Following a 9-7 Cy-Hawk win at Iowa, the 23-15 Cyclones are looking to ride their momentum at home this weekend, hosting No. 19 Oklahoma State.
The Cowgirls are coming into Ames with a record of 25-10 and 7-5 in conference play, and are riding a four-game winning streak, including a series sweep at Utah.
Oklahoma State has already notched six wins against currently ranked opponents this year. Two of those six were against top-ten teams, Nebraska and Texas A&M.
When it comes to the pitching battle, the Cowgirls have an edge, as senior Ruby Meylan comes into the weekend with a 2.29 ERA, which is 67th in the nation.
The Cyclones have better consistency at the plate, however. Senior shortstop Reagan Bartholomew holds a .444 batting average and has had go-ahead home runs in the seventh inning of the last two games.
“She’s showing what she’s capable of doing when she’s healthy,” head coach Jamie Pinkerton said. “She’s probably one of the top 10 players in my career that I’ve had the privilege to coach.”
Especially in the last two games, Pinkerton has approached games by letting the players lead and stepping out of the way for most of the time.
“When I get into the game, you don’t see me doing a lot of things,” Pinkerton said. “We get them prepared and then I get the hell out of the way and let them play. I think sometimes you can overcoach.”
With two resiliency tests behind Iowa State, the Cyclones believe they’re conditioned for another back-and-forth battle this weekend if they fall into one.
“As a team, we feel really confident going against Oklahoma State this weekend,” senior centerfielder Tatum Johnson said. “This past weekend helped us out a lot with confidence. I know we lost that second game [against Arizona], and that hurt us bad, so we’re taking that hurt and using it against our opponents.”
A double header will take place Friday, with game one set for 1 p.m., and game two will follow shortly after. The teams will take Saturday off before the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games can be watched on ESPN+.
