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OSU Softball: Godwin Leads Cowgirls Past Sooners in First Game of Bedlam Series

The freshman went off.

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

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NORMAN — The moment wasn’t too big for Karli Godwin.

Godwin, a freshman, was impeccable in her first Bedlam, leading Oklahoma State to a 6-3 win against No. 2 Oklahoma — OSU’s first win in Norman since 1997.

Godwin finished the day 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored, four RBIs, two doubles and a home run. She hails from Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina — a town of about 1,300 people. There were 4,538 people at Love’s Field on Friday night, and about 4,400 of those were cheering against Godwin. It didn’t seem to phase her at all.

“This kid is special,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “Ice water is going right through her veins. This crowd, she wasn’t effected at all. I could see it all day.”

With the Sooners already reeling, Godwin stepped up to the plate in the fifth and hammered a home run to center field. It put the Cowgirls up 6-2 and was Godwin’s 13th round-tripper of the season — a program record for OSU freshmen.

That was Godwin’s third hit of the day, as she started with a double in the first that nearly opened the game’s scoring. Tallen Edwards initially scored from first on the play but after review was called out at the plate.

Godwin got back to the dish in the third, hammering another double down the left-field line. This one would prove fruitful on the scoreboard, as it scored Edwards and Jilyen Poullard.

“I was definitely calm,” Godwin said. “I try to be every game, but sometimes I get a little antsy, and I just have to take a step back and just take a deep breath and know that I’m prepared and I’m good enough to be here, obviously. Today I feel like it was just this sense of peace knowing that this team can do crazy things and I came in here fulling expecting us to show out.”

After Godwin’s home run in the fifth, it was a matter of closing things out for OSU.

The Sooners had a pair of runners on in the sixth when Jayda Coleman hit a ball hard to Megan Bloodworth at short. Bloodworth fielded and threw to Godwin at first, but the two were unable to connect and a run scored before Lexi Kilfoyl forced a pop up to end the inning.

So then came a tense seventh. Kilfoyl was nails. The OSU senior pitcher forced a flyout ahead of two groundouts, and the Cowgirls were victorious.

Somewhat surprisingly, Kilfoyl didn’t start the day in the circle for OSU. That honor went to Kyra Aycock. A sophomore, Aycock threw three uneasy innings. She walked six batters and finished her three innings having thrown only 24 strikes to 58 total pitches. But the only number that mattered was in the score column, and Aycock gave up just two runs while stranding five on base.

Kilfoyl then came on and threw the final four innings, allowing the one unearned run off two hits while walking two and striking out two.

OU finished the day with only three hits.

“Just so proud of the way Kyra battled through,” Gajewski said. “We just needed her. We talked about getting through the lineup twice, we’re gonna have a lead and we’re gonna go to Lexi. It just worked out just the way we had planned. It’s something we’ve been working on the whole year.”

There was another major storyline from this game taking place on OU’s pitching staff. Kelly Maxwell — a two-time All-American with the Cowgirls — started for OU. She fell to 16-2 on the year after throwing four innings, where she gave up three runs off four hits while walking two and striking out three.

Elsewhere in the Cowgirls’ lineup, Poullard had a nice day — something that has been a regular as of late. She hit a home run in the fifth before Godwin’s. It was Poullard’s seventh home run of the season and third in OSU’s past two games.

Poullard delivered the ball perfectly into the pocket of OSU fans beyond the right-field fence.

Micaela Wark flew under the radar a little bit, but she gave OSU the lead it didn’t let go of.

Stepping to the plate in the fourth with the game tied at 2, Wark launched a ball into the shrubbery beyond the center-field fence. Wark finished 2-for-3.

So the Cowgirls take a 1-0 lead in the series. OSU’s first chance at a series win comes at noon Saturday, and the teams will close their series with a game at 3 p.m. Sunday. OSU hasn’t beaten OU in a series since that Norman series in 1997.

Kenny Gajewski’s Postgame News Conference

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