Cowgirls Roll Past Texas, Stand One Game from OKC

STILLWATER — The Cowgirls dig the long ball.

Oklahoma State scored all of its runs on home runs in its 6-1 victory against Texas on Friday night in Game 1 of the teams’ Super Regional series. Alysen Febrey hit round-trippers in her first two plate appearances, both going to center field.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the first, Febrey stepped to the dish with Chyenne Factor standing on second. Febrey bonked a 2-2 count off the board beyond the fence to straightaway center.

She came back up as the Cowgirls’ leadoff batter in the fourth when she hit the first pitch she saw a little farther right of that same board.

“She’s just a kid that I saw from an early age when I saw it at tournaments out there when she was young, I was like, ‘Man this kid just has something about her,'” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “She looks the same — mentality, same kind of walk, same kind of toughness. That’s just from mom and dad or whoever coached her at a young age. The moment’s never too big. Her heartbeat doesn’t change you. It’s really hard to tell if she’s 0-for-4 or 4-for-4. She’s playing with a chip on her shoulder.”

A Hayley Busby home run directly followed Febrey’s fourth-inning home run. The solo shot was Busby’s 19th of the season.

Karli Petty supplied OSU’s other two runs with a two-run shot in the sixth.

All-everything pitcher Carrie Eberle was predictably outstanding in the circle for the Cowgirls. The only trouble she got in was in the first inning, where Texas lead off with back-to-back singles. Back-to-back sac bunts scored a run for the Longhorns before Eberle was able to strand two runners.

Eberle finished having thrown all seven innings where she allowed the one run off five hits while walking three and striking out three. Outside of the first inning, she allowed three hits, no runs, two walks and three strikeouts.

She got help with some remarkable play in OSU’s infield. The game ended on a 5-4-3 double play, just one of a few web gems Sydney Pennington supplied. In the fourth, Pennington stopped a chopper at full extension to prevent a base hit.

The next inning, Pennington knocked a ball down with her glove before bare-handing it in foul territory. Her throw narrowly took a fully stretched Febrey off first, but Kiley Naomi turned a 6-3 double-play to erase the base runner on the next at-bat.

“Sydney is one of the best third basemen I’ve ever seen,” Febrey said. “She’s just really quick with her hands and has a good glove. She always makes these good plays.”

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Game 2 of the Super Regional series is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Saturday. An OSU win would send the Cowgirls to their second straight WCWS.

“You can’t look ahead,” Febrey said. “I mean, it’s best two out of three. Texas is a good team, you can’t overlook them. Just focusing on taking it pitch to pitch and then we should be fine, play our game.”