Oklahoma State University Athletics
Tuesday, April 4
Wichita, KS
6 P.M. CT
Oklahoma State University
at
Wichita State
Cowgirls Travel Through Sunflower State To Play At Wichita State, Kansas
April 03, 2023 | Cowgirl Softball
The Basic
Riding a 14-game win streak, the No. 2/2 Oklahoma State softball team will take a road trip through the state of Kansas to play at Wichita State on April at 6 p.m. CT before heading to Lawrence to resume Big 12 play against the Jayhawks from April 6-8.
Thursday and Friday's games will start at 5 p.m. CT; the series finale on Saturday is set for a 12 p.m. CT first pitch.
Watch, Listen, Follow
Each of the Cowgirls' week eight games can be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on stillwaterradio.net or The Varsity Network with Bill Van Ness on the call.Â
Live stats for all of Oklahoma State's games are available online at statbroadcast.com.
Fans can follow @cowgirlsb on Twitter for regular in-game coverage and updates.
In The Rankings
As of April 3, Oklahoma State ranks:
• No. 2 in the USA Today/NFCA DI Top 25 Coaches Poll.
• No. 2 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25.
• No. 2 in the D1Softball Top 25.
• No. 2 in the Softball America NCAA Division I Softball Top 25.
• No. 3 in the NCAA DI Adjusted Rating Percentage Index.
Oklahoma State From A Distance
Six starters are back from a 2022 Oklahoma State team that put together a 40-win season, which ended at the Women's College World Series for an NCAA era program record third consecutive year. Five of OSU's returning starters were also starters on the Cowgirls' 2021 WCWS team and two of them started for OSU during its 2019 WCWS appearance.Â
Returning for the Cowgirls are All-Americans Kelly Maxwell and Katelynn Carwile, as well as a pair of graduate veterans and All-Big 12 regulars Chyenne Factor and Kiley Naomi.
Impact newcomers include two-time All-Big Ten honoree and All-American infielder Rachel Becker, All-SEC Newcomer and All-Region pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl and 2022 NFCA DI Freshman of the Year finalist
Megan Bloodworth.
A talented freshman class – including six members of the Extra Inning Softball Elite 100 – enter the mix. Tallen Edwards (No. 3 overall), Haidyn Sokoloski (No. 17 overall) and Kyra Aycock (No. 26 overall) are all likely candidates to see meaningful playing time in their first year with the Cowgirls. Angelina Craig, Katie Lott, Lexi McDonald and Claire Timm round out the 20th ranked signing class in the country, per Extra Inning Softball.
Series History
In its series history with Wichita State, Oklahoma State owns a healthy 86-14 series lead, including each of the last three. In his eighth season as the head coach of the Cowgirls, Kenny Gajewski is 10-6 against the Shockers. Last time out against WSU, the Pokes claimed a 4-1 win in Wichita on April 4, Gajewski's 250th career win.
Against Big 12 Conference for Kansas, OSU leads the all-time series, 85-52 – including 17 of the last 18 against the Jayhawks. A year ago, the Cowgirls swept KU in the regular-season conference series by a combined score of 25-6 and also bested the Jayhawks 2-1 on May 12 on their way to winning the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
Notable Streaks & Trends
• OSU has been ranked in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Poll in each of its last 237 games, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.
• OSU has a 10-1 record against top 25 RPI opponents.
• OSU has claimed six of the 12 Big 12 Conference weekly honors awarded this season.
• OSU has outscored its opponents 241-67.
• OSU has outscored its opponents 57-3 in the first inning.
• OSU has not been outhit in any game this season.
• OSU has scored first in 27 of its 34 contests this season.
• OSU has committed zero errors in 23 of its 34 games this season.
• OSU has earned 12 of its 32 wins this season via run-rule.
• OSU has claimed 16 of its 32 wins this season by five or more runs.
• OSU has held opponents to less than five runs in 28 of its 34 games this season.
• Rachel Becker has reached base safely at least once in each of the Cowgirls' 34 games this season.
• Kelly Maxwell has recorded 133 of the Cowgirls pitching staff's 254 strikeouts this season, which equates to 52.3 percent of Oklahoma State's strikeouts.
Built For The Big 12
After grinding through a nonconference slate ranked No. 21 nationally, the reigning Big 12 champion Cowgirls have opened Big 12 play with a series sweep of then-No. 20/22 Baylor.
With its sweep of Baylor (in which the Cowgirls outscored the Bears 16-6 and outhit them 21-14) OSU has now opened the conference portion of its schedule with a series sweep in back-to-back years to go along with its sweep of the Texas Tech in 2022.  Â
National Powerhouse
Oklahoma State has positioned itself among the elite through the first seven weeks of the 2023 season. As a unit, OSU enters its midweek at Wichita State with a plethora of top-10 statistical rankings:
• .348 batting average (fifth in NCAA DI).
• .445 on-base percentage (sixth in NCAA DI).
• .983 fielding percentage (third in NCAA DI).
• 16 shutouts (third in NCAA DI).
• .941 win percentage (third in NCAA DI).
• 7.09 runs per game (eighth in NCAA DI).
Becker's Batting Bonanza
Graduate infielder Rachel Becker has played at an All-American caliber in her first season at Oklahoma State and the final season of her collegiate career. Her .640 on-base percentage ranks first among all NCAA DI hitters, while her .511 batting average ranks fourth in NCAA DI.
After back-to-back seasons with a batting average above .400 in her junior and senior seasons at Purdue, Becker's continued and consistent success comes as no surprise. She leads Oklahoma State in multi-hit games with 14: 12 two-hit games and two three-hit performances.
Becker also pieced together an 18-game hitting streak (the longest by any Cowgirl this season) from February 11 to March 5, which is the second-most consecutive games with at least one hit in program history, behind freshman Taylor Lynch's 23-game hitting streak in 2016.
Becker and her middle-infield counterpart Kiley Naomi each have an active 10-game hitting streak, which leads all Cowgirls with active streaks.
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Riding a 14-game win streak, the No. 2/2 Oklahoma State softball team will take a road trip through the state of Kansas to play at Wichita State on April at 6 p.m. CT before heading to Lawrence to resume Big 12 play against the Jayhawks from April 6-8.
Thursday and Friday's games will start at 5 p.m. CT; the series finale on Saturday is set for a 12 p.m. CT first pitch.
Watch, Listen, Follow
Each of the Cowgirls' week eight games can be streamed on ESPN+ and can be heard on stillwaterradio.net or The Varsity Network with Bill Van Ness on the call.Â
Live stats for all of Oklahoma State's games are available online at statbroadcast.com.
Fans can follow @cowgirlsb on Twitter for regular in-game coverage and updates.
In The Rankings
As of April 3, Oklahoma State ranks:
• No. 2 in the USA Today/NFCA DI Top 25 Coaches Poll.
• No. 2 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25.
• No. 2 in the D1Softball Top 25.
• No. 2 in the Softball America NCAA Division I Softball Top 25.
• No. 3 in the NCAA DI Adjusted Rating Percentage Index.
Oklahoma State From A Distance
Six starters are back from a 2022 Oklahoma State team that put together a 40-win season, which ended at the Women's College World Series for an NCAA era program record third consecutive year. Five of OSU's returning starters were also starters on the Cowgirls' 2021 WCWS team and two of them started for OSU during its 2019 WCWS appearance.Â
Returning for the Cowgirls are All-Americans Kelly Maxwell and Katelynn Carwile, as well as a pair of graduate veterans and All-Big 12 regulars Chyenne Factor and Kiley Naomi.
Impact newcomers include two-time All-Big Ten honoree and All-American infielder Rachel Becker, All-SEC Newcomer and All-Region pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl and 2022 NFCA DI Freshman of the Year finalist
Megan Bloodworth.
A talented freshman class – including six members of the Extra Inning Softball Elite 100 – enter the mix. Tallen Edwards (No. 3 overall), Haidyn Sokoloski (No. 17 overall) and Kyra Aycock (No. 26 overall) are all likely candidates to see meaningful playing time in their first year with the Cowgirls. Angelina Craig, Katie Lott, Lexi McDonald and Claire Timm round out the 20th ranked signing class in the country, per Extra Inning Softball.
Series History
In its series history with Wichita State, Oklahoma State owns a healthy 86-14 series lead, including each of the last three. In his eighth season as the head coach of the Cowgirls, Kenny Gajewski is 10-6 against the Shockers. Last time out against WSU, the Pokes claimed a 4-1 win in Wichita on April 4, Gajewski's 250th career win.
Against Big 12 Conference for Kansas, OSU leads the all-time series, 85-52 – including 17 of the last 18 against the Jayhawks. A year ago, the Cowgirls swept KU in the regular-season conference series by a combined score of 25-6 and also bested the Jayhawks 2-1 on May 12 on their way to winning the 2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
Notable Streaks & Trends
• OSU has been ranked in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Poll in each of its last 237 games, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.
• OSU has a 10-1 record against top 25 RPI opponents.
• OSU has claimed six of the 12 Big 12 Conference weekly honors awarded this season.
• OSU has outscored its opponents 241-67.
• OSU has outscored its opponents 57-3 in the first inning.
• OSU has not been outhit in any game this season.
• OSU has scored first in 27 of its 34 contests this season.
• OSU has committed zero errors in 23 of its 34 games this season.
• OSU has earned 12 of its 32 wins this season via run-rule.
• OSU has claimed 16 of its 32 wins this season by five or more runs.
• OSU has held opponents to less than five runs in 28 of its 34 games this season.
• Rachel Becker has reached base safely at least once in each of the Cowgirls' 34 games this season.
• Kelly Maxwell has recorded 133 of the Cowgirls pitching staff's 254 strikeouts this season, which equates to 52.3 percent of Oklahoma State's strikeouts.
Built For The Big 12
After grinding through a nonconference slate ranked No. 21 nationally, the reigning Big 12 champion Cowgirls have opened Big 12 play with a series sweep of then-No. 20/22 Baylor.
With its sweep of Baylor (in which the Cowgirls outscored the Bears 16-6 and outhit them 21-14) OSU has now opened the conference portion of its schedule with a series sweep in back-to-back years to go along with its sweep of the Texas Tech in 2022.  Â
National Powerhouse
Oklahoma State has positioned itself among the elite through the first seven weeks of the 2023 season. As a unit, OSU enters its midweek at Wichita State with a plethora of top-10 statistical rankings:
• .348 batting average (fifth in NCAA DI).
• .445 on-base percentage (sixth in NCAA DI).
• .983 fielding percentage (third in NCAA DI).
• 16 shutouts (third in NCAA DI).
• .941 win percentage (third in NCAA DI).
• 7.09 runs per game (eighth in NCAA DI).
Becker's Batting Bonanza
Graduate infielder Rachel Becker has played at an All-American caliber in her first season at Oklahoma State and the final season of her collegiate career. Her .640 on-base percentage ranks first among all NCAA DI hitters, while her .511 batting average ranks fourth in NCAA DI.
After back-to-back seasons with a batting average above .400 in her junior and senior seasons at Purdue, Becker's continued and consistent success comes as no surprise. She leads Oklahoma State in multi-hit games with 14: 12 two-hit games and two three-hit performances.
Becker also pieced together an 18-game hitting streak (the longest by any Cowgirl this season) from February 11 to March 5, which is the second-most consecutive games with at least one hit in program history, behind freshman Taylor Lynch's 23-game hitting streak in 2016.
Becker and her middle-infield counterpart Kiley Naomi each have an active 10-game hitting streak, which leads all Cowgirls with active streaks.
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Players Mentioned
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IF
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