Tournament Notes: Cowgirls Set for Opening Weekend

PDF Notes - Houston Invitational

STILLWATER - The Oklahoma State softball team opens its 2019 season in Houston, Texas, where fourth-year head coach Kenny Gajewski and the No. 22 Cowgirls will face Illinois twice, Houston, Sam Houston State and No. 13 Kentucky as part of a five-game weekend at the Houston Invitational. OSU has impressed in the Lone Star State over the years, going 41-14 in Texas-based tournaments since 2002.

In the Rankings
Oklahoma State is ranked in both national preseason polls for the second-straight year, as the Cowgirls were slotted at No. 22 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll and at No. 21 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 last week. The Cowgirls were ranked in at least one of the national polls 11 times last season, peaking as high as No. 15 and falling out of the top 25 only twice.

Oklahoma State From a Distance
Slowly, but surely, the Oklahoma State softball program has returned to the forefront of college softball under fourth-year head coach Kenny Gajewski, and in 2019, the Cowgirls will be hoping to reclaim their perch among the sport's elite teams.

Gajewski has assembled a roster of 22 star student-athletes that can go toe-to-toe with any team in the country on any given field and on any given night. Through grueling fall camp, winter workouts and beyond, the Cowgirls have seen and heard about the potential this year's team possesses, but now is their chance to show that Oklahoma State does more than talk the talk.

In Taylor Lynch and Madi Sue Montgomery, Oklahoma State fields two strong pillars to anchor the program. As the only players to be active on the roster through Gajewski's first four years in Stillwater, the Texas tandem stands as a driving force for whatever success lays ahead for OSU. Beside them, the Cowgirls boast talented names like returning senior Rylee Bayless, sophomore captain Sydney Pennington, rising pitcher Logan Simunek and a former Texas A&M two-way standout in Samantha Show.

For the first time under Gajewski, Oklahoma State has a lineup that will incite fear in the opposition at every spot, and a pitching staff that contains five arms, each with a dynamic skillset to send opposing hitters back to the bench in a hurry. The Cowgirls, for all of the flash and hype that has been heaped upon the 2019 squad, have remained focused on their goal – Oklahoma City.

Notable Streaks and Trends
- OSU is 36-24 in games decided by two runs or less since the start of the 2016 season.
- Oklahoma State has won 39 of its 64 (.609 win pct) neutral-site invitational games during Kenny Gajewski's three-year tenure as head coach.
- OSU has finished with a .500-or-above record in its first invitational tournament in 10 of the past 12 seasons, dating back to 2007. That includes a 4-1 mark during the 2012 Houston Hilton Plaza Classic.
- Madi Sue Montgomery has started 182 consecutive games, giving her a chance to set the OSU records for most games played, most games started and most consecutive games started in 2019.
- Madi Sue Montgomery drove in multiple runs on 19 occasions last season, including a career-high six in Oklahoma State's run-rule win over No. 16 Baylor on April 13.
- Madi Sue Montgomery logged 67 hits in 2018, with 31 of those resulting in extra bases.
- Taylor Lynch logged at least one hit in 49 of 61 games played last season.
- Sydney Pennington has recorded at least one hit in 42 of her 61 games played thus far and drove in at least one run on 24 occasions in 2018.
- Rylee Bayless has drawn at least one walk in 16 of her last 22 games.
- Logan Simunek starred against the best competition last season, as she allowed just nine earned runs in 27.2 innings pitched against top-20 foes. She only surrendered four earned runs in 19.1 innings against top-10 ranked opposition.
- Samantha Clakley has walked more than two batters only once in her last 32 appearances.

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