Oklahoma State softball rewind: Rachel Becker setting table atop Cowgirls' batting order

Despite a less-dominant finish to the weekend, the Oklahoma State softball team powered through five more games with potent pitching and unstoppable offense.

The Cowgirls ran through four games at New Mexico State’s Troy Cox Invitational in Las Cruces, New Mexico, then edged UTEP in El Paso, Texas on Sunday to finish up the road trip.

With 11 straight wins — seven of them by run rule — the Cowgirls are set for their home debut, hosting the OSU/Tulsa Invitational beginning Friday with games against Maine and Missouri.

OSU will host 17 of its next 18 games, a span that will include a three-game series against sixth-ranked Florida State plus games against the likes of Central Florida and Arizona State, then the Big 12-opening series against Baylor in late March.

Here’s a look at what we learned about the Cowgirls over the weekend:

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No. 4 Oklahoma State

Overall record: 13-1

Last week: 5-0 (Beat New Mexico 12-1 in 5 innings, beat Nebraska 3-1, beat Cal State Bakersfield 11-0 in 5 innings, beat New Mexico State 13-0 in 5 innings, beat UTEP 10-6)

This week: OSU/Tulsa Invitational (vs. Maine, 2:30 p.m. Friday; vs. Missouri, 5 p.m. Friday, vs. South Dakota State, 2:30 p.m. Saturday; vs. Tarleton State, 5 p.m. Saturday; vs. South Dakota State, noon Sunday)

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A fast start

In a weekend where the Cowgirls outscored five opponents by a total of 49-7, the tone was set from the start.

Rachel Becker, who upped her batting average to .579 after going 11-for-16 over the weekend, led off the bottom of the first inning of the opener against New Mexico with an infield single and Tallen Edwards followed with a single of her own.

When Becker came back to the plate later in the same inning, her RBI double put the Cowgirls up 7-0, and Edwards made it a nine-run first with a two-run homer to right field.

From there, the Cowgirls stormed ahead on a weekend that saw them collect 63 hits in five wins.

It wasn’t always big hits, either. In the 3-1 win over Nebraska, the Cowgirls had 14 hits, all of them singles. OSU went into the top of the seventh tied at 1 before back-to-back RBI singles by Katelynn Carwile and Chyenne Factor provided the final spread.

Carwile has otherwise been a master of the extra-base hit. She leads the team in doubles with seven and triples with two, and hit her first home run of the season against New Mexico — making for 10 extra-base hits out of her 16 total hits this season.

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Becker a leadoff star

Fitting quickly into her role as the Cowgirl leadoff hitter, Becker has reached base in every game and at least twice in 13 of 14 games, to go with a 13-game hitting streak, giving her a .673 on-base percentage.

Of the 11 OSU batters with at least 15 plate appearances, eight of them are batting .350 or better and six of them are over .400.

Becker isn’t the only transfer finding her stroke at the plate.

Redshirt freshman first baseman Micaela Wark, who came in from Kansas, is batting .367 with three home runs and 11 runs batted in. Sophomore third baseman Megan Bloodworth, an Alabama transfer, had seven hits over the weekend, raising her batting average from .200 to .344.

And though Morgyn Wynne is in her second year as a Cowgirl, the former Kansas power hitter has 11 hits during her current seven-game hitting streak, boosting her average to .359 with four home runs and 17 RBIs.

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Circle of power

Though the Cowgirls’ pitchers struggled at UTEP on Sunday, they were nearly untouchable for four games in New Mexico.

More impressively, coach Kenny Gajewski used four different starters — Kelly Maxwell, Lexi Kilfoyl, Ivy Rosenberry and Kyra Aycock — for complete-game efforts in those games.

Over 22 innings, that quartet allowed two runs (one earned) on eight hits with 21 strikeouts.

Maxwell was off her game in the 10-6 win over UTEP on Sunday, giving up five runs on three hits and five walks with three strikeouts over three innings. But for the season, her numbers remain spectacular.

The redshirt senior has a 5-0 record in six starts with a 1.53 earned-run average and 58 strikeouts in 32 innings pitched.

As a team, the Cowgirls have a 2.60 ERA, having allowed two or fewer runs in 10 of 14 games.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Rachel Becker setting table atop Oklahoma State softball batting order