Pitch to pitch: Cowgirls mountain climb ends in OKC | Athletics
Alongside coaches and teammates, Oklahoma State third baseman Sydney Pennington sat observing The Dawn Wall.
It wasn’t the initial time she’d observed this film.
Pursuing a 10-2 loss to Oklahoma on May well 15 in the Significant 12 tournament, mentor Kenny Gajewski took the crew on a brief retreat to Damaged Bow, as a way to take it easy and reconnect with the purpose of this year prior to the NCAA Regionals.
Just one way to reconnect was through the movie. Gajewski experienced demonstrated the film to the team prior to the get started of the season, inspiring the hashtag utilised through the year.
#Pitch2Pitch
The documentary revolves around males climbing a mountain, and how they would have to climb specified sections of the mountain at a time, or “pitches”. At times they would have to go backward to get to the upcoming pitch.
The Cowgirls relevant this to softball, not only because of the double that means with “pitch”, but since of the journey they have been about to embark on.
With a huge whiteboard, the team drew a mountain, with every sport remaining a “pitch” of the mountain, the peak becoming the Women’s School Planet Sequence. Every single signed the board as a commitment to the board’s goal.
The period started, and the Cowgirls commenced their climb.
There were being big times together the way. Pitchers Carrie Eberle and Kelly Maxwell merged for a perfect game against North Texas on March 24. Kiley Naomi strike a wander-off home operate versus Iowa Condition on April 1.
The information of a new softball stadium becoming produced in various several years broke on April 7. OSU defeated Oklahoma for the 1st time given that 2011 on May possibly 7 and hosted a regional and super regional in Stillwater.
They reached back-to-again WCWS, and Gajewski concluded with his greatest record (48-12) due to the fact signing up for OSU in 2016.
“So there is certainly a whole lot of terrific matters,” Gajewski said. “We pitched quite nicely. Played defense very well for the most part. We are beginning to search like an elite softball program and we will just continue to chase the typical at OSU, and which is gain championships.”
The Cowgirls couldn’t scale the last pitch of the year. As OSU performed Florida Point out on a soaked area in Oklahoma Metropolis, the activity getting delayed several hours simply because of rain, the Cowgirls time ended.
A 4-2 reduction to the Seminoles in the early several hours of June 6 finished the Cowgirls hopes to reach the apex of the mountain.
For some of the gamers, it finished their OSU careers.
“It is really seriously rough to see these seniors engage in their very last game since coach tells us all the time that we are not really heading to try to remember the video games,” Pennington explained. “We are going to try to remember these friendships and the recollections and the moments that we make.”
