OSU Softball: Cowgirls Defeat Tulsa 10-0

I wouldn’t call it luck, but the Cowgirls have been on a tear since St. Patrick’s Day.

No. 6 Oklahoma State defeated Tulsa 10-0 in five innings on Wednesday, enacting the mercy rule. The win extends the Cowgirls’ streak to eight dating back to OSU’s March 16 loss at UT Arlington. The Cowgirls moved to 25-6 on the season and are 3-0 in Big 12 play.

In six of those eight wins, the Cowgirls won by run rule. The game is called if either team leads by at least eight runs after five innings. The Cowgirls had two runs to spare on Wednesday night.

Sydney Pennington bookended the Cowgirls’ offensive outburst walking in OSU’s first run of the game, starting off a four-run first inning, and then she put an exclamation on it with grand slam in the fifth inning to set up the mercy rule.

Penning already wore OSU’s home run crown, but this was her first career grand slam and just her second five-RBI game (2019 Baylor).

After Pennington’s walked-in run in the first, Karli Petty hit a two-RBI single scoring Chyenne Factor and Kiley Naomi. And then Pennington scored herself on a Tulsa error, completing the four-run inning. Factor crossed the plate again in the third when Chelsea Alexander was hit by a pitch. Miranda Elish reached base in her 11th consecutive game, a team-high, and scored a run.

While the bats have gotten plenty of praise of late, you have to be stingy in the circle to earn run-rule victories, and Morgan Day was just that. She moved to 6-2 with the win, allowing no runs on two hits in three innings. Elish struck out two Tulsa batters in the fourth, allowing no hits or walks, and Kelly Maxwell struck out two more in the fifth.

Tulsa’s Makayla Jackson walked in the final inning before Kennedy Cramer doubled putting two of the Golden Hurricane in scoring position. But Maxwell struck out Haley Morgan looking on a 3-2 count to keep the scoreboard clean and retire Tulsa.

OSU has scored 10 or more runs five times this season and shut out opponents 10 times. This was the team’s ninth victory by run rule.

The Cowgirls will look to continue their streak this weekend — in their first road game since that loss on March 16 — when they head to Waco to start a three-game series against Baylor. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.