May 16—Cowgirl Stadium is an NCAA regional site again.

Oklahoma State checked in as the seventh overall seed in the NCAA Softball Tournament bracket, gaining the advantage of hosting one of 16 regionals. With a top-8 standing, the Cowgirls also set themselves up for hosting a super regional if they advance.

After the NCAA selection show Sunday evening, coach Kenny Gajewski joined a Zoom call from Broken Bow, where OSU is holding a team retreat before returning to Stillwater to start regional play Friday. The Cowgirls are newly crowned Big 12 tournament champions, and their home postseason games give Gajewski another sign that his long-term goals are within reach.

“What we’re trying to build here is sustainability,” Gajewski said. “We want to host every single year.”

The Stillwater Regional features OSU, North Texas, Nebraska and Fordham.

To keep their usual seats for the regional, season ticket holders at Cowgirl Stadium can pay using their Ticketmaster accounts anytime until noon Tuesday, according to an OSU press release. If they miss that deadline, then their season seats will be up for grabs.

Ticket sales open to the public at 10 a.m. Wednesday. POSSE members can buy tickets beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, per the press release.

The Cowgirls (41-12) start regional play against Fordham — a team traveling from New York City to Stillwater — at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Like OSU, the Rams (30-20) enter the NCAA tournament with momentum from a conference tournament championship.

The matchup against Fordham is the Cowgirls’ first home game since April 24, when they squeezed out a 2-1 victory against Texas to secure a series sweep.

OSU then embarked on a lengthy road trip with a downhill slide against two top-3 opponents: Florida State and Oklahoma.

After dropping five straight games, the Cowgirls revitalized their winning ways, blazing through three Big 12 tournament matchups — including a title-game upset of the No. 1 Sooners — to claim the trophy in Oklahoma City.

“Traveling is always fun, and they make for really good memories with your teammates and your friends,” said graduate pitcher Morgan Day. “But I think just staying back (home) and doing what we’ve been used to doing throughout the regular season in conference (play) kind of gives us the leg up.”

Day, a transfer from Illinois State, is preparing for her first NCAA Tournament appearance, but many of her teammates are accustomed to the regional environment at Cowgirl Stadium. OSU is hosting a regional for the third straight postseason.

In 2021, the Cowgirls won their regional and super regional in Stillwater to secure a Women’s College World Series berth. The NCAA Tournament was canceled in 2020, and in 2019, OSU reached the Women’s College World series after winning a home regional and defeating Florida State in the Tallahassee Super Regional.

Sydney Pennington, the Cowgirls’ fifth-year third baseman, has been a key contributor through all of it.

“Now, in my last year, leaving, I can say that we’ve just accomplished everything and more than I ever expected,” Pennington said.

Regardless of how far Pennington and the Cowgirls advance in this postseason, they will never have to compete outside Oklahoma. Winning a Stillwater Super Regional would solidify their spot in the Women’s College World Series at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

A program-first World Series title is one of the goals Gajewski continues to chase in his seventh season as OSU’s coach. A new stadium is also on the list — Gajewski said he has made this clear to athletic director Chad Weiberg.

The process of transforming a program is still underway, and Gajewski said this season has been his toughest coaching year, one that is teaching him “how to manage talent.”

The progress is evident in the Cowgirls’ postseason standing.

“I feel really good about these kids,” Gajewski said. “They’re in a really good place. They’re accomplishing things we haven’t done here.

“We just keep going, and the more we do that, it just opens up a new set of cool things. Hard things, too, but it opens up a new set of challenges that are gonna be fun to handle.”