Stillwater softball stymied by Owasso's hot bats, dominant pitching

Oct. 6—Riding the coattails of a 12-2 win over Union in the first round of the Stillwater Regional on Wednesday afternoon, the Stillwater High softball team was hoping to carry that momentum into a matchup with Owasso later that evening.

It was a day-and-night difference for the Lady Pioneers, though, as Owasso used dominant pitching, early runs and a fourth-inning blast to defeat Stillwater 9-4 at Couch Park.

"We just have to keep on working," Stillwater freshman catcher Calle Cox said. "Keep on trying."

Owasso pitcher Addy Ewing set the tone for the Rams (29-8) early, striking out three of the four batters she faced in the top of the first inning.

That was only the beginning for Ewing, who stymied Stillwater at the plate for the contest's entirety with 11 strikeouts and a single walk, but it wasn't due to anything the Lady Pioneers weren't ready for.

"It was what we expected," Stillwater coach Karie Linsenmeyer said of Ewing. "It was a lot of outside (pitches), but the speed wasn't really an issue, I don't think. It was really a matter of executing. She executed, and we didn't adjust."

Stillwater mustered eight hits by the end of the game, but even a three-run seventh inning was too little too late for the Lady Pioneers (26-11).

"All I can hope is that we carry that on," Linsenmeyer said. "Hitting is about making adjustments, and sometimes you have to do it game by game; sometimes you have to do it pitch by pitch."

Despite ace Audrina Herber getting the start, Stillwater wasn't able to prevent the Rams from plating a couple of runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Rams center fielder Jayelle Austin, Owasso's leadoff hitter, singled on one of the first pitches Herber threw across the plate. It was only two batters later when Austin scored courtesy of an RBI double from third baseman KK Knight.

While Owasso plated another run before the inning was over, it wasn't all for naught to Herber. With her first strikeout of the game on the fifth batter she faced, she broke the program's record for most strikeouts in a season, a mark previously set by Makenzi Swick — who's now at Missouri State — a season ago.

"It's really a pretty awesome record for her as a freshman," Linsenmeyer said of Herber, who finished with nine strikeouts. "The sky is the limit, and she's just got a lot of upside to her. She probably feels a little bad right now, but gosh, we're better off with her."

The Rams weren't done after the first. Their offensive onslaught continued into the second, where they added another trio of runs when Knight knocked a three-RBI double with one out on the board.

Knight wasn't done there, though. While Stillwater was still trying to adjust at the plate, Knight seemed to be locating pitches as soon as they left Herber's hand. With two runners on, she added onto Owasso's lead with a three-run home run over the right-field wall.

"I just feel like everybody needs to come back with a good mindset tomorrow, and we should all be good," Herber said. "That's kind of it. ... I kind of just look at my mistakes and learn from them, then I flush it."

Linsenmeyer's message was simple to her team after the game: "We're gonna pick them up and move every team out of our way to get to where we want to go," Cox said her coach told them.

The Lady Pioneers won't have to wait long for a chance to avenge the five-run loss, but they'll have to get by Union in a first-round rematch at noon Thursday. The struggle, Herber said, is that playing the same team twice in 24 hours means they'll know Stillwater's pitches. That means they'll have Unions' as well.

And if Stillwater is able to beat Union, again, the Lady Pioneers are hoping to flip the script on their struggles around the diamond on Wednesday afternoon — with a championghip game at 2 p.m. and the "if necessary" game at 4 p.m. Doing so would give them a chance to nab their fifth regional title in six seasons.

"We've done it before as a program, and it's gonna be hard," Linsenmeyer said. "This game's fun when it's hard, so we're just gonna give it our best shot."