OSU softball bold predictions: Cowgirls break home run record en route to WCWS (2024)

When the 2024 softball champion is crowned on Thursday or Friday, Oklahoma State will be able to claim it beat that team two out of three times this season.

Whether that fact is a painful reminder of what could have been or a consolation prize that the Cowgirls remain close is up to the individual.

Those emotions are probably heightened even more after Florida, which beat Oklahoma State 1-0 in the Women’s College World Series, fell to the Sooners in extra innings in a winner-take-all semifinal on Tuesday.

Here are three more predictions for Oklahoma State softball in 2025:

1. Big 12 Champions

Oklahoma and Texas are finally off to the Southeastern Conference. Those two teams and the Cowgirls have all finished inside the top three of the Big 12 every year since 2019.

The other teams haven’t even come particularly close to Oklahoma State. In those five seasons, ignoring 2020, Oklahoma State finished 5.7 conference games ahead of whichever Big 12 team finished in fourth place.

Newcomers Arizona, Arizona State and Utah have a tall task ahead of them. Since 2019, Arizona and Utah finished third in the Pac-12 once each, while Arizona State won the regular-season title in 2022. Their fans might argue the Pac-12’s depth.

Utah made the WCWS in 2023 but hasn’t made it to the Supers any other year since 2019. In fact, Arizona is the only team in the new Big 12 to make it to a super regional more than once since 2019, and the Cowgirls almost ran them off the field in this year’s super regional matchup in Stillwater.

Of course, Oklahoma State’s regular-season dominance hasn’t always translated to the postseason conference tournament. The Cowgirls won it in 2022 but lost their first games each year since.

The conference tournament format will still test the team’s depth and consistency. However, thanks to a likely top seed and a weaker overall field, the path through the week should be easier than ever.

2. Consider that home run record broken

I probably sound like a broken record at this point. Admittedly, I was also sure the Cowgirls would get the job done in 2024 when they only needed 25 with 10 games left in the regular season.

Instead, Oklahoma State finished with 92 home runs, one short of tying the single-season program record set in 2021.

Now, the team loses top home run hitter Caroline Wang (17 home runs) and Jilyen Poullard (11), who finished tied for third on the team after she hit seven in a seven-game stretch beginning on April 28.

Assistant coach Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher will have a full offseason to get the Cowgirls ready. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Cowgirls averaged 1.75 home runs in their final 12 games after averaging 1.45 the rest of the season.

Three other reasons I’m confident:

A. Karli Godwin hit 15 this season to break the program’s single-season freshman record. Three of those came against either the Sooners at the end of the regular season or in postseason play.

B. Despite seeing 39 fewer at-bats this season, Micaela Wark upped her home run total from 10 to 11. She, too, hit three home runs against either the Sooners or in postseason play.

C. Claire Timm hit four home runs in her final 12 games this season to finish with 10 total. Including three against, you guessed it, either the Sooners or postseason opponents.

3. MVP Lexi McDonald

By far the least confident of my predictions given it’s a tough field with Godwin, Timm and Rosie Davis returning. Plus, I expect a big bounce back from Tallen Edwards, who seemed to be settling back into a groove in postseason play before the Cowgirls ran into the buzzsaw pitchers in Oklahoma City. And that list doesn’t even include whoever emerges as the team’s new ace.

But if I had to pick one, I’d go with McDonald. She only started 32-of-61 games, and since she was hitting eighth, her at-bats were limited to 83.

Oklahoma State’s average starters saw 154 at-bats, with Godwin pacing the team with 188. To make the math simple, let’s just double McDonald’s at-bats. If that were the case, and she stayed on pace, she would finish with 58 hits, 36 RBIs and eight home runs.

Those numbers would have ranked third, third and tied for sixth, respectively, in 2023.

As it stands, McDonald finished second in batting average (.349), behind only Wang, and first in on-base percentage (.455) among starters.

In the WCWS, McDonald finished 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. In those games, which now appears to have featured some of the best pitchers in the sport, the rest of the Cowgirls combined to finish with three hits, all singles, and two walks.

The Tulsa World is where your story lives