Cowgirls’ Season Ends in Dramatic Fashion in Fayetteville

If any team had the Cowgirls’ number this season, it was Wichita State. Oklahoma State’s softball team was 3-0 against the Shockers during the first two years of Kenny Gajewski’s tenure, but WSU was a perfect 4-0 against the Cowgirls this season.

Half of those matchups came in the Fayetteville Regional, which is where OSU’s season ended Saturday night following a 5-4 loss to the Shockers. If a team loses two games in a regional, its season is over. After Fridays’ 8-2 loss, the Cowgirls’ backs were already against the wall.

They responded well with a shutout victory against DePaul in their first elimination game. The Cowgirls (39-22) racked up 13 hits while limiting the opposition to only two. Emmie Robertson and Samantha Clakely were stellar in the circle, allowing only four baserunners all game.

That victory created another matchup with Wichita State, who lost 0-5 just before the Cowgirls beat DePaul 6-0.

Each team’s season was on the line, and each team played like it. WSU and OSU battled for seven innings, but the Shockers ultimately made more plays, which helped them overcome a one-run deficit in the fifth.

However, that doesn’t mean the Cowgirls weren’t close. OSU loaded the bases in the sixth and seventh innings, but a tremendous play and a bit of luck ultimately propelled WSU.

The tremendous play came in the sixth. WSU pitcher Bailey Lange was facing Whitney Whitehorn with the bases loaded. With two outs, Lange sent a pitch that was hit in foul territory past the first-base line. Lange immediately darted to her left and extended her glove just enough to secure the ball and end the scoring threat.

The Cowgirls loaded the bases once again in the seventh after the Shockers smartly elected to intentionally walk Vanessa Shippy. Taylor Lynch, who finished second on the team in hits and RBIs this season, sent a ball that barely cleared the third-base line for a foul ball. Another 6 inches to the right, and it would have scored at least one run and probably two. She popped out on a full count a few pitches later, which was the last play of the Cowgirls’ season.

The game marked the end of eight Cowgirls’ careers: Shippy, Robertson, Whitehorn, Maddi Holcomb, Taylor Pence, Jamie Lowrie, Jessi Haffner and Randee O’Donnell.

Despite the departures, Gajewski will have a lot to work with next year. Lynch, Clakely and Madi Sue Montgomery will return for their senior seasons, as well as Rylee Bayless, who missed most of this season with a torn ACL.

“It’s always tough when your season ends,” said Gajewski. “I told our team this was probably one of the best softball games I’ve been a part of. It was just back and forth, two teams that I think have a lot of respect for each other.

“We really fight and claw when we play. We came up short. As hard as it is for me to say this, they’re the better team. They beat us four times. And that’s hard, but it’s just the way it is. They’ve had a great year. The way we played this evening was the way we needed to play on the first day, and we didn’t.

“I told them this is what I’ll remember, how they continued to fight when their backs are up against a wall. These seniors just step up and make us proud. In my three years here, it’s amazing from when we got here to where we’re going and where we’re at. I couldn’t be prouder, and it’s because of these seniors here. I’m just so proud.”

Logan Simunek made a massive leap this year and figures to be even better in her junior season. Freshman standouts Sydney Pennington and Chelsea Alexander will enter 2019 with a year of big-time experience, and a couple of soon-to-be sophomores are sure to break out next season with more opportunities open.

It wasn’t how the seniors wanted to end their careers, but they battled until the final pitch and were instrumental in changing the direction of this program with Gajewski at the helm. Years down the road when the Cowgirls are, presumably, contending for titles, people who have followed OSU softball will remember this group fondly, as they should.