Cowgirls Lose Another 1-Run Late Inning Heartbreaker to LSU
Oklahoma State red-shirt freshman pitcher Kelly Maxwell had a heckuva day on Saturday in the first weekend of the college softball season. In her first game as a Cowgirl she did something no other freshman has ever done in the Big 12 by throwing a no hitter in her college debut. As good as that felt, Maxwell felt the other end of the emotional spectrum in the nightcap as the 13th-ranked Cowgirls found out the margin between number 13 and number 11 in the national softball poll seems to be one, one run. The Tigers young shortstop Taylor Pleasants hit the first home run of her career with one out in the bottom of the seventh off Maxwell for a walk-off LSU win 3-2. LSU is now 4-0 on the season and Oklahoma State falls to 1-2 wit both losses being by one-run to the Tigers.
Pucker up and kiss it goodbye! 😘
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) February 9, 2020
Taylor Pleasants' first career home run is a walk off to lift No. 11 LSU past No. 13 Oklahoma State, 3-2.#NCAASoftball | 🎥 @LSUsoftball pic.twitter.com/VJseDYwmIX
The Cowgirls opened the scoring in the top of the third and took their first lead against LSU when Kiley Naomi drove the ball deep in the gap to left field to score Chelsea Alexander, who had come into run for Sydney Springfield. The former LSU player in her second season as a Cowgirl had led the inning off working a full count walk off of the Tigers' Maribeth Gorsuch. The 1-0 Oklahoma State advantage was their first after losing with a late LSU run 1-0 on Friday night.
The Oklahoma State run was helped by a sacrifice bunt by catcher Raquel Dominguez that moved Alexander over to second.
Logan Simunek got in trouble in the bottom of the third as she loaded the bases with two outs and Simunek hit the Tigers designated player Shelbi Sunseri in the front lower leg of the right-handed hitter and forced in a run to tie the game 1-1. Simunek recovered forcing Amanda Doyle, the next hitter, to bloop the ball down to third where Pennington handled it for the third out.
With the LSU starter Gorsuch on a roll having retired 10 straight Oklahoma State hitters, Sydney Pennington came up clutch in the top of the sixth breaking the 1-1 deadlock with a compact, but powerful swing that sent the florescent sphere on a line drive over the wall and the outstretched arm and glove of the leaping Savannah Stewart to put the Cowgirls up 2-1.
Just like earlier, LSU came right back in the bottom of the inning as they ran off Simunek. With two outs, the Cowgirls senior walked Taylor Tidwell and then Ciari Briggs launched a ball deep to the track in center field and that went for a double and scored Tidwell with the tying run to make it 2-2 after six innings to set up the exciting finish, very similar to Friday night. With Simunek out after 5 2/3 innings it was Maxwell that was in for the finish in the circle.
Oklahoma State made quick work of Florida A&M in their morning game as they needed just five innings to run rule the Rattlers 21-0.
Red-shirt freshman pitcher Kelly Maxwell, in her Oklahoma State debut, threw a no-hitter against Florida A&M and faced the minimum 15 hitters. Maxwell is from Clear Springs High School in Friendswood, Texas. her sophomore season in high school she was All-State and an Under Armour All-American. She missed her junior season due to injury and bounced back to make the All-Region team as a senior. This was a fantastic start to her college career.
Maxwell got plenty of support. The Cowgirls scored five runs in the third inning to take control as Pennington drove her first home run of the season over the wall and Hayley Busby on base scored ahead of her. Naomi followed that up with another homer and it was also a two-run shot. The score was 9-0 at that point.
The Cowgirls finished it off with eight runs in the fifth inning as Michaela Richbourg hit a grand slam home run to account for four of those runs. Richbourg was 2-for-4 with the four RBI. Pennington was 3-for-3 with three RBI in the game and Naomi was 4-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored.
Kelly Maxwell (1-0) got the win in the circle for the Cowgirls.
The Cowgirls wrap up their play in the Tiger Classic on Sunday morning with a final game against Florida A&M. Oklahoma State will be back on the road next week at the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational. That event starts on Thursday for the Cowgirls with two games at nine a.m. against Virginia Tech and then at 2:30 p.m. against South Florida.
