Cowgirls Drop Final Game Of Tiger Classic

Sunday, February 12

Baton Rouge, LA

12:30 PM

Oklahoma State University

3-2

LSU

4-1

OKLAHOMA STATE

LSU

Photo by: Joshua Auzenne

February 12, 2017 | Cowgirl Softball

Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Oklahoma State softball battled with No. 5 LSU Sunday before falling, 5-2. The Cowgirls closed out the Tiger Classic with a valiant effort against one of the best teams in the country. Oklahoma State went 3-2 in the opening weekend of play.

"There are some positives, without a doubt," head coach Kenny Gajewski said. "I thought we really laid an egg the first game against LSU so I wanted to see how this team would respond in the next one. I thought we came out great, set the tone with a big home run. Then we kind of let this one get away. Credit them, they got clutch hitting when they had to."

Oklahoma State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Senior Kristin Reasnor hit a two-run homer to left center scoring junior Rylee Bayless. It was her first home run of the season.

LSU (4-1) rallied with two outs in the third to take a 3-2 lead. The Tigers had four hits with two outs and capitalized on an OSU error.

The game would remain 3-2 until the bottom of the sixth inning. LSU rallied again with two outs. The Tigers managed to push across two more runs and extend their lead to 5-2.

OSU mounted a small rally in the top of the seventh but stranded two runners.

Offensively, the Cowgirls had five hits in the game. Reasnor led the way with a 1-for-3 performance including a run scored and two RBIs. Junior Vanessa Shippy, sophomore Taylor Lynch, junior Alex Edinger and Bayless all recorded a hit.

Oklahoma State used three pitchers in the game. Junior Whitney Whitehorn started and took the loss in the circle. Whitehorn (0-1) went 2.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits.

Freshman Logan Simunek came on in middle relief. Simunek allowed a run and three hits in 2.1 innings of work. Senior Brandi Needham pitched the final inning for the Cowgirls, allowing a hit and a run.

"I basically was nervous coming in because I was facing a top 5 team, but something Coach Morgan told me was control yourself and don't worry about everything else around you," Simunek said. "So that's kind of what I came in here this weekend doing was just to control myself. Control my pitches and do what I needed to do and it would help me succeed, and it did."