Oklahoma State University Athletics
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Oklahoma State Softball Enters Into Final Week Of Non-Conference Play
March 14, 2022 | Cowgirl Softball
The Basics
The No. 10/10 Oklahoma State softball team (16-5) is back on the road for a pair of midweek contests with North Texas at 6 p.m. CT on March 15 and UT Arlington at 6 p.m. CT on March 16 before returning home to close out its non-conference schedule with home dates against Wichita State and Kansas City on Friday and against those same two teams again on Saturday.
Watch, Listen, Follow
Friday's OSU games will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Alison McCutcheon and Casey Kendrick.
All of Oklahoma State's games this week will be available on stillwaterradio.net with Bill Van Ness on the call; channel designations will be announced once they're official.
Live stats for all of OSU's games over the weekend will be available online on okstate.statbroadcast.com. Fans can follow @CowgirlSB on Twitter all season for regular coverage and updates.
In the Rankings
As of March 14, Oklahoma State ranks:
• No. 3 in NCAA DI Strength of Schedule
• No. 5 in NCAA DI Rating Percentage Index
• No. 10 in the USA Today/NFCA DI Top 25 Coaches Poll
• No. 10 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25
• No. 11 in D1Softball's Top 25
• No. 13 in SoftballAmerica's NCAA Division I Softball Top 25
Oklahoma State From a Distance
Eight starters and several other important performers are back from the 2021 team that finished No. 6 in the final rankings and played in the Women's College World Series. Five of OSU's returning starters were also starters on the Cowgirls' 2019 WCWS team.
Some of the most decorated players in Oklahoma State softball history are back, including returning All-Americans Hayley Busby and Sydney Pennington, plus 2022 preseason All-American Kiley Naomi. Pitcher Kelly Maxwell is on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List and was invited to try out for a spot on the U.S. Senior National Team in January.
Impact newcomers include the 2020 Shortened Season National Player of the Year and first team All-American Miranda Elish, 2022 preseason All-America first baseman Morgyn Wynne, 2021 first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference pitcher Morgan Day and 2021 All-Southeast Region catcher Julia Cottrill.
Notable Streaks and Trends
• The Cowgirls have been ranked in the NFCA poll in each of their last 165 games, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.
• Sydney Pennington has started 228 consecutive games, which amounts to every game of her career.
• Kelly Maxwell has tallied double digit strikeouts in five of her last six starts.
• OSU has totaled double digit strikeouts in seven of its last 10 contests.
• OSU has outscored its last eleven opponents, 66-14.
• OSU has won 11 of its last 12 games.
• OSU has tallied five or more hits in its last seven contests and has totaled double digit hits in each of its last four games.
• OSU has launched at least one home run in its last five games and has totaled more than three homers in each of its last two contests.
Series History vs. This Week's Opponents
OSU leads its series with North Texas, 20-7, including a 5-2 record in games played in Denton.
Oklahoma State is 20-8 all-time against UT Arlington and holds a 5-2 edge in road games.
In a 97-game series history with Wichita State, the Cowgirls boast an 83-14 lead overall and a 36-5 record in home games. With the Roos of Kansas City, OSU leads the series 10-1 and a 9-1 record on its home field.
Heating Up
Perhaps the hottest bat in the Oklahoma State lineup for the second week in a row, sophomore Katelynn Carwile is making her presence felt in a lineup loaded with All-American talent.
Carwile was responsible for three hits, one run and two RBI in the Cowgirls' extra innings contest with Minnesota on March 9.
Immediately afterward, in a regularly scheduled midweek game with the Golden Gophers, Carwile went 4-for-4 from the plate, scoring a run and batting in five in the Cowgirls' shutout victory.
Along with some notable performances at Memphis and versus Central Arkansas at the Memphis Tournament, Carwile averaged .667 at the plate, slugged .867 and tallied an on-base percentage of .667 in week five.
With 10 hits in 15 at bats including three doubles and seven RBI on the weekend, one of OSU's youngest batters is also becoming one of its most consistent.
No-No No. 48
Miranda Elish looked more like her former SoftballAmerica 2020 Shortened Season Player of the Year self than ever before in week five, especially so when she recorded a no-hitter against Minnesota on March 9.
The graduate senior struck out eight Golden Gopher batters en route to tossing the 48th no-hitter in Oklahoma State program history, the fourth of her career and her first as a Cowgirl.
Numero Uno
Freshman Brianna Evans, a day one starter at second base and a fixture in the top half of the OSU lineup, has bounced back after a minor injury in week three kept her out of a handful of the Cowgirls' non-conference games.
She boasts a .417 average with 10 runs scored and fifteen hits, the most notable among them being a grand slam she crushed on March 12 against Central Arkansas, which marked the first home run of her collegiate career and the sixth grand slam by a freshman in team history.
To The Max
Kelly Maxwell continues to prove why she's among the best arms in the country. The lefty has tallied a 6-0 record through the season's first five weeks. With an ERA at 1.04, eight earned runs allowed and 92 strikeouts – tied for 15th in the country – Maxwell has performed to her All-America potential.
Already this season, Maxwell has delivered some of OSU's most memorable performances including a one-hit victory over No. 19/16 Michigan on February 18, complete game shutout wins against Texas A&M and Tennessee State on February 25 and 27, respectively, and an extra-innings grind against Minnesota on March 9 in which she pitched 9.2 innings and racked up 17 strikeouts, the most by a Cowgirls since Lauren Bay fanned 18 in a 10-inning contest with Northwestern in 2003.
In The Works
Cowgirl Stadium features some notable updates for the 2022 season. Along with newly constructed, padded and decorated outfield and backstop walls, the Cowgirls' home field also features a new artificial outfield playing surface, updated scoreboard and batter's eye structures and additional observation decks beyond the right field wall to accommodate Oklahoma State's growing fan base.
