5-4 against other teams who qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

“I think just watching the show, seeing the top 16 seeds,” Oklahoma State pitcher Ruby Meylan said. “I looked at Audrey and I go, ‘dang, we kind of beat a lot of them.’ … We’re like pretty close. And for a lot of us this year feels like a roller coaster and I think we’re a lot closer than we think, but we’re all expecting perfection out of ourselves and at this level it’s not realistic. So I think keeping it all perspective like I don’t know how Arkansas is feeling right now, but I bet you they’re not very happy.”