Oklahoma State defeats Arizona 10-4, clinches fifth straight World Series appearance​

• Parker Gerl, Assistant Sports Editor, @Parker_Gerl
• May 25, 2024 Updated 8 hrs ago

Oklahoma State was close to punching its ticket to the Women's College World Series, then it got put on hold.

But not because of softball.

After a weather delay that lasted more than two hours, the Cowgirls defeated Arizona 10-4 on Saturday night in Game 2 of the Stillwater Super Regional. The stoppage came in the fifth inning, then the Cowgirls closed out the Wildcats when play resumed to clinch their fifth straight WCWS appearance.


Arizona’s offense delivered far more than it did in Game 1, but the Cowgirls were still never seriously threatened. Their hitting power, as it has for most of the season, was too strong to be matched and served as a big-time separator between them and the Wildcats.

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” Kenny Gajewski, OSU’s head coach, said of making five straight trips to Oklahoma City.. “...(It) feels really good, and just want to enjoy this one with these guys.

It didn’t take long for OSU to do what it’s sixth-best in the NCAA at: hitting home runs (1.53 per game coming into Saturday).

Tallen Edwards sliced a first-inning, two-run blast to left field, which swiftly kept her postseason hitting streak alive and gave OSU a 2-0 lead. Then Karli Godwin doubled and Rosie Davis singled before Godwin scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.

The Cowgirls’ hot start forced Arizona to move off of its starting pitcher, Aissa Silva, after just 0.1 innings and 18 total pitches. The Wildcats used three pitchers after doing so in Friday’s series opener, too.

Pitching was less sporadic for OSU, though, as Ivy Rosenberry made her second start of the postseason and logged four strikeouts while giving up three earned runs on seven hits. She pitched three innings before ace Lexi Kilfoyl pitched the last four frames.

The Wildcats’ first run off Rosenberry came in the first, as Regan Shockey’s RBI single made it 3-1 OSU.


“I thought Ivy was really good here today for not having pitched a lot (in) the last couple of weeks,” Gajewski said. “... And then we turned it over to our showstopper (Kilfoyl).”

Offensively, though, the Cowgirls got back to their ways in the third.

Rosie Davis and Claire Timm hit back-to-back home runs, with Davis’ shooting into left and Timm’s into right, marking the second straight game in which OSU got consecutive homers, giving the Cowgirls a 5-1 lead.

“Claire Timm gets to her 10th home run here today; it's wild,” Gajewski said. “And you know, Rosie, maybe last weekend, started getting hotter and just keeps it on this weekend.”

Then OSU hit the 10-run mark by scoring five runs across the fourth and fifth innings. None came on home runs, but the Cowgirls’ power shined again.

Timm and fellow sophomore outfielder Lexi McDonald hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the fifth, each into the outfield at high speeds. Then Jilyen Poullard scored OSU’s last run on an RBI single.

The Cowgirls and Wildcats each posted 11 hits, but OSU hit two more over the fence than Arizona did, along with more doubles and walks. That’s what made the difference on an equal-hit night.

The Cowgirls were the only team to punch their ticket to OKC on Saturday, and they will face the winner of the Gainesville Super Regional between Florida and Baylor at the WCWS.

“I’m really glad that all of them have to play tomorrow,” Gajewski said. “That makes me happy. We can sit back and watch and plan and get a break.”

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'We honestly expect to win it': Oklahoma State overpowers OU, wins Big 12 Championship 9-3​

• Daniel Allen, Staff Reporter, @danielallen1738
• May 26, 2024 Updated 7 hrs ago

ARLINGTON – The moment Oklahoma State shortstop Lane Forsythe corralled a towering pop up from Oklahoma’s Jaxon Willits, head coach Josh Holliday knew what was coming.

Moments later, as his players and coaching staff circled around him, he was given stern instructions by his group: “Stand there, smile and take it like a champ.”

The instant the ice-cold feel of the purple Gatorade flooded Holliday’s back and a grin appeared on his face as chants erupted around him. Just then, the reality of the moment seeped in. The fireworks, the confetti, the highly-coveted Big 12 trophy and the euphoria of fans and all OSU faithful present bellowing around the podium in right field made it all the more sentimental.

Holliday’s Cowboys were Big 12 Champions. This one, however, meant a little more than conference champions that have come in years past.

Second-seeded Oklahoma State dominated rival and top-seeded Oklahoma, 9-3 in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship game at Globe Life Field, giving the Cowboys their fourth conference tournament title and third under Holliday.

“A lot of fun,” Holliday said. “It’s kind of cool to celebrate a little bit. You don’t get many moments where as a coach or a team, you feel like it’s OK to celebrate. Just because once the season starts, you’re constantly chasing growth and improvement. And when the regular season ends, you shift your focus to this.

“Kind of fun for 15 minutes to take it all in with the kids.”

And this one came to no surprise to Holliday.

Not after a 4-4 start to the regular season. Not after a plethora of injuries to notable pieces: left fielder Nolan Schubart, infielder Aidan Meola, third baseman Tyler Wulfert and starting catcher Beau Sylvester. Not after Holliday’s Cowboys dropped head-scratching series losses to Kansas State and Texas teams, only to turn around and display dominance one week later.

Despite such obstacles, there they were, hoisting the Big 12 Conference trophy in right field as golden confetti fell on them.

“We honestly expect to win it, around here,” Cowboys’ two-way star Carson Benge said. “Shouldn’t surprise anyone that we were able to do it.”

The Cowboys (40-17) made relatively easy work of the Sooners for most of the night.

OSU drew first blood in the top of the first following consecutive base hits from Forsythe and Benge to lead off the frame. A sacrifice fly out to center field from Zach Ehrhard made it 1-0 OSU.

OU threatened at times, but a stellar, 4 1/3-inning gem from right-hander Tommy Molsky – who made his first start on the mound this season – kept a potent Sooners’ (37-19) offense at bay, matching a season-high eight strikeouts while surrendering just four runs, one walk and two earned runs through 71 total pitches.


“I was ready,” Molsky said. “It kind of threw me off (getting the start). But I was ready. I was excited that I got the opportunity.”

And perhaps most importantly, Molsky’s productive outing allowed OSU’s offense to find its footing, amid a quality four innings from OU left-hander Carter Campbell.

Once the offense found its groove, the momentum of Saturday’s contest was drastically one-sided.

In the top of the fifth, OSU plated three more runs to make it 4-0 before the Sooners rallied for a two-spot of their own, making it 4-2 after the bottom half of the inning. But stellar relief pitching from OSU’s neutralized any threat OU’s offense posed over the game’s course.

Then, in the top of the seventh, Schubart eclipsed the 20-home run mark of his sophomore campaign with a towering three-run bomb off the batter’s eye in dead center field to put OSU up 7-2. And ultimately, it proved to be the dagger.

“This is not an easy ballpark for college players to hit homeruns in because it’s a real (professional) ballpark and it has real dimensions,” Holliday said. “It’s built for the best in the world. Some of the college parks that you get accustomed to playing to, you hit some balls you think are homers. In this park, you really have to earn them, and I think we earned every single one we hit. That’s a compliment to the players.”

Consecutive lead-off solo shots from designated hitter Kollin Ritchie and catcher Ian Daugherty in the top of the eighth made it 9-2, finalizing OSU’s scoring on the night.

When asked if beating the Sooners in what was the final Big 12 edition of Bedlam baseball — also marking OSU’s fourth win through five contests against OU on the year — meant anything, Holliday responded bluntly.

“It feels good that we played well,” Holliday said. “It feels good that we took an opportunity today to go win a championship. Who that’s against, I think it would be out of character and flawed to overdo that. Do we enjoy playing against them and all of the stuff that goes into OSU-OU? Of course. But as a competitor and as a coach, you learn lessons over your lifetime. And when your team is going out and playing well and they’re capturing the moment, I ask them to always treat the opponent as if they’re faceless, so that the game can stay simple for us.”

“So, for it to end there, yeah, we’ll take it. It ended on our terms.”

But rivalry antics aside, the focus shifts to the path ahead — the road to Omaha.

“Just a special group of kids,” he said. “They’ve been through a lot as a group and yet here they are. Pretty cool, huh?”

sports.ed@ocolly.com

Oklahoma State softball earns fifth straight WCWS trip as Cowgirls sweep Arizona​

Scott Wright
The Oklahoman

STILLWATER — Neither rain nor lightning nor the Arizona Wildcats could keep Oklahoma State from a fifth straight Women’s College World Series trip.

No. 5-seeded OSU took control early and rolled to a 10-4 win over unseeded Arizona to sweep the best-of-three Stillwater Super Regional on Saturday night at Cowgirl Stadium.

The game’s start time was moved 30 minutes earlier, to 5:30 p.m., in hopes of avoiding the widely predicted severe weather that was anticipated to arrive around 7-8 p.m.

At 7:33, a horn sounded to signal lightning was in the area, with OSU holding a 10-3 lead and still batting in the top of the fifth inning.

But when action finally resumed at 9:50 p.m. after a 2-hour, 17-minute delay, the Cowgirls (49-10) finished the job, eliminating Arizona (37-18-1) and securing a spot in the WCWS yet again.

“I know there’s a lot of people who counted us out this year,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. “We just kept telling these guys they were good enough and they could do this. They’ve now put themselves in position to achieve their goal, and that’s to win a national championship.

“It feels really cool. We’re gonna enjoy that here tonight.”

OSU will face the winner of the Gainesville Super Regional between fourth-seeded Florida and unseeded Baylor in the first round of the WCWS on Thursday at Devon Park. That series is tied at 1 with the decisive Game 3 set for Sunday.

OSU has hosted each of its regional and super-regional games since the 2021 postseason and improved its record to 20-1 record in those games.

‘Big-game’ Tallen Edwards at it again​

OSU sophomore Tallen Edwards’ impressive postseason continued, and she got off to a fast start Saturday.

After a leadoff walk by Jilyen Poullard to open the game, Edwards sent a fly ball deep to left field. Arizona outfielder Dakota Kennedy reached for the ball but it deflected off her glove and over the wall.

Edwards is now 8 for 19 with four extra-base hits in the postseason. That follows a 4-for-36 slump she fought through to end the regular season.

Referred to by OSU coach Kenny Gajewski as ‘Big-game Tallen’ after a strong performance Friday, Edwards had another key defensive play Saturday. The third baseman started a 5-3-2 double play to erase an Arizona scoring chance in the bottom of the first inning.


With runners on the corners, Edwards snagged a line drive and glanced at the runner on third, who was retreating to the bag. So Edwards threw to first, just missing the out there as the runner dove back in. But the runner from third took off for home and Karli Godwin threw to Caroline Wang, who applied the tag for the inning-ending out.

Back-to-back bombs on back-to-back days​

For the second straight game, OSU benefited from back-to-back home runs from the middle of the order. On Friday, it was Claire Timm who started it, but on Saturday, she finished it — and with a record-setting homer.

Freshman Rosie Davis had the first half of the back-to-back with a line drive to left field. Then Timm — affectionately nicknamed the Timm Reaper — launched her home run to right-center field.

It was her 10th of the season, joining teammates Wang (17), Godwin (15), Poullard (11) and Micaela Wark (11) Cowgirls with at least 10 home runs, the first time in program history five players have done so in the same season.


With OSU’s three home runs Saturday, the team now has 92 for the season, one shy of the program record of 93 set in 2021.

Of the five with double-digit home runs, only Wark was a regular starter last year, while Poullard and Davis are in their first year as Cowgirls, prepping for their first experience at the WCWS.

“It just means so much,” Davis said. “It’s like a little kid’s dreams come true. I just love this team so much and this coaching staff. It’s awesome.”

Timm finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Davis was 3 for 3 with two runs and an RBI.

“This has been the matra of this team, it’s somebody new,” Gajewski said. “Claire Timm gets her 10th home run here today. It’s wild. Rosie, maybe last weekend, she started getting hotter, and it keeps going this weekend.

“It’s just a unique team, and it’s really cool to watch them celebrate and be happy for each other.”

Rosenberry, Kilfoyl pair up for strong outing​

Ivy Rosenberry made her first start of the NCAA Tournament and pitched into the fourth inning. After allowing an early run, she retired nine of the next 12 batters and pitched around the three singles she gave up.

“It didn’t start off great,” Gajewski said of Rosenberry, who has been battling a rib injury. “I think we’re learning that we probably need to pitch her more in practice. We’ve been trying to rest her, and she’s not very sharp, and I think that showed.


“But she gutted it out, literally.”

After Rosenberry gave up a two-run homer in the fourth, OSU went back to ace Lexi Kilfoyl, who has been dominant in the postseason.

Kilfoyl threw just 13 pitches before the weather delay, and struggled with control when the game resumed. But she allowed just one run on four hits with three strikeouts over four innings and retired the Wildcats in order in the seventh to earn her 26th win of the season.

“I didn’t think she was very sharp after the break,” Gajewski said. “But when you have what she has, you can not be sharp and still win, so I’m very, very proud of her and proud of this team.”

Kilfoyl will be making her third WCWS appearance. The Florida native went with Alabama as a sophomore in 2021 prior to joining the Cowgirls for two trips.

“I’m just so proud of this team and how far we’ve come,” Kilfoyl said. “We never looked back or looked at the bad things and what everyone else was saying. We stayed the course and we handled anything anyone threw at us.”


The Cowgirls’ best WCWS finish under Gajewski is third place in 2022, but with the way they’ve been playing in the postseason, they’ll arrive in OKC feeling confident.

“Might as well win, right?” Gajewski said. “That’s the way we’re looking at it. We’re gonna go down to OKC and everybody’s gonna talk about OU and all these other teams. That’s how it’s been for us the whole year. We’re just gonna go over there and play our best and see where the chips fall.”

Gajewski has big plans for his team away from the field in OKC. Eating like royalty, shopping trips as a team and anything they can do to enjoy the little moments that make such an achievement special.

“We might even go get pedicures,” Gajewski said. “But most importantly, we’re gonna get focused when it’s time. We’re gonna go have a blast and we’re gonna play the Cowgirl way.”

BIG-12

What did Oklahoma State baseball show in beating OU for Big 12 title? 'We’ve grown a lot'​

Nick Sardis
The Oklahoman

The stakes were high when OU and Oklahoma State baseball met Saturday.

The schools were not only facing off in their final scheduled game before the Sooners leave for the SEC this summer.

They were battling for the Big 12 Tournament championship, with a victory guaranteeing bragging rights.

Oklahoma State made an emphatic statement.

The second-seeded Cowboys scored eight runs between the fifth and eighth innings as they pulled away for a 9-3 victory against No. 1-seeded OU at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, winning their fourth Big 12 Tournament championship and first since 2019.

Tommy Molsky pitched the first 4 ⅓ innings for Oklahoma State and kept OU off balance, allowing just four hits and two runs.

OU starter Carter Campbell had a similar day as he gave up four hits and three runs in four innings, but Oklahoma State blew it open when he exited and hit three homers, a three-run shot by Nolan Schubart in the seventh inning and solo blasts by Kollin Ritchie and Ian Daugherty that led off the eighth.

“We’ve grown a lot over the season,” Schubart said in a postgame interview with ESPN. “Not a lot of expectations for us coming in, but we grew a lot and played with each other and battled through injuries the whole year as a team, and coming out tonight and proving what we can be and going into more postseason is pretty special.”

Now the Cowboys and Sooners will wait to find out until Monday's NCAA selection show (11 a.m., ESPN2).

Here are some takeaways from the matchup between OU (37-19), which is ranked No. 8 in the nation and was the conference’s regular season champion, and No. 19 Oklahoma State (40-17).

Nolan Schubart provides spark for Oklahoma State​

Nolan Schubart remains on fire at the plate for Oklahoma State.

The sophomore outfielder’s batting average has gone from .272 to .355 since April 21, and he went 2 for 4 on Saturday.

His main highlight of the game came with one out in the seventh inning when he launched a three-run bomb over the center field wall off OU reliever Dylan Crooks. That extended the Cowboys’ lead to 7-2.

“Just been attacking heaters and then able to not miss them,” Schubart said on ESPN.

Carson Benge, Lane Forsythe and Daugherty also had productive days at the plate for Oklahoma State.

Benge went 2 for 5 and scored two runs, while Forsythe finished 3 for 5 with an RBI and two runs and Daugherty went 2 for 4 with one RBI and two runs.

Oklahoma State pitching staff solid against OU​

Tommy Molsky is typically a reliever for Oklahoma State, but the junior right-hander and Penn State transfer got the start Saturday.

Molsky thrived in the role as he finished with eight strikeouts and allowed just a pair of runs before handing the ball to Gabe Davis, who improved to 2-4 on the season after allowing two hits and one run in 2 ⅔ innings.

Robert Cranz shut down OU in the final two frames, giving up just one hit.

It’s possible Molsky will get more starting opportunities after his performance.

“Who knows what the next couple of weeks may hold for our team? But one thing’s for sure,” Oklahoma State coach Josh Holliday said during an in-game interview with ESPN. “He’ll be more prepared in case we need him to start.”

Taking the loss for the Sooners was Campbell (4-1), who was one of six pitchers who took the mound for OU.

OU shows life in fifth inning​

OU trailed 4-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth, but the Sooners scored a pair of runs to make it interesting.

John Spikerman hit a one-out double that drove in Kendall Pettis before Oklahoma State made a pitching change, replacing Molsky with Davis.

Easton Carmichael then drove in Jason Walk on a sacrifice fly, but the Sooners didn’t score again until the eighth when Michael Snyder hit an RBI double.

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Starting pitching.

Benge, Garcia, Holiday, and Molsky were all outstanding.

If we keep getting pitching like that, we could make a historic run.

Went to the Charles Schwab Classic with my daughter and followed Rickie as well as saw Kevin Tway play. Followed that up by going to Globe Life to watch the Cowboys beat ou and win the Big 12 Tournament. Plus Cowgirls make it 5 World Series in a row

Softball resumes after 2 hour weather delay just minutes after baseball beats the Goons for the baseball championship!

Went through my seat selection process yesterday. No major issues, Got seats in the same area without any issues. Moved down a couple of rows but that was my choice. Sorry if I bumped somebody. Had to pay a little more for about the same seats. Was worried after reading some people's experiences the last couple of years. Hope it works out well for others.

Game scheduled for 4:00. Since the game in front is only in the 2nd, guessing it will be somewhere between 5:00 and 6:00. No idea on the bump. Best guess is Keisel or Blake and save Garcia for Game 2. I hope. Game on ESPN Plus.

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F dem hoes! That is all.

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COWBOYS

Mussatto: How Oklahoma State softball has become 'toughest ticket in town'​

Joe Mussatto
The Oklahoman

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State softball, according to coach Kenny Gajewski, is the toughest ticket in town.

“There’s a waiting list a mile long,” Gajewski said.

You know what beats a mile-long waiting list?

A 107-foot ladder.

A postseason-record crowd of 1,470 was on hand Friday to watch OSU bludgeon Arizona 8-0 in Game 1 of the Stillwater Super Regional, but that number doesn’t count the three Stillwater firefighters who watched from a perch high atop their ladder truck beyond left field.

“It’s definitely one of the perks of the job, being able to park wherever we want and get the best seat in the house,” captain Reagan Caram said.



Maybe not the best seat, but definitely the one with the most scenic view.

The Stillwater Fire Department works closely with OSU, but Caram’s rooting interests go deeper than that. His daughter, Chayse Caram, recently graduated from Dale High School, where she was a standout on the diamond.

Chayse Caram grew up playing with and against OSU third baseman Tallen Edwards. Caram also played against Cowgirls infielder Lexi McDonald, who went to Silo, one of Dale’s rivals.

“It’s a really neat deal to see those girls go from young teenagers to be the amazing female athletes they are now,” Reagan Caram said.

The Stillwater firefighters stayed from the first pitch to the last out Friday in the Cowgirls’ run-rule win, but of course one call can send them packing.

Like last weekend, during OSU’s regional win against Kentucky.

“We caught an apartment fire,” Caram said. “We were able to get the stuff down really quick and it was actually on this side of town, and so we had a really fast response.”


The firefighters, only a few of which climbed the ladder for a better view, weren’t the only ticketless fans who flocked to Cowgirl Stadium. A few hundred sat in lawn chairs behind the left-field fence, watching the game on a big screen attached to a box truck.

The ESPN broadcast was a few seconds delayed, which meant every cheer from inside the stadium was some kind of spoiler.

Not that anyone seemed to mind. Everything about Friday night was a party. On the field, in the stands and around the stadium.

As Gajewski drove to practice Thursday, Cowgirl Stadium, even in its empty state, struck him.

“Man, this place has changed,” Gajewski thought. “This is not what we started with.”

Gajewski has petitioned for a new stadium, but the current one has continued to evolve, to grow with the increased interest in the sport.

Gajewski credited Jesse Martin, an OSU associate athletic director who oversees softball, for continuing to enhance the atmosphere at Cowgirl Stadium.

OSU plans to add seats in right field and another deck in left field before next season. The stadium will need more bathrooms, more space for food trucks.



A new scoreboard will soon be installed.

“It’s gonna be massive,” Gajewski said.

OSU softball’s biggest problem is having too many fans to accommodate them all.

The scene beyond the left-field fence Friday was emblematic of that.

It’s where the firefighters always watch from, but not always from the rescue ladder.

Like everyone else, they just wanted a glimpse at what’s become the toughest ticket in town.

“We’re gonna be watching at the station anyway, right?” Caram said. “Might as well come up here and support the team.”

Good to see Lutz and Page on the road together.

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I like this better, but still no cakewalk. But, no DBU and no LSU. DBU to norman, and ou being a national 7 seed is a joke. Who knows how close they are in their predictions.


1. Oklahoma State (13)
2. Southern Miss*
3. Oregon
4. Pennsylvania*

COWBOYS

Oklahoma State softball shuts out Arizona in Game 1 of NCAA Tournament super regional​

Scott Wright
The Oklahoman

STILLWATER — Karli Godwin’s home run had not yet landed beyond the left field wall when Oklahoma State softball coach Kenny Gajewski began jogging up the baseline.

No, not the home run the Cowgirl first baseman hit Friday night to spark an offensive explosion in fifth-seeded OSU’s 8-0 run-rule win over unseeded Arizona in the Game 1 of the best-of-three Stillwater Super Regional at Cowgirl Stadium.

Friday’s homer was the first of three for the Cowgirls in a two-inning span — from Godwin, Claire Timm and Micaela Wark — as the Cowgirls scored early and often, supporting another dominant outing from senior pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl.

But the homer that led to Gajewski’s unplanned calisthenics came during Thursday’s batting practice, when he saw a plethora of hard hits from many of his players — but none from Godwin.

So Gajewski challenged his power-hitting freshman with a bet. Hit a homer and he’d run a lap around the outfield.

Gajewski ultimately had to make two trips around the outfield on Thursday, and probably would’ve done another Friday if not for the ongoing game.

“I got under her skin a bit, and she got me back,” Gajewski said. “We have fun. I like to poke and prod them. I like to challenge them. And that’s what I think helps them at times.”

Godwin agreed the mid-practice needling from her coach, and the home run challenge that followed, sparked her.

“Sometimes I need to get mad and work through things,” Godwin said. “I think that’s what it did in a fun way. I think it helped me.”

Gajewski said Godwin’s pregame batting practice Friday was much smoother than a day earlier, and her stats showed it.

Playing in her first career NCAA Super Regional, Godwin finished 2 for 2 with three RBIs, including an RBI single in the first inning that Gajewski considered “the most impressive one, if you want to know the truth in my mind,” he said. “Getting the base hit up the middle was huge.”

Godwin is 5 for 12 with two home runs and five RBIs in her first NCAA postseason and now has 15 homers for the year.

OSU can clinch its fifth straight trip to the Women’s College World Series with a win in Game 2, set for 6 p.m. Saturday.

Here are three takeaways from the Cowgirl victory:

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'Big-game Tallen'​

OSU sophomore Tallen Edwards had four hits over her final 36 at-bats of the regular season, but she has quietly come to life in the postseason.

Of course, she wasn’t so quiet on Friday.

After Jilyen Poullard led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk, Edwards laced a double down the right field line, moving Poullard to third.

That set up OSU’s first run of the game when Caroline Wang hit a sacrifice fly to left field.

Then Edwards came around to score, sliding headfirst into home plate just ahead of the tag, on a single by Godwin. She finished the game 1 for 2 with a walk and two runs scored, and is now 7 for 13 in the postseason, having hit safely in every game.

From her spot at third base, Edwards ended one of Arizona’s few scoring opportunities In the top of the second when she zipped to her left to glove a hard grounder. She smoothly spun and threw perfectly off one foot for the final out of the frame.

“The bigger the moment, Tallen can rise up and be whoever she wants to be,” Gajewski said. “She gets caught up at times looking at her average, looking at things that don’t matter.

“I knew Tallen would be here today. I could see it. It’s big-game Tallen. She just steps up and she loves the moment.”


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Cowgirls pour it on with homers​

OSU’s two first-inning runs gave a bit of comfort, and Godwin’s homer in the third added even more. But that was just the start of the onslaught.

Timm launched her ninth home run of the season to right-center field, and Wark followed immediately with a homer to left.

From there, OSU added three more runs with RBIs from Megan Bloodworth, Godwin and Rosie Davis to extend the lead to 8-0 in the bottom of the fourth, handing the game to Kilfoyl to finish off.

While the Cowgirls’ big number came in the fourth inning, the hitters always sensed it was coming.

“From Jil’s walk, and then she scored, I think we were going from there and it never stopped,” Wark said, referencing Poullard’s leadoff walk in the first. “I think that’s why we shut the game down. It started from the beginning.”

Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe opted to start her No. 2 pitcher, Miranda Stoddard, but turned to her top arm, Aissa Silva, in the third. Ali Blanchard, who had pitched just 24 innings all season, also saw some action.

But OSU had a response for each of them.

“The offense, they were relentless,” Gajewski said. “It was the Cowgirl way, and it was really cool. A lot of walks, a lot of baserunners, a lot of pressure.”

Kilfoyl on cruise control​

Kilfoyl turned in her fourth straight impressive postseason performance, allowing three hits while striking out three.

She was dominant in pitching 19 of 21 possible innings during the Stillwater Regional last weekend, and nothing seemed to change Friday.

Kilfoyl walked one batter, her first free pass of the postseason, but only once did a Wildcat baserunner reach third.


OSU coach Kenny Gajewski will have a decision facing him Saturday. He can go back to his ace once again, or try to give the Wildcats a different look with someone from his bullpen, either Ivy Rosenberry or Kyra Aycock.

Kilfoyl threw just 67 pitches, after having five days off, so she remains an option if Gajewski wants to use her again.

“Lexi’s a horse,” he said. “She’s the example of what an ace is.

“We haven’t even talked about (Saturday) yet. Ivy needs to throw, to be very honest. We can’t go another week where she doesn’t get enough work. We can’t ride one arm here. I’m gonna talk to (pitching coach Carrie Eberle) and the staff, but I really don’t know where we’re going yet.”

May 24, 2024

At UCLA, the DEI medical students are a disaster​

By Andrea Widburg

The Washington Free Beacon had a blow-out expose yesterday: Thanks to DEI, almost half of UCLA’s medical students are provably incompetent. They’re students at was once one of the nation’s premier medical schools solely because they’re non-white, despite California voters having made affirmative action illegal in 1996.

Despite not being a doctor, I have some insight into what’s happened. In the early 1990s, I dated a medical student who attended the University of California in San Francisco, which was then (and probably still is) considered one of the best medical schools in the world. I knew most of my boyfriend’s classmates (class sizes were small). They were predominantly white and Asian, they worked insanely hard, and even the worst performing in the class, no matter their race, were pretty darn smart and quite capable of being decent doctors.

By the mid-1990s, things were already changing. Through my legal work, I met a young man who had been railroaded by a cabal of minority women in his residency. They wanted him out and weren’t above making defamatory claims against him. The residency program backed the women, although it was clear they were lying.



In other words, the pieces were already in place for the Washington Free Beacon’s damning exposé about the DEI disaster unfolding at the University of California Los Angeles (“UCLA”) medical school. Under the guidance of Jennifer Lucero, who is also “vice chair for equity, diversity, and inclusion” in the anesthesiology department, the admissions program gave places in the class to manifestly unqualified people. It did so entirely based upon the applicants’ race. Now, that same cohort of students is proving to be dangerously incompetent:

In interviews with the Free Beacon and complaints to UCLA officials, including investigators in the university’s Discrimination Prevention Office, faculty members with firsthand knowledge of the admissions process say it has prioritized diversity over merit, resulting in progressively less qualified classes that are now struggling to succeed.

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Race-based admissions have turned UCLA into a “failed medical school,” said one former member of the admissions staff. “We want racial diversity so badly, we’re willing to cut corners to get it.”

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Reporter Aaron Sibarium interviewed several professors at the medical school, reviewed internal UCLA correspondence, and examined internal data about student performance. The latter, especially, show that the faculty members were right to be dismayed about what had happened to a once reliable institution:

Within three years of Lucero’s hiring in 2020, UCLA dropped from 6th to 18th place in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings for medical research. And in some of the cohorts she admitted, more than 50 percent of students failed standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

Those tests, known as shelf exams, which are typically taken at the end of each clinical rotation, measure basic medical knowledge and play a pivotal role in residency applications. Though only 5 percent of students fail each test nationally, the rates are much higher at UCLA, having increased tenfold in some subjects since 2020, according to internal data obtained by the Free Beacon.

The test data align with the faculty’s experience with students who were obviously admitted under the new standards:

One professor said that a student in the operating room could not identify a major artery when asked, then berated the professor for putting her on the spot. Another said that students at the end of their clinical rotations don’t know basic lab tests and, in some cases, are unable to present patients.

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If you’re wondering how UCLA managed to admit so many low-performing minorities even though racial preferences/affirmative action became illegal in California in 1996, the answer is academia’s workaround of focusing on applicants’ “life experiences.” If your life experience is that you’ve suffered from being a minority...you’re in.

Lucera routinely browbeat admission committee members into focusing entirely on that aspect of a minority’s application rather than on actual qualifications:

Lucero hasn’t been kind to dissenters. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, six people who’ve worked with her described a pattern of racially charged incidents that has dispirited officials and pushed some of them to resign from the committee.
She has lashed out at officials who question the qualifications of minority candidates, five sources said, suggesting naysayers are “privileged,” implying that they are racist, and subjecting them to diversity training sessions.
After a Native American applicant was rejected in 2021, for example, Lucero chewed out the committee and made members sit through a two-hour lecture on Native history delivered by her own sister, according to three people familiar with the incident. No applications were reviewed that day, an official present for the lecture said.

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I urge you to read the entire article. It’s illuminating in a dispiriting way.

The great irony of all this is that Lucero is planting innumerable poison pills in the communities she claims to serve. When challenged about admitting an underqualified black candidate, she lashed out:

“Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?” Lucero asked the admissions officer, these people said. The candidate’s scores shouldn’t matter, she continued, because “we need people like this in the medical school.”

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In other words, Lucero intends to send incompetent doctors to treat those dying black women, something that will only ensure that those same sad women die in ever greater numbers.

James Lindsay likes to say, “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” For people like Lucero, if the road to revolution needs to be paved by the bodies of dead black women, so bet it.

Anyone know the dates? I'm planning to attend this year if possible.

If any of u guys have extra tics for sat i am loooking for 4

Game 2 scheduled for 7:30, which it won’t be. Be interesting to see who’s on the bump. Need timely hitting to show back up. Game on. ESPN Plus.

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Worth the watch.

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