Cowgirls Drop Midweek Matchup to Wichita State

Tuesday, March 27

Stillwater, OK

5:30 P.M. CT

Oklahoma State University

23-9

Wichita State

18-12

Wichita State

Oklahoma State

Photo by: OSU Athletics

March 27, 2018 | Cowgirl Softball

Box Score

STILLWATER – The No. 23 Oklahoma State softball team dropped the finale of its four-game homestand on Tuesday, as the Cowgirls fell to Wichita State, 5-3, at Cowgirl Stadium. OSU (23-9; 2-1 Big 12) finishes its homestand with a 2-2 record.

"Credit them because they're a good team," head coach Kenny Gajewski said. "Don't let the record fool you. They're high in our RPI and there's a reason why - they're tough. I thought they did a really good job of grinding out their at-bats. I looked at the number of pitches that we threw, and that was a sign of that. We're normally under 100 and we were well over that today. Credit them. I don't think we played bad, we just couldn't get that big hit. We couldn't get that big hit when we had a chance. You know, we left 10 runners on base and that's kind of how things go.

"It's contagious good and it can also be contagious bad. Now we've got a great opportunity to go back to Texas Tech and get right back on track."

The Cowgirls jumped in front of the Shockers early on Tuesday, as Sydney Pennington singled to short and brought home Vanessa Shippy from third in the home half of the first inning.

Shippy reached base to open the contest with a leadoff walk, marking the 14th time in OSU's last 17 contests that the senior has reached base as the first Cowgirl to dig in at home plate. She walked on eight of those 14 occasions.

Pennington recorded a second hit later in the contest as she laced a ball through the left side of the infield. She finished 2-for-4 at the plate against Wichita State, recording her first multi-hit game since a 2-for-3 outing against Omaha on March 3.

Wichita State tacked on two runs in the second inning to take its first lead of the day, but the Cowgirls again handled the bats well as they scored twice in the bottom of the frame to jump back in front, 3-2.

One of those second-inning runs was supplied by senior Whitney Whitehorn, who launched her launched her sixth home run of the season - an opposite-field shot - to lead off the second inning.

Taylor Lynch's fielder's choice with the bases loaded supplied OSU's third and final run of the day in the second inning.

Leading 3-2, OSU surrendered the lead late thanks to a trio of runs - one in the fifth and two in the sixth - from the Shockers. The Cowgirls loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning, but they were unable to capitalize and fell to their rivals from the north.

Logan Simunek took the loss in the circle - her first of the year - and now sits at 6-1 on the year. WSU's Bailey Klitzke earned the win, improving her to 6-1 on the year, and Bailey Lange earned her fifth save of the year.

"It's kind of the ebbs and flows of a year," Gajewski said. "What good teams do is they don't let these bad ones affect them and they get right back on track."

Oklahoma State will now turn its attention toward a three-game set with Big 12 rival Texas Tech, which is set to be played Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Lubbock, Texas. For more information on the Cowgirls, follow the team on Twitter (@CowgirlSB), Facebook (Cowgirl Softball) and Instagram (osusoftball).