Cowgirls Ready For Texas Tech

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THE BASICS
Oklahoma State Softball and second-year head coach Kenny Gajewski return to action for a three-game series against Texas Tech set to begin Friday at 6:30 at Cowgirl Stadium.

FOLLOWING THE ACTION
Cowgirl fans can catch all three games on the Fox Sports family of networks with Casey Kendrick (PBP) and Allison McCutcheon (Color) on the call. Fans can also listen in Stillwater on 105.5 FM with Bill Van Ness doing play-by-play. Live stats will be on okstate.com with in-game updates on Twitter (@CowgirlSB).

OKLAHOMA STATE SNAPSHOT

Oklahoma State comes into the weekend with a 29-17 record after a win over Central Arkansas and loss to Tulsa Wednesday night.
To find the Cowgirls in the Big 12 Standings this week you'll have to go look at the top as OSU finds itself tied for second after the third weekend of competition. Oklahoma sits alone at the top after starting conference play with a perfect 6-0 record after sweeps of Kansas, Texas and Iowa State. OSU sits at 8-1. After checking in at No. 49 in the initial RPI rankings three weeks ago, the Cowgirls now find themselves at No. 35.
Vanessa Shippy continues to lead the charge at the plate for the Cowgirls.During her last 12 games, Shippy is batting a team-best .514 on 18 hits with 15 RBIs and 11 runs. During the stretch she has shown she can get on base a lot thanks to seven walks on her way to a .681 on-base percentage. Shippy has especially shined in Big 12 games where she's batting .483 on 14 hits with 13 RBIs and 12 runs. On the year she's batting .419, the second-best in the Big 12, on 57 hits with 40 RBIs and 43 runs.
Rylee Bayless has shined in her first year in Stillwater. Bayless is on her way to history, as she could become just the fourth Cowgirl in program history to lead the nation in a category for a season. Bayless currently leads the nation in walks (55) as she has walked on 50 percent of her at-bats this season. That has led Bayless to a team-best .560 on-base percentage through her first 46 games as a Cowgirl. But don't think Bayless can't swing, as she's also batting .356 on 42 hits with 33 RBIs this season.
Maddi Holcomb has quietly had a solid year in 2017. Holcomb is batting a cool .311 out of the nine hole where she's done an excellent job turning over the lineup. Holcomb has produced with 33 hits and 21 runs on the year. Just as important, Holcomb also has seven sacrifice hits on the season. Up to this point, Holcomb has 11 multi-hit games. She has also shined in center where she has become known for her highlight reel catches she's made throughout the year.
Taylor Lynch is off to another good start after an impressive freshman campaign. On the year Lynch has 13 multi-hit games, and has at least one in her last four games. Overall she's batting .355 on 50 hits with 26 RBIs and 29 runs. Just as important to the team Lynch has stepped up in right despite having never played the position before this season. Lynch has 45 putouts with a .963 fielding percentage.
Brandi Needham and Shea Coats have stepped up in the circle to replace 20-game winner Kacy Freeze, who graduated after last season. Needham and Coats have combined for a 21-12 record with 13 complete games. While Coats and Needham aren't your traditional strikeout pitchers, the duo has produced with 122 on the year. More importantly, don't expect a lot of free bases when you see these two. The pair has allowed just 41 on the year, or a 122-41 strikeout to walk ratio so far.
The Cowgirls haven't been afraid to move people around this year. OSU has used five pitchers, two catchers, three first basemen, two second basemen, two shortstops, four left fielders, two center fielders, three right fielders and four DPs.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT: TEXAS TECH

TEXAS TECH

2017: Comes into the series with a 17-23 record, including a 4-7 mark on the road. The Red Raiders have fallen on tough times of late as they've won just one of their last nine games with a 9-3 win over Kansas in Lubbock on April 9. Kierra Miles has led the way at the plate thus far with a .322 batting average on 39 hits with 13 RBI. Tech has turned to Kassidy Scott as its ace this season. She's posted a 9-14 record with a 3.74 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting close to .300 on the year against Texas Tech pitchers.
2016: Finished with a 23-32 overall record, including a 6-12 mark in Big 12 play. Texas Tech was just 7-20 in road games in 2016. Kierra Miles blasted a school-record 17 home runs on the year. As a team, the Red Raiders hit .280 compared with this season's .259 batting average.
2016 Oklahoma State/ Tech Series: Texas Tech swept the Cowgirls in the three-game series. The Cowgirls would later point to as the turning point of the season on their way to making the postseason. Although 68 runs were scored in the series, the Cowgirls lost all three games by a combined four runs. The second game of the series was historic for Tiffany Mikkelson, as she blasted a grand slam to become the Oklahoma State career leader for home runs with 33. She later finished with 35. Although the Cowgirls were swept, this was the fork in the road for the team when they had to decide how they wanted the season to go. Oklahoma State of course learned from the series and went on to finish with a 29-26 regular season record on their way to their first postseason appearance since 2011.

INSIDE THE SERIES

Friday night will be the 56th meeting between the Red Raiders and Cowgirls, with OSU holding a 35-20 advantage.
Texas Tech has controlled the series as of late having won the last seven games in the series dating back to 2014.
Oklahoma State is 15-6 all-time in Stillwater against Texas Tech. The Cowgirls have swept Tech six times in Stillwater since the series started in 1980.
OSU hasn't defeated Texas Tech in Stillwater since it swept the Red Raiders in back-to-back days in 2013.

INSIDE THE WEEK: A LOOK BACK

Oklahoma State comes into the weekend with a 1-1 record after a walk-off win over Central Arkansas and tough loss to the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa.
Madi Sue Montgomery showed she wasn't afraid of the big moment has she produced with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to give OSU a 4-3 win over Central Arkansas in Stillwater.
The Cowgirls blasted 12 hits against the Sugar Bears, which was the 13th time this year OSU has finished with 10 or more hits in a game. OSU is 11-2 this year when it does so.
The pair of games marks the conclusion of non-conference play for the Cowgirls this year. They finished with a 21-16 record in the regular season.

A SERIES WIN WOULD…

Snap OSU's longest losing streak in series history to Tech. The Cowgirls hold the longest-winning streak as OSU won the first 11 games between the two from 1980-1998.
Give Oklahoma State its fourth-straight conference series win, which it hasn't done since 2010 when the Cowgirls took down Baylor, Missouri, Iowa State and Kansas. OSU also did so in 1994, which mark the only two times OSU has done so in the Big 12 era.
Improve the Cowgirls to no worse than 10-2 in Big 12 play, which would be just the sixth time OSU has won 10 or more Big 12 games since the conference started in 1994.
Give OSU 30 or more wins in a season for the 27th time in program history. This marks the 47th season of Cowgirl softball.

STREAKS AND STRENDS

Plan on getting a win against OSU? Better hope you have a lead before the sixth inning. OSU is a perfect 19-0 on the year when leading after six innings. Once you get to the fifth, things aren't much better. The Cowgirls hold a 19-2 record once leading after five.
Taylor Lynch has gone back to her hitting ways of late. She holds an active OSU-team high six-game hitting streak.
Rylee Bayless (third) is the only Cowgirl to have started all 46 games at the same position this year. On the other end Vanessa Shippy has played the most positions (six) this season.
OSU hasn't buckled under the pressure of extra inning games up to this point as the team is a perfect 2-0 in games that go past the seventh inning.

COWGIRL QUICK HITTERS

Done with 46 games, Oklahoma State now turns its attention to the final 9 games of the regular season. OSU is set for five home games and four road. Two of its final three opponents have winning records with those two being ranked (Oklahoma and Baylor).
With 29 wins up to this point, the Cowgirls have a chance to win 30 regular season wins for the first time since 2013 when they won 30. OSU has done so seven times since 2000 (2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2005, 2003 and 2000).
With 55 walks, Rylee Bayless has already broken the OSU record for walks in a season. The previous high was 43, set by Vanessa Shippy in 2016. The NCAA record for walks in a year is 108. It's not too far fetched to think Bayless couldn't make it into the top 25 for most walks in a season as she would need 67 (12 more) this year.
Speaking of leading the nation, only three Cowgirls have ever led the nation in any category. Michele Smith in 1988 (Home runs, strikeout ratio), Shanel Scott in 2007 (Stolen bases and per game) and Mariah Gearhart in 2010 (hit by pitch).

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Players Mentioned

Rylee Bayless

Shea Coats

Kacy Freeze

Maddi Holcomb

Taylor Lynch

Tiffany Mikkelson

Madi Sue Montgomery

Brandi Needham

Vanessa Shippy

Oklahoma State University Athletics