Dominant pitching, Kiley Naomi's hot bat highlight OSU softball's strong weekend at Reveille Classic
STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State softball team bounced back strong with four wins over the weekend at the Reveille Classic in College Station, Texas.
The offense had several bright spots and the pitching was dominant from start to finish, giving OSU some momentum heading into its first home games of the year.
Here’s a look at what we learned about the Cowgirls over the weekend:
'I think I'm ready': How Kelly Maxwell emerged as the ace of OSU softball's pitching staff
No. 11 Oklahoma State
Overall record: 10-4
Last week: 4-0 (beat Tennessee State 9-0 and 5-0, beat Texas A&M 1-0 and 2-1)
This week: Hosting the OSU/Tulsa Invitational (vs. Stanford, 2:30 and 5 p.m. Friday; vs. DePaul, 10 a.m. Sunday; vs. Minnesota, 3 p.m. Sunday)
Dominant pitching
The Cowgirls couldn’t have been much better in the circle, allowing just one run over four games. And just about everyone got in on the action.
Morgan Day, the graduate transfer from Illinois State, opened the weekend right, going the distance in a five-inning run-rule victory over Tennessee State. She allowed two hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in the shutout.
Miranda Elish closed out the weekend by allowing one run over seven innings of a 2-1 victory against Texas A&M. She gave up a run in the top of the first but shut the door from there. In all, she allowed four hits and struck out 11.
In between those two performances, ace Kelly Maxwell remained her dominant self with a pair of complete-game shutout performances. She struck out 13 in the 1-0 win over Texas A&M, then tacked on another 13 strikeouts in a one-hitter against Tennessee State.
For the season, she has a 0.38 earned-run average and 67 strikeouts in 37 innings.
Kiley Naomi comes alive
OSU leadoff hitter and star shortstop Kiley Naomi had been off to a slow start at the plate this season, batting .200 (7-for-35) with seven singles and no runs batted in through the first 10 games of the season
But the senior found her stroke early, leading off the weekend with a solo home run against Tennessee State.
She didn’t have a hit in the second game, but drew a walk in the top of the first and scored the only run of the game on a single by Julia Cottrill. In Sunday’s 5-0 win over Tennessee State, Naomi was 2-for-4 with an RBI triple, a run scored and a stolen base.
And in the 2-1 win over Texas A&M to close the weekend, she had an RBI single in the sixth inning that turned out to be the game-winner.
Over the four games, she went 4-for-12, raising her batting average 34 points. She scored four times, drove in three runs and recorded her first two extra-base hits of the season.
More: Cayden Brumbaugh's wild debut, OSU's offensive explosion highlight big finish to wild baseball week
Lineup shuffle
OSU coach Kenny Gajewski noted before heading to Texas for the weekend that some of his middle-of-the-lineup hitters had been pressing at the plate.
In an effort to put those players in better situations, Gajewski made some batting order changes, dropping Hayley Busby and Morgyn Wynne lower in the lineup and elevating second baseman Karli Petty from the bottom of the order to the cleanup spot for the final two games of the weekend.
Petty, a junior from Southmoore, responded with a pair of hits and two runs scored in seven at-bats. For the season, Petty is batting .290 with a home run and five runs scored.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball gets strong weekend from pitchers, Kiley Naomi
