OU Softball: No. 4 Oklahoma State Dismantles No. 2 Oklahoma, Takes Bedlam Opener

NORMAN — Love’s Field sat in stunned silence. 

Oklahoma State freshman Karli Godwin hammered a two-run shot in the fifth inning, her fourth RBI of the night, to put the Cowgirls up by four runs.

Oklahoma’s warts of the past month were on display. 

Oklahoma only brought one run around in the first inning despite having the bases loaded, and stranded runners all night.

In the other dugout, Kenny Gajewski’s Cowgirls delivered clutch hit after clutch hit to stun the Sooners and take Game 1 of Bedlam for the first time since 2021.

OSU won Friday’s contest 6-3, pulling No. 1 Texas level with the Sooners at the top of the Big 12 standings and putting OU’s 11-year regular season conference title streak in jeopardy. 

“Not good enough. Give Oklahoma State credit. They swung it really well. They pitched really well,” OU coach Patty Gasso said after the loss. “… Our bats were not timely. Our defense was great. Our pitchers gave up too much, too many hard-hit balls. They’re good, and we knew it. We have to pitch more competitively. That’s the word we were talking about is competitive. More competitive swings, competitive pitches, athletic that way.”

No. 2 Oklahoma (45-5, 21-4 Big 12) stranded eight baserunners in the loss to No. 4 Oklahoma State (43-8, 20-5), and was out-hit 7-3.

WATCH: Oklahoma’s Bedlam Postgame Press Conference

Friday was OU’s first defeat to the Cowgirls at home since 1997 and OSU’s six runs were the most the team had scored in Norman since a 6-2 Bedlam win on May 2, 1985.

The Cowgirls nearly took the lead from the jump. 

Kelly Maxwell fired a pair of strikeouts, but she walked Tallen Edwards to put a runner on first. 

Godwin doubled to the wall and Gajewski knew exactly what he wanted. He waved Edwards home, setting up a play at the plate. 

Rylie Boone hit Tiare Jennings on the cutoff, and she fired home for a bang-bang play. Edwards slid under Kinzie Hansen’s tag and was called safe, drawing a ferocious fist pump from Gajewski and putting OSU on top — or so the Cowgirls thought. 

After review, Edwards’ move to avoid Hansen took her wide enough for the Sooner catcher to apply the tag before Edwards’ hand caught a piece of home. The call was overturned, ending the top of the first with both teams still scoreless. 

The Sooners carried that momentum into the bottom half of the inning. 

Jayda Coleman, Jennings and Alyssa Brito all drew walks to load the bases with one out. 

Hansen drew the fourth walk of the inning putting Oklahoma up 1-0, but the Sooners struggled to turn the screws on Oklahoma State right-hander Kyra Aycock’s shaky start. 

Despite only throwing 12 of her 30 first inning pitches for strikes, Aycock got Ella Parker and Alynah Torres to fly out and limit the damage in the frame. 

Oklahoma capitalized on a mistake in the second inning. 

Kasidi Pickering dribbled a grounder toward the gap in the right side of the infield with two outs and Boone on second. OSU second baseman Rosie Davis covered the ground to field the ball, but mishandled the exchange to her throwing hand as she moved to try and toss the ball. 

Boone rounded third and sped home as soon as she saw to ball hit the dirt to double OU’s advantage. 

A walk and a hit batter came back to bite Maxwell in the third, as Godwin produced again with a two-out double to clear the bases and tie the game up for the Cowgirls at 2-2.

OSU took the lead in the fourth. 

Micaela Wark hammered a one-out delivery to dead center, putting the Cowgirls in front 3-2.

Kierston Deal came on in relief to end Maxwell’s outing to start the fifth. Maxwell allowed four hits and two walks while striking out three batters in her first start against her old team.

“I am extremely proud of Kelly because it’s a very tough situation,” Gasso said of Maxwell. “Even if you’re playing at home, it’s a tough situation for her. So I was proud of her competing. But there’s too many walks.

“There’s hit batters. … I thought Kelly came out and was a little bit nervous, and then she started to settle in a bit, but this is a day that she was knowing was coming, and if you’ve ever been in a situation like that, your heart beats a little bit differently that day.”

The change didn’t slow down the Cowgirls, as Jilyen Poullard greeted Deal with a solo shot to extend OSU’s lead to 4-2.

Godwin continued to torment the Sooners, belting a two-run shot to put the visitors up four.

Gasso went to Karlie Keeney two batters after Godwin’s bomb, ending the night for the back-to-back Big 12 Pitcher of the Week.

Though a small sample size, Deal entered the night with a 4.85 ERA when entering games out of the bullpen, a stark contrast from her form when she starts games. Gasso didn’t put the struggles at the feet of any mental disconnect from starting games to entering in relief, however.

“KD has been our hottest pitcher as of late,” Gasso said. “So if I felt like (if) she wasn’t ready to come in, I wouldn’t put her in. It’s just, she had an off night, she left the ball over the plate too many times and she’ll tell you that herself.”

Hansen didn’t see any difference out of the sophomore left hander, either.

“They executed on good pitches really,” Hansen said. “That’s all you can really say. I think that the ones that we were trying to get them to chase on, they didn’t and then the ones that were over the plate they got the barrel on it, so tip the cap to them.”

Over the past three seasons, the fifth inning is typically where Oklahoma turned the tide, pulling a dramatic comeback victory out of the fire. 

With runners on first and second, Boone popped up her first pitch to record the second out, but Coleman helped get one run back for OU. 

Her hard-hit ball to third turned into a run off a bad throw, allowing Coleman to reach base and a run to score, but Pickering flew out with runners at the corners, ending the sixth with the Cowgirls up 6-3.

Still, OU was held without a hit from the second inning until the sixth.

“They pitched really well,” Jennings said. “But at a certain point we got to adjust. We had little spurts of it here and there. Just not enough to execute.”

Keeney stopped the bleeding in the circle to give Oklahoma one final chance. The Sooners had Jennings, Brito and Hansen due up in the seventh to erase the three-run deficit.

This time, there was no magic.

Jennings flew out to the warning track and Brito and Hansen both grounded out to end the contest.

“We gave ourselves a chance late in the game, but we were just kind of in a lull in the middle,” Gasso said. “Against a good team, you can’t give up innings. You can’t sit back and wait. There have been times when we used to be able to do that pretty easily. We’re not made that way this year.

“We can’t take innings off. We have got to grind, work better at passing the bat on that side. And we have to make competitive pitches. We keep trying to catch up but then giving up a lead, then what does that help? We talked a lot more about being competitive and fearless. Fearless.”

Game 2 between the Bedlam rivals will start at noon Saturday, and will be broadcast on ESPN.