Cowgirls Split Day One of Mary Nutter

Thursday, February 22

Palm Springs, CA

5 P.M. CT

Oklahoma State University

9-2

Wisconsin

5-5

Wisconsin

Oklahoma State

February 22, 2018 | Cowgirl Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

PDF Box Score - vs. WIS
PDF Box Score - vs. ORST

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – The No. 18/16 Oklahoma State softball squad split its opening day of competition at the 2018 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, as the Cowgirls bested Wisconsin, 3-2, and fell to Oregon State, 4-2, in eight innings.

OSU (9-3) has now gone 1-1 on opening day of all three invitational tournaments that the Cowgirls have competed in so far this season.

"I didn't think we played as well as we're capable of," head coach Kenny Gajewski said. "I thought that coming away with a win was good. We didn't get off to a great start and it took us a while to wake up. I felt like we were tired, but we found a way to win that game. We pitched well and I thought that Samantha (Clakley) was really good and I was really happy to watch that. That's what good teams do - you find ways to win and that's what it all about."

In OSU's opening contest against Wisconsin, the Cowgirls struggled to get much going offensively as they were held hitless for four-plus innings. When they finally did break through, the Cowgirls found themselves in a 2-0 hole but they quickly cut into that deficit when Maddi Holcomb drove Chelsea Alexander home with a bloop single that landed inches past the infield dirt.

Oklahoma State went scoreless in the sixth, but again got clutch at-bats in the home half of the seventh with Holcomb scoring the tying run on Madi Sue Montgomery's one-out sacrifice fly to left field. Sydney Pennington followed Montgomery's sacrifice with a shot to deep right that was dropped by the defender, bringing home Vanessa Shippy and securing OSU's first walk-off win of the season.

The Cowgirls' ability to come back in the contest was present thanks to a spectacular showing from junior Samantha Clakley in the circle. She struck out four and allowed no walks in a complete-game victory that improved her to 3-2 on the year. Only one of Wisconsin's two runs was charged as an earned run against Clakley.

Her performance in the day's first contest was mirrored by senior transfer Emmie Robertson in the nightcap. Roberton pitched seven-plus innings against Oregon State, striking out three and allowing only two earned runs.

"I thought both of them were really good" Gajewski said of his starting pitchers on Thursday. "It's what we thought they were going to be. I'm very happy with what Coach (Jeff) Cottrill has done with our staff and I thought Logan (Simunek) was good tonight too. We've pitched well and we're going to pitch better once we get our defensive stuff squared away. We're not playing bad, but we're just not as clean as I think this team can be. It's good to see them pitch well and looking forward to what we do tomorrow."

Despite Robertson's performance, the Cowgirls found themselves in an early hole for the second time on Thursday when Oregon State plated two runs over the first three frames, including one that was unearned in the top of the first inning.

Oklahoma State's bats were again quiet through the early going, but it was Montgomery who proved to be the spark for the second time on Thursday. The left-handed hitter continued to come through in clutch moments as she led off the fourth inning with a double to left center. Montgomery scored almost immediately after when Sydney Pennington drove her home with a single to nearly the same part of the field.

Pennington's RBI brings her season total to 18, which is the most of any Big 12 competitor so far in 2018.

The one run was all OSU could muster until the bottom of the seventh, when again Montgomery came up big with a double to deep center that scored Vanessa Shippy and tied the game at 2-2. Montgomery finished Thursday 3-for-6 at the plate with three doubles and two runs batted in.

"Madi Sue is probably swinging the bat as good as anybody on our team," Gajewski said. "She has hit a lot of balls that are just at them. I thought she hit a ball in the first game that was out and it barely got out there. We were playing on a field that was a deep field, and the wind was blowing in, but she had some clutch hits today and made some great plays in the field as well. She's a kid who is having a great year up to this point and I'm excited to watch her play."

A pair of strikeouts following Montgomery's double ended the OSU threat and sent the game into extra innings.

Oregon State took advantage of the international tiebreaker early on, as it used a leadoff walk and a bloop single to right to load the bases with no outs. The Beavers would later deliver a two-out single back up the middle that plated two runs, a total which Oklahoma State couldn't match in the home half of the eighth.

"We just gave Oregon State too many opportunities to turn their lineup over and there were too many plays we didn't make," Gajewski said. "That's the message I told our team - we just have to clean up the mistakes and giving teams free chances. We didn't have many errors, but we didn't just have many clean outs or plays that we could've made. When you give good teams chances, they capitalize. We were one pitch away from being out of a mess in the eighth and ended up giving up a base hit. We just have to learn and get better. It's a great opportunity tomorrow against two great teams and we'll see how we match up."

Gajewski and the Cowgirls will be back in action at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic tomorrow against both No. 5/2 Oregon and Mississippi State. For more information on the Cowgirls and their stay in California, follow the team on Twitter (@CowgirlSB), Facebook (Cowgirl Softball) and Instagram (osusoftball).