OKLAHOMA CITY – No. 2 seed Oklahoma State needed eight innings to outlast the NCAA’s top-ranked team, Bedlam rival and No. 1 seed Oklahoma, 4-3, to win the program’s first-ever Big 12 softball title at Oklahoma City’s USA Hall of Fame Softball Complex.
 
The Cowgirls (41-12) finally took the lead when Nicole May, OU’s starter who was relieved by Hope Trautwein in the fourth but returned to relieve Trautwein in the eighth inning with the bases loaded with no outs, threw a four-pitch walk to Kiley Naomi to bring home Sydney Pennington for a 4-3 lead.
 
OSU’s Morgan Day closed things out by getting Jenna Johns to ground out, setting off the Cowgirls celebration in front of a record Big 12 Championship Final crowd of 5,410.
 
“They’re the standard,” OSU head coach Kenny Gajewski said of the Sooners, who had won the past four Big 12 postseason titles. “The recipe to beating these guys is not to play that jersey. You got to play softball. You can’t give them free stuff. They will punish you with free stuff. And that’s what good teams do.”
 
Day was named the Championship’s Most Outstanding Player, closing out today’s game with five innings of relief for starter Kelly Maxwell. She allowed one run – a solo homerun to Jocelyn Alo that tied the game at 3-3 – but held the NCAA’s best hitting team to just one baserunner in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and kept them off the scoreboard.
 
“I look back a year ago today and I was playing in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, lost, went home, was done. And today I get to leave here with my team as a Big 12 champion,” said Day, a transfer from Illinois State.
 
The Sooners’ loss to Oklahoma State snaps a six-game winning streak over their Bedlam rival. This is the third time OU and OSU have met in the title match since 2017 and the first time the Cowgirls have won.
 
“I felt like we were trying to be heroic. I felt like our swings were too big, I saw a lot of fly balls today, which is something we needed to change. And we just adjusted a little too late,” said OU head coach Patty Gasso.
 
OU led 2-0 after three innings, but the Cowgirls battled back in the fourth with an RBI single from Hayley Busby and an RBI sac fly from Taylor Tuck. OSU took the lead in the fifth when Chelsea Alexander led off with a bunt single and advanced to second base after an errant throw. Chyenne Factor then laid down a great bunt that Trautwein fielded but had no throw at first. Factor then dashed for second with the infield out of position, which then allowed Alexander to race home for a 3-2 lead.
 
Alo re-tied the game in the bottom of the fifth by blasting her 25^th home run of the year, just her second in the last six game and extends her all-time NCAA career record to 113.
 
The title is the first for the Oklahoma State softball program in the Big 12, regular season or postseason.

2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship All-Tournament Team
Jocelyn Alo, Oklahoma
Rylie Boone, Oklahoma
Lynnsie Elam, Oklahoma
Grace Lyons, Oklahoma
Hope Trautwein, Oklahoma
Chelsea Alexander, Oklahoma State
Morgan Day, Oklahoma State
Chyenne Factor, Oklahoma State
Kelly Maxwell, Oklahoma State
Janae Jefferson, Texas
Mia Scott, Texas

Most Outstanding Player
Morgan Day, Oklahoma State
 

2022 Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship
First Round - Thursday, May 12
12 p.m.	Game 1: No. 4 Iowa State 2, No. 5 Baylor 1 (8 inn.)	ESPNU	Box Score Recap
3 p.m.	Game 2: No. 2 Oklahoma State 2, No. 7 Kansas 0	Big 12 Now on ESPN+	Box Score Recap
6 p.m.	Game 3: No. 3 Texas 9, No. 6 Texas Tech 1 (5 inn.)	Big 12 Now on ESPN+	Box Score Recap
Semifinals - Friday, May 13
1 p.m.	Game 4: No. 1 Oklahoma 5, No. 4 Iowa State 0	ESPNU	Box Score Recap
4 p.m.	Game 5: No. 2 Oklahoma State 6, No. 3 Texas 1	Big 12 Now on ESPN+	Box Score Recap
Championship - Saturday, May 14
2 p.m.	Game 6: No. 2 Oklahoma State 4, No. 1 Oklahoma 3 (8 inn.)	ESPN2	Box Score

 
Game times and television networks are subject to change