Kelly Maxwell puts Oklahoma State softball on brink of WCWS championship series
Berry TramelOklahoman
In the ancient days of NCAA softball, public-address voices would announce most hitters with the words, “Now bunting...”
And after OSU’s Julia Cottrill opened the third inning Saturday night with a line single into right field, the Cowgirls stepped through a time tunnel.
Kiley Naomi bunted, a sacrifice that moved Cottrill to second base. Then Chelsea Alexander laid down another bunt on a 3-2 pitch and reached first base just as the ball arrived. Tie goes to the runner. Finally, Chyenne Factor, who drilled a double off the centerfield wall in her first at-bat, bunted, too, the third straight Cowgirl to play small ball from the batter’s box.
The Florida infield was so flummoxed, no one covered first base. Cottrill scored easily on Factor’s single, and you realized the Cowgirls might need to win this game the old-fashioned way.
Bunting like it was 1986 and a pitcher, Kelly Maxwell, who dominated like those days when the Women’s College World Series was young.
OSU beat Florida 2-0 as Hall of Fame Stadium became Maxwell House. This trip to the WCWS is more than a cup of coffee, and now the Cowgirls have the pole position on reaching the best-of-three Championship Series. Same as the arch-rival Sooners on the other side of the bracket.
OSU plays at 6 p.m. Monday against the Arizona-Texas winner, with the Cowgirls getting two chances at the lone victory needed to get them onto softball’s grandest stage, almost surely against the mighty Sooners.
“The expectation was to be here,” Maxwell said of the World Series, “But I think the standard now is to be in that final game, so we're just doing everything we can to be there.”
Including a trip through the wayback machine. It’s fun to take note of all the bunting Saturday night — Karli Petty’s sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning moved Sydney Pennington to second base, and Pennington scored on Cottrill’s single through the left-side hole — but the reason yesteryear was full of slappers and bunters was because elite pitchers were dang near impossible to hit.
Just like Maxwell was against Florida. The Gators’ Kendra Falby opened the game with a bunt single of her own. Florida produced just two other hits — an infield bloop in the sixth inning and Cheyenne Lindsey’s sharp single to left-center in the seventh.
A Bedlam championship series is quite likely now, and OSU is 1-3 against the 56-2 Sooners this season. But maybe a time tunnel is the way to counter the OU big boppers.
Maxwell, changing speeds and locations the way April changes weather, allowed only two batted balls to reach OSU’s outfielders. She struck out nine and walked just two.
“She's special,” said OSU coach Kenny Gajewski. “She's stoic. She's going to be crazy successful in life.”
Maxwell suffered through a harrowing experience after pitching OSU to a 4-2 victory over Arizona on Thursday night. She was called for a random drug test after the game, which ended at 11:35 p.m. But Maxwell’s urine sample was diluted, and she stayed at the stadium for hours trying to hydrate enough to produce a passable sample.
Gajewski said Maxwell didn’t arrive back at the OSU team hotel until 3:15 a.m. Friday; Maxwell admitted she was “a little tired” by the seventh inning Saturday.
“Kelly was on fumes,” Gajewski said. “We knew that.”
No. 2 pitcher Morgan Day was warmed up, and Gajewski said he likely was one more baserunner from pulling Maxwell. But a pitch that hit Florida’s Katie Kistler on the fist was ruled a foul ball, not a hit by pitch. Bummer for Florida. Gajewski kept Maxwell in the game, and she plowed ahead to retire the final two Gator hitters.
It didn’t hurt that Maxwell is left-handed, and Florida’s lineup was loaded with lefties – seven of the nine in the batting order.
“She owns left-handed hitters,” said Florida coach Tim Walton.
For the record, OU has three left-handed hitters in its normal lineup, but none are from the Jocelyn Alo/Tiare Jennings/Grace Lyons trio that has produced 77 home runs this season.
Of course, OSU has to muscle past Texas or Arizona to reach the Sooners, but with Maxwell pitching like this, anything is possible.
Walton said Maxwell delivered her pitches at three speeds — “the hard, the slow, then the slower,” and he didn’t mean that as an insult. Maxwell’s nasty dropballs and timely riseballs were quite impressive.
After Falby’s leadoff bunt in the first inning, Hannah Adams drew a walk. Maxwell chalked up the rugged start to trying to figure out the umpire’s strike zone.
That’s how sharp Maxwell was; she was throwing the ball right where she wanted to, all game long. Just like when 1-0 and 2-0 games were the norm, and bunting was the best form of attack.
“I think we've all been enamored with the home run,” Gajewski said. “The home runs just don't get hit here, so you better find ways to make other things happen.”
The Cowgirls found a way, small ball and Maxwell, just like it was 1986.
