OSU Softball: Meylan Throws Complete Game to Push Cowgirls Past No. 1 Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — Ruby Meylan has had to shoulder the load in the circle for the Cowgirls for much of this season, and her performance Wednesday night was enough to get her team a win against the No. 1 team in the country.

Oklahoma State beat Bedlam rival Oklahoma 6-4 at Devon Park in a game where Meylan threw the full seven innings and hurled 133 pitches. She finished having given up the four runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out nine.

It marks her 10th time this season throwing at least seven innings in a game. It’s the fifth time this season she’s thrown at least 120 pitches in a game and her third time in the 130s.

Despite the heavy workload, and the fact that the Cowgirls have a big conference series against Arizona this weekend, OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said the ball wasn’t going anywhere else.

“Ruby’s the ace of this staff,” Gajewski said. “If I didn’t give her the ball here today, I don’t know that I would’ve made the trip, to be honest. There was not even a thought what we would do, and there won’t be a thought on where we’ll go on Friday night. It’s who we are, and she wants the ball.”

Meylan’s first taste of Bedlam didn’t necessarily go to plan last season. In an 11-3 run-rule loss, Meylan threw 3 2/3 innings where she gave up seven runs (five earned) on six hits.

That’s what OU does to pitching, though.

Of the 11 Sooners who took an at-bat Wednesday night, 10 left with their batting averages still above .300. Seven of those Sooners are hitting above .400 and another is now hitting .399.

Ella Parker is hitting .444 and went 0-for-4 against Meylan with three strikeouts.

It marked the third-most strikeouts the Sooners had in a game this season.

“Games like these, you know they’re gonna be tough,” Meylan said. “I just try to remind myself every time we have like a ‘big game,’ I mean, every game is a big game, but there’s ones that are a little bit closer to home like this game. Just reminding myself that it’s just softball and execution is execution, and it doesn’t really matter who’s in the box, who’s watching the game, what TV station we’re on.

“Executing pitchers beat really good hitters all the time. I’ve gotten to a point this year — which is super cool, I’ve never felt it in my career — but being able to only care about executing the next pitch, and it’s, I think, shown. I haven’t been able to do this in my career, like, feel that. I think that’s what it’s taken, and that’s what it’s gonna continue to take to be where we wanna be.”

Things got a little tense late. OSU held a 6-2 lead with two outs in the sixth when a ball got under the glove of second baseman Karli Godwin. The Sooners took advantage of the error, putting two across the plate two at-bats later before Meylan was able to force a groundout to get out of the inning.

But then in the seventh, Meylan didn’t allow a baserunner, forcing two groundouts and striking out outstanding freshman Kendall Wells.

With the depth behind Meylan being inconsistent to this point in the year, Meylan will be needed this weekend. Gajewski has spoken highly of how dedicated Meylan is off the field — skipping the Iowa wrestling dual so she could get to bed on time while the rest of her teammates went.

With Wednesday’s game not ending until 10:43 p.m., Meylan doesn’t have a ton of time to get her recovery in.

“I probably won’t get to bed until 1 or 2 (a.m.), so try to sleep in,” Meylan said of her plans for Thursday. “I can’t sleep in past 7, so that’s the problem when I go to bed late, I just don’t get enough sleep.

“So, today’s gonna be a little weird, but the real routine comes (Thursday) — waking up, eating right, doing the things I need to do, journaling, reading the bible, everything that keeps me in check. Then getting a good practice in (Thursday) afternoon and hang out with my dad and then get some good sleep. I’ll probably try to be in bed by 6:30 (Thursday) night. Gotta catch up a bit.”