Cowgirls Edged By No. 3 Oklahoma

Friday, May 4

Stillwater, OK

6:30 P.M. CT

Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma

May 04, 2018 | Cowgirl Softball

Box Score

STILLWATER – The No. 22 Oklahoma State softball team dropped a hard-fought Bedlam matchup to No. 3 Oklahoma, 3-2, on Friday at Cowgirl Stadium.

The Cowgirls went toe-to-toe with the Sooners throughout, holding their rivals to just one hit outside of a three-run second inning that proved to be the difference in the game.

"A really good softball game, but it hurts. It hurts for these kids that played their last game here at home," head coach Kenny Gajewski said. "I knew we'd play well today - I didn't have any doubt. We tend to always bounce back after a performance like the one we had on Wednesday. I didn't doubt that we'd play well. We just had that inning where we gave up some walks and hits hits and gave up that three-spot right there."

Outside of a rough second inning, Oklahoma State showed its grit from the start when Vanessa Shippy led off the game with a double down the left-field line. The double was the 55th of Shippy's illustrious career, bringing her within one of tying the Big 12 and OSU career records.

She continued to build her impressive list of records later in the frame when she came home on Sydney Pennington's RBI-single to left field, scoring the 200th run of her career in the process. Shippy and Pennington would again combine to tally an OSU run in the third inning when Pennington again scored the senior, this time on line drive back up the middle.

Pennington finished 2-for-3 at the plate with those two runs batted in during her first Bedlam game at Cowgirl Stadium.

In the circle, Logan Simunek dominated the third-ranked Sooners' stacked lineup, limiting OU to just one hit over the final 5 1/3 innings. Simunek's impressive outing came just days after holding No. 1 UCLA to only one run on one hit in five innings of work last weekend.

"Logan was really good, Sydney was clutch and it's just fun to see these young kids be a part of this and keeping us in the game," Gajewski said. It hurts, but we'll learn, we'll grow and we'll get better and get over this hump. It's the process. If you bleed orange and you want to be a part of something great, it's not easy and it hurts. We gave them a good shot here, but unfortunately moral victories don't count and we just have to keep plugging away. We're taking steps."

Oklahoma State will look to salvage the weekend with a win in Saturday's Bedlam finale. First pitch at Marita Hynes Field is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and the game will air on ESPN.