by TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The No. 13 Oklahoma State softball team posted its 17th comeback win of the season Thursday, as the Cowgirls flipped a 1-0 deficit against No. 4 Florida State into a 3-1 win in nine innings to take the first game of the Tallahassee Super Regional.
It was the seventh time this season that OSU (43-14; 13-5 Big 12) has come from behind to defeat a ranked opponent, and is the Cowgirls’ highest-ranked road win since defeating No. 1 Florida, 1-0, in the Gainesville Regional on May 21, 2017.
“Obviously a really good softball game,” coach Kenny Gajewski said. “I didn’t like the way we started. I thought (Florida State pitcher Meghan) King was really good and had us tied up, but we adjusted and got that done. Really proud of Samantha (Show). I thought she got stronger as the game went. A great crowd and a great game – the atmosphere here is awesome. It’s going to take everything we’ve got to finish this thing out.”
Florida State, the defending national champions and hosts of the Super Regional, opened the game with hits over the first two innings and plated the game’s first run in its second trip to the batter’s box. Cowgirl starter Samantha Show put a stranglehold on the game after a leadoff single in the fourth inning though, as she retired the next 18 batters she faced to keep the Cowgirls in it.
Show pitched all nine innings of OSU’s victory Thursday, tying her career high that she set on Feb. 24, 2018 while at Texas A&M.
The right-hander recorded five strikeouts against the Seminoles and walked just one en route to tossing her 19th complete game of the season. In 17 of those outings, including Thursday’s win, Show has allowed no more than two earned runs, and she now has pitched 77 of a possible 104 innings against top-15 opponents for OSU this season.
At the plate, the Pokes struggled to get much going off Florida State starter Meghan King.
The Cowgirls logged only four hits over the first eight innings, but it was in the game-deciding ninth where things sparked, as Madi Sue Montgomery led off with a first-pitch double to center field. Michaela Richbourg (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) followed the senior immediately with a two-run home run to right-center field that put Oklahoma State on top, 3-1.
It was Richbourg’s 14th home run of the season, which is the highest single-season total posted by a sophomore in school history.
Prior to Richbourg’s go-ahead homer, the Cowgirls tied the game in the top of the sixth inning in similar fashion, as Chelsea Alexander led off the frame with a double, and Montgomery later scored her with a sacrifice fly to shallow left field.
With her RBI and double, Montgomery has now posted 31 home runs, 51 doubles and driven in 202 runs in her career. She and Oklahoma’s Sydney Romero are the only two players in Big 12 history to join the 30-50-200 club.
The Cowgirls are now just a single win away from clinching their eighth trip to the Women’s College World Series, and their first since 2011. Their first chance to do so will come at the same time and on the same channel tomorrow, as the two premier programs meeting at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN.
