That botched play in the WCWS hurt, but now, OSU coach Kenny Gajewski 'wouldn't change it'
STILLWATER ― Kenny Gajewski didn’t watch the play that derailed his team’s chances of playing for a national title for six months.
The Oklahoma State coach didn’t think he needed to see what happened against Texas last June in a must-win game at the Women’s College World Series. Didn’t think he wanted to see his defense ― one of the best in the country ― commit two errors and allow three runs on the same play.
But in December as he sat in a San Antonio hotel ballroom doing a defensive clinic (of all things) at the national softball coaches’ convention, he realized he needed to show that play.
Gajewski had no idea that moment would change the future of the Cowgirl program.
“Did it hurt?” he said of that defensive collapse. “Does it still hurt? Yeah, I don’t think it’ll ever go away.
“But I wouldn’t change it. I really wouldn’t change it.”
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As OSU prepares for another challenging non-conference weekend ― Arizona State and Central Florida are in town for the OSU Mizuno Classic ― the Cowgirls have shown themselves capable against any challenge this season. Face a bunch of ranked or receiving-votes teams in February? Beat them all. Lose a close one to start last weekend against Florida State? Come right back and win two.
The result: OSU has risen to No. 2 in the national rankings.
While many outside the program might've expected such things from this OSU team, what Gajewski did during the offseason might come as a surprise.
He decided the Cowgirls needed a new foundation.
It sounds crazy, a perennial WCWS team blowing up its bedrock?
“But don’t they say if you don’t continue to grow, you’re gonna go backwards?” Cowgirl veteran centerfielder Chyenne Factor said. “That’s what he saw and how he felt last year, and he was right.
“Internally, we were uneasy.”
And it all came to a head that June afternoon against Texas.
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'We had nothing to go back to'
Kenny Gajewski didn’t plan to use the play from the Texas game during the defensive clinic at the coaches’ convention, but as he sat listening to his fellow presenters, Tim Walton from Florida and Greg Bergeron from Cal State-Northridge, Gajewski realized he had to show it.
“I need to show this play,” he thought, “because we botched it.”
With OSU leading 5-3 in the fifth inning, Texas got two runners on. A single to right was bobbled by Karli Petty, an error that allowed one run to score. Her throw to the infield was cut off by Hayley Busby, who saw that a Longhorn baserunner had drifted off the bag at second.
Busby threw toward second, but the ball sailed wide and rolled all the way to the fence in left-center field. The error cleared the bases and scored two more runs.
The Longhorns led 6-5, and even though the Cowgirl offense had three more innings to rally, they were cooked.
Gajewski’s emotions were all over the place as he watched the replay for the first time.
“The boil in my body was crazy,” he said. “I was like, ‘This is why I don’t watch things because I didn’t really need to watch that again.’”
But once he got past the anger, he was reminded of how much time the Cowgirls had to recover after the defensive disaster. That they only managed one baserunner the rest of the game, that they were felled by one bad play was a sign to Gajewski that the program’s foundation wasn’t good.
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“That play took the emotional equity that we had built up over seven years,” he said. “It took it all away, and we had nothing to go back to.”
That play drained the Cowgirls’ well.
Gajewski admitted there was internal strife last season.
“Our staff was crumbling in a way that most people didn’t see and wouldn’t see because we were able to hold it together,” said Gajewski, who parted ways with hitting coach Jeff Cottrill during the offseason.
“I was really hyperfocused on that, and I think it kind of went over into our team some. They felt that because they love all of us.”
But Gajewski knows every season will have its trials. Maybe not as big as what the Cowgirls endured internally last spring, but difficulties are bound to pop up during a four-month-long season. Injuries. Disagreements. Losses. Those things are bound to wear on a team as it reaches the end of the season and can leave it running on fumes in the most important games of the year.
“Which I’m sure it happens to everybody,” Cowgirl shortstop Kiley Naomi said, “but to maintain that and to still come out on top when we’re all feeling like that, that’s our main goal.”
Gajewski knew he had to set up his team to have a better chance for success in such moments. He needed to make changes.
Foundational changes.
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'The Cowgirl Way'
Early in Gajewski’s tenure at OSU, he wrote three words on a Post-It.
“The Cowgirl Way.”
He put it up at his house, but he never really did anything more with it. Didn’t define what it was. Didn’t flesh out what it meant.
But finally watching the botched play against Texas and thinking about how that game ended made Gajewski realize he needed to lean into establishing and instilling “The Cowgirl Way” in his program.
It’s a process he had started in the fall when he hired The Program. The team building and leadership development program is run by military veterans who do a two-day experiential training, and with 14 newcomers, Gajewski thought it would build teamwork.
But before the training, leaders from The Program met with Gajewski.
“Talk to us about your values,” he remembers them asking.
“What do you mean?” he said.
“Do you have a sheet that defines out your mission statement. Every team’s got some words that they go by.”
“I don’t have that.”
Gajewski was embarrassed, but The Program leaders reminded him of all the program had done without such a statement and offered to help better define “The Cowgirl Way.” They landed on three keywords that are the bedrock of OSU softball.
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Relentless. Excellence. Passion.
Gajewski started talking about "The Cowgirl Way" last fall, but he was even more sold on the importance of it after watching the play against Texas. He didn’t want another one of his teams to find itself in a similar situation and not have anything on which to fall back.
And he’s done what he can to make tangible changes, even if small, that reflect that culture.
“We’ve been planning way more than we’ve ever planned,” Gajewski said. “I’m usually fly by the seat of my pants. These kids don’t like that. They really don’t.
“When you mess up their day, they get frustrated and irritated and all that.”
To preach excellence, he knew he needed to be better in that regard.
Players have noticed.
“Being clear in directions of just the small details,” Naomi said of the differences she’s seen. “Little things really matter in big games. The little details is what matters.”
No one knows what all this will mean come June. Maybe it will be the difference for the Cowgirls during the postseason. Perhaps not.
But it’s not a shortcoming Gajewski is willing to risk again.
“I’ve learned a lot as a head coach, and I’ve hated that it was at the expense of that team,” he said of last year’s squad. “But it’s part of the process.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
OSU Mizuno Classic
At Cowgirl Stadium in Stillwater:
FRIDAY'S GAMES: Arizona State vs. UCF, noon; Arizona State vs. OSU, 2:30 p.m.; UCF vs. OSU, 5 p.m.
SATURDAY'S GAMES: Minnesota vs. Arizona State, noon; Minnesota vs. OSU, 2:30 p.m., UCF vs. Arizona State, 5 p.m.
SUNDAY'S GAME: UCF vs. OSU, noon
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball: Botched WCWS play pushed Cowgirls to change
