Austin City Limits

The Cowgirls, 10-2 in conference play, open an important Big 12 series in Austin on Friday with a doubleheader against the Longhorns.

Weather hasn’t been cooperative for the Oklahoma State softball team, but it hasn’t mattered much.

Though the Cowgirls are 1-5 in their last six nonconference games, they’ve been strong against Big 12 opponents, including last week’s sweep of Baylor in a three-game set that had to be rescheduled for weather.

This weekend’s series at Texas had to be adjusted because of potential weather issues on Saturday in the Austin area. OSU comes in having won seven straight Big 12 games, climbing into the rankings at No. 24 this week.

The Cowgirls (32-13, 10-2 Big 12) will face the Longhorns in a Friday doubleheader at 4:30 and 7 p.m. The final game of the series will remain as previously scheduled at 11 a.m. Sunday.

The Cowgirls bounced back have strong since a four-game losing streak in late February, having lost back-to-back games only once since then.

Taylor Lynch is coming off a game in which she drove in five runs in a 9-6 loss to Wichita State, continuing the run of production OSU has gotten from the middle of the lineup. Lynch, Madi Sue Montgomery and Sydney Pennington each have at least 41 RBI on the season. Lynch now has three five-RBI games.

“They’re just veterans who continue to pound out hits and good atbats,” head coach Kenny Gajewski said.

With her on-base percentage of .635, leadoff hitter Vanessa Shippy has scored 60 runs this season, breaking her own school record.

“We have the best leadoff in the country,” Lynch said. “When is Vanessa Shippy not on base? It’s good for me as the two-hole. It opens up everything. Do we want to bunt? Do we want to slap? Do we want to hit? It’s like playing a video game a lot of times when we have runners on base.”