Why Oklahoma State softball will or won’t make a run in 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket
STILLWATER — After a one-year hiatus, the NCAA softball tournament is returning to Cowgirl Stadium.
Seeded No. 13 overall in this year’s bracket, the Cowgirls host Stanford, Princeton and Eastern Illinois in the double-elimination Stillwater Regional, set to begin play Friday afternoon.
After making five consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances from 2019-24, OSU suffered an early exit at the Fayetteville Regional last year.
Now back on the home field, the Cowgirls have WCWS dreams once again.
But you can’t get to OKC if you don’t make it out of your regional, and this four-team bracket won’t be a cakewalk for the Cowgirls.
Let’s take a look at the reasons why OSU will or won’t have a successful postseason:
Three reasons OSU softball can make a run in the NCAA Tournament
Pitcher Ruby Meylan
Honestly, she could be all three reasons. Her most recent appearance notwithstanding, Meylan has been as dominant as pitcher in the country over the last two months.
She allowed more than two earned runs in just three of her last 20 appearances, and in one of those, she went 10 innings to beat Arizona.
She has a 1.47 ERA over that span, which totals 119 ⅓ innings. And OSU is 18-2 in those games.
When she’s in the circle, the Cowgirls’ confidence soars.
Balanced offense
OSU doesn’t have its most overpowering lineup this year, with only two players who have surpassed either eight home runs or 30 runs batted in.
But there are no significant weaknesses in the lineup, either.
Catcher Audrey Schneidmiller has the fourth-best batting average on the team at .320 and she typically bats seventh. Freshman shortstop Aubrey Jones hits behind her with a .313 average.
Another freshman, center fielder Jayelle Austin, usually fills the No. 9 spot, where she essentially acts as an extra leadoff hitter with a .430 on-base percentage, third-best among starters.
The biggest lineup question that lingers for Gajewski is what he’ll do in the outfield spot typically held by Tia Warsop.
She is a .349 hitter and one of the team’s fastest players, but suffered an injury that kept her out of the Big 12 Tournament. Gajewski replaced her with freshman Madison Hoffman, who has been insanely hot at the plate lately.
Since April 22, Hoffman is 8 for 15 with a double, a triple, four home runs and 10 RBIs.
Cowgirl Stadium edge
OSU has hosted at least a regional in every possible season from 2019-24. And in each of those years, OSU’s season ended at the WCWS.
Maybe that’s just a coincidence, but the home field has served the Cowgirls well in NCAA play.
They have a 23-1 record in regional and super regional games under coach Kenny Gajewski, and that includes a 15-0 mark in regional play.
The school added a new video board and increased outfield seating once again this year. Official capacity is listed at 1,650, but has surpassed 2,000 on multiple occasions with a record of 2,093 set a few weeks ago against Arizona.
Most likely, the home-field advantage only helps for the regional, but three strong victories this week could be the juice the Cowgirls need to go win a super regional at Nebraska.
One cause for concern for OSU softball in the NCAA Tournament
Inconsistency
When the Cowgirls are bad, they’re way bad.
Fortunately, they’ve limited such moments over the last several weeks, winning 21 of their last 26 games. But among those losses are lopsided defeats like 10-1, 9-1 and 12-0, and they were down 10-2 to Arizona State before losing 11-7 at the Big 12 Tournament last week.
Pitching depth has been the consistent concern for the last two-plus months.
When Meylan is pitching, they are nearly unbeatable. When she doesn’t pitch, the Cowgirls are 1-5 dating back to March 1.
But it’s been a package deal. When pitching has struggled, the offense seems to fizzle, too. In the last three losses during which Meylan didn’t appear, the offense has produced two total runs.
Senior RyLee Cranall and freshman Preslee Downing have pitched well in spurts lately.
Crandall breezed through three hitless innings before Arizona State got to her during a relief appearance last week.
With the exception of a rough start against Kansas, Downing has allowed just two runs over her last nine innings pitched.
If he can, Gajewski will keep the ball in Meylan’s hand for every moment in which it’s needed. But he’d love the chance to steal some rest for her by getting outs from Crandall and Downing.
And he needs the offense to avoid those clunkers, because even when Meylan dazzles, you can’t win if you don’t score.
Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@oklahoman.com or on X at @ScottWrightOK. Support Scott’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why OSU softball will or won’t advance in 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket
