Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
3-8
Fresno State
10-4
Cowgirl Softball Drops Two in Palm Springs
February 23, 2015 | Cowgirl Softball
Feb. 22, 2015
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - The Oklahoma State softball team suffered losses to Fresno State and Cal State-Fullerton in a doubleheader on Sunday, as the Cowgirls finished play at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.
Box Score - Game Two 
With Sunday's results, Oklahoma State (3-9) finishes with a 1-4 mark at the competition. The Cowgirls took down Long Beach State, 2-0, in the tournament opener on Friday, but then suffered four-consecutive defeats, including close losses to No. 8 Florida State and Stanford.
“We had a couple of bad innings today, but outside of that, we showed a lot of fight,” head coach Rich Wieligman said. “We need to learn how to put together a complete inning ourselves, and that will come. Still, I can't say enough about how these girls battle throughout each and every game.”
In the first matchup of the day, the Cowgirls battled with Fresno State behind the pitching of Meagan Lively and the offensive efforts of Vanessa Shippy. Lively kept OSU within three through 3.2 innings of work, but was relieved in the fourth after walking consecutive batters. Shippy, a freshman from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, paced the Cowgirl offense with two hits, including double down the left field line.
Oklahoma State would keep the score within four going into the final frame, but a ten-run top of the seventh would put the Cowgirls away, as the Bulldogs pounded out nine hits in the inning and took a 16-2 lead.
Despite the insurmountable deficit, the Cowgirls tacked on two runs in the bottom of seventh behind Maddi Holcomb's RBI-single and Shelby Davis' sacrifice fly. Overall, OSU finished with seven hits, but fell by a final score of 16-4.
In the second half of the doubleheader, the Cowgirls went ahead early, as three hits and an error led to three OSU runs in the toof the second. Tiffany Mikkelson opened the inning by drawing a walk after a ten-pitch at-bat, and scored two at-bats later on Jessi Haffner's single to left. With Haffner and Darcy Taylor on base, Dre McKee stepped to the plate and brought both Cowgirls home with a double to right-center, giving the junior her first base-hit of the season.
Whitney Whitehorn, making her fifth start of the year, tossed two innings of one-run ball, but had to be removed from the game in the third due to injury. After falling into a bases-loaded situation with one out, Lively came on to replace Whitehorn. After a CSF sacrifice fly, a ground out to second seemed to have limited the damage, but McKee was ruled for catcher's interference, and the inning continued. In the next two at-bats, a passed ball and a single led to two more runs for the Titans, giving the home side a 5-3 lead after three innings of play.
The Cowgirls would chip away at the deficit with Davis' fourth-inning sacrifice fly, and would eventually bring the score back to even in the sixth. Holcomb kicked off a two-out rally with a single to short, and would cross the plate as the tying run on Danielle Riddle's infield single two at-bats later.
After swapping scoreless innings in the next two frames, the Cowgirls ran into a tight situation when CSF's Missy Taukeiaho landed on second with only one out. In the ensuing at-bat, Lively lost control of a fastball and sent it over Mckee's grasp at the plate. The ball took an unanticipated bounce off the backstop, and Taukeiaho came around from second for the walk-off run.
Over the course of the game, four Cowgirls had multi-hit performances, including Davis, who pushed her batting average up to .414 and her stolen base count to 12. Haffner, McKee and Shippy also finished with two hits apiece.
The Cowgirls will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 8, as Oklahoma State opens its home slate with a doubleheader against Hofstra.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: COMPTON, Jill (6-3)
L: Lively, Meagan (1-2)
Batting:
2B: KENNEDY, Bria 2
HR: WILLIS, Kierra 1 ; VILLALPANDO, Alyssa 1
RBI: MOSS, Brenna 2 ; RIVERS, Malia 1 ; SOLOMON, Michelle 2 ; WILLIS, Kierra 2 ; GUMZ, Paige 1 ; VILLALPANDO, Alyssa 2 ; KENNEDY, Bria 1 ; SMITH, Whitney 2
Base Running:
RUNS: MOSS, Brenna 2 ; RIVERS, Malia 1 ; SOLOMON, Michelle 1 ; WILLIS, Kierra 3 ; GUMZ, Paige 1 ; COATES, Brooke 1 ; VILLALPANDO, Alyssa 2 ; RODRIGUEZ, Christina 1 ; KENNEDY, Bria 3 ; CARDINALI, Wendy 1
HBP: CASTELLON, K 1
Batting:
2B: Shippy, Vanessa 1
RBI: Davis, Shelby 1 ; Shippy, Vanessa 1 ; Mikkelson, Tiffany 1 ; Holcomb, Maddi 1
SF: Davis, Shelby 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Davis, Shelby 1 ; Shippy, Vanessa 1 ; Taylor, Darcy 1 ; Cavin, Miranda 1
SB: Davis, Shelby 1
