Kenny Gajewski Lights Up Big 12 for Naming Co-Pitchers of the Year

OKLAHOMA CITY — Following the Big 12’s season softball awards being announced on Wednesday, Kenny Gajewski fired out a tweet that got some attention.

While quote-tweeting the Big 12’s graphic that named Oklahoma State’s Ruby Meylan and Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady Co-Big 12 Pitchers of the Year, Gajewski wrote “Can we makes the Coaches’ vote public? May find out there is a different result!”

Can we make the Coaches’ vote public?May find out there is a different result! https://t.co/0kKgteYYmg

— Kenny Gajewski (@OSUcoachG) May 6, 2026

The Oklahoman‘s Scott Wright asked Gajewski after the Cowgirls’ Big 12 Tournament win against Utah if he wanted to provide some more context on that tweet. Boy, did he.

Gajewski opened his comment by saying he doesn’t want this to come off as him attacking Canady or Texas Tech but rather as a critique on the voting process — or maybe more clearly that the vote didn’t hold, according to him.

“We received an email on Wednesday, or Tuesday I think it was,” Gajewski said. “It listed all the winners. Ruby was the outright pitcher. Then I got an email from my SID, Serg, that there’s now a co-pitcher. That’s not right. I don’t appreciate it. It’s not the way we should be doing our business here. When I asked the question why, I got an answer ‘We looked at it holistically.’ You’re gonna have to explain to everybody out there what that means. It’s not right. ‘Holistically’ wasn’t on my voting sheet. It asked who the best pitcher was. I voted for NiJa because I can’t vote for (Meylan). And that’s why I said ‘Make this public.’”

“I have a lot of coaches in this league. I didn’t have to call them. They called me. They’re not happy. I’m not happy. It’s not right, and it’s nothing against NiJa or Texas Tech. It’s what the coaches voted for. So make them public. I think we’re probably not wanting to do that, to be very honest.

“I don’t have any sour grapes about ‘co.’ I have sour grapes that my kid was told that she was outright and then we changed that, for whatever reason. You guys can write about that. But it’s not right. It’s not fair to her. It wouldn’t be fair if it was NiJa and then they changed that. A vote is a vote. Why did my staff spend an hour-and-a-half voting if our vote doesn’t matter? And that’s what I’m being told. Your vote doesn’t matter.”

Gajewski concluded the news conference by saying he’s not sure where this lands him with the conference but that he is there supporting his team. He said he won’t comment anymore on the matter before standing and exiting the news conference.