The super regional between Oregon and Oklahoma State shapes up as a series of pitchers’ duels.
Kelly Maxwell, Lexi Kilfoyl and Kyra Ayco*ck command the circle for the No. 6 seed Cowgirls, who host the Ducks and hurlers Stevie Hansen, Morgan Scott and Raegan Breedlove in a best-of-three series starting tonight (6 p.m., ESPN2) in Stillwater.
The teams met on Feb. 10 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with Oklahoma State taking a 3-0 win behind Maxwell, who struck out 15 in a two-hit shutout.
“I think she’s elite in what she does,” Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “She moves the ball well, she throws the ball hard and she knows how to change speeds.”
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In that win, Maxwell (15-5, 1.87 ERA) struck out Oregon’s Allee Bunker twice, something no other pitcher has done in her five seasons. Maxwell enters the Super Regional with 215 strikeouts over 131.1 innings and also has five saves this season.
“She’s a great pitcher,” Bunker said. “This is a great team that we’re going to be playing and I think not taking them lightly at all but also knowing we can make adjustments and we can battle against anybody. Yes, we got beat by them earlier in the season. But we’re different and they’re different, so it’s going to be a completely different ballgame than what we saw earlier in the season and I think anyone can say that about any team.”
Oklahoma State (44-14) is keenly aware of how good Bunker is and how hot Oregon’s offense was in the Fayetteville Regional, scoring 24 runs on 26 hits and seven walks in two wins over Arkansas.
As spectacular a start to the season as Maxwell had, she’s been more vulnerable in May. Over her last five appearances, including two against top-ranked Oklahoma, her ERA is 4.52.
“I still subscribe to the theory that good pitching when good pitching is on will beat good hitting always,” Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski said. “Kelly was really good that day, maybe as good as she’s pitched all year. It was our first game so I think at that time of year the pitching is going to be ahead. We know how good (Bunker) is. We know that she’ll be a different hitter than what she was 50 games back. Kelly’s different than what she was there. We’ve got a lot of respect for these guys.
“Oregon is swinging a hot bat. I’ve watched their three games now in Fayetteville twice. ... They’re going pretty dang good. Now we’ll see if a different look with different arms that do different things, we’ll see if that will affect them. I don’t know. I feel like our pitching staff is one of the top two or three in the country. They continue to do great things and then when we play catch behind them, they’re lethal.”
Oregon (38-15) was more successful against left-handed pitching last weekend than it was during the regular season, another positive sign as it prepares to face Maxwell. OSU can also turn to righties Kilfoyl (14-5, 1.86 ERA), who has 122 strikeouts over 124 innings with two saves and Ayco*ck (9-2, 2.30 ERA).
The Cowgirls average 6.07 runs per game, 17th nationally, but were less potent against some of the better competition in the Big 12.
Hansen (20-6, 2.51 ERA) allowed two runs on two hits, two walks and a hit batter and struck out four over 4.0 innings in the loss to OSU. It’ll be up to her and Scott (13-6, 2.61 ERA) to contain an Oklahoma State lineup with six .300 hitters, including Rachel Becker (.453), Chyenne Factor (.377) and Kiley Naomi (.360).
“They’re both really competitive,” Naomi said. “Their whole staff is competitive so we’re going to stick to our plan and swing at balls that we know that we can hit hard.”
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