Cowgirl Comeback Effort Falls Short In Loss to Texas Tech

Friday, April 1

Lubbock, TX

6:30 P.M.

Oklahoma State University

17-14, 0

Texas Tech

16-19, 0

Oklahoma State

Texas Tech

Cowgirl Comeback Effort Falls Short In Loss to Texas Tech

April 01, 2016 | Cowgirl Softball

Box Score

Lubbock, Texas---- Oklahoma State's comeback effort fell short in a 9-7 loss to Texas Tech at Rocky Johnson Field on Friday night.

Red Reasnor's three-run home run followed by Madi Sue Montgomery's solo home run in the top of the seventh gave the Cowgirls a 7-5 lead, but a walk off home run by Jessica Hartwell in the bottom of the inning gave the Red Raiders the victory in their conference opener.

"I'm excited about the fight this team has," Coach Kenny Gajewski said. "That's something that we've really grown into. That's exciting to see. I'm just disappointed for our kids. They scratched and clawed and we got no breaks. We hit some balls really hard and they made some fantastic plays. It's just the way this game goes. Give credit to Texas Tech. They did what they had to in their opening game in Big 12 play and that's what you have to do."

Oklahoma State started the game as well as it could have hoped, and took an early 1-0 lead after the first inning thanks to a Darcy Taylor walk with the bases loaded.

Kacy Freeze kept the Texas Tech batters guessing the first two innings at the plate, allowing only one hit and striking out four Red Raiders. She finished the night with five strikeouts.

The Cowgirls found themselves down 5-1 after four innings, but that didn't discourage them at the plate. A Vanessa Shippy single to start the top of the fifth inning led to an eventual Montgomery RBI double to cut the Texas Tech lead to 5-3.

Both teams traded a scoreless sixth inning before the eventual eight-run seventh inning for the two teams.

Taylor Lynch and Tiffany Mikkelson started the top of the seventh with a pair of singles that set up the Reasnor and Montgomery home runs.

Montgomery led the charge at the plate for the Cowgirls. She finished the night three-for-four with three RBIs.

"We saw all three of their pitchers," Montgomery said. "That's going to help us in the later games in series. All of us did a good job against the pitchers tonight. We just didn't get the outcome we wanted."

Alongside Montgomery, Oklahoma State also had a standout performance from Lynch at the plate. She finished two-for-four, scored twice and extended her hit streak to a team-high 14 games, which ties her for the third longest in program history.

Although the team sits at 0-2 in Big 12 play, Gajewski said he isn't worried about the team approaching the next two games with the right approach.

"There's no worry in my mind," he said. "That's one of the things. This team has kicked down a lot of doors, fences and barriers that have been kind of been haunting them in the past. It's never easy when you're trying to change the culture and make adjustments and do things this team is doing. It's not easy. A sign of a good team is one that gets punched, and they get right back up and they punch back. I wouldn't expect anything less from this group tomorrow."
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Up Next: The Cowgirls continue the three-game series with Texas Tech. The game is set for 4 p.m. on April 2.