How Oklahoma State softball's Claire Timm, Megan Bloodworth are boosting offense

STILLWATER — A shutout of 14th-ranked Florida capped an up-and-down weekend in the Sunshine State for the Oklahoma State softball team.

The Cowgirls suffered their first two losses of the year — both to highly ranked opponents — but also added some meaningful wins, like the Florida victory in a game that was thrown together at the last minute.

OSU had a full day wiped out by rain at the end of the Clearwater Invitational, so Cowgirl coach Kenny Gajewski connected with his longtime friend and former boss, Florida coach Tim Walton, to organize a Monday evening matchup.

OSU is staying in Florida this week for multiple games, including another elite matchup with fourth-ranked Washington at the University of South Florida Invitational.

Here’s a look at what we learned about the Cowgirls last week:

No. 7 Oklahoma State

Overall record: 7-2

Last week: 2-2 (lost to No. 3 Georgia 7-4, beat Wisconsin 9-5, lost to No. 6 LSU 7-6, beat No. 14 Florida 3-0)

This week: at Stetson, 5 p.m. Wednesday; at USF Invitational Thursday-Saturday (vs. No. 4 Washington, 12:30 p.m. Thursday; vs. South Florida, 5:30 p.m. Thursday; vs. Yale, 3:30 p.m. Friday; vs. Pittsburgh, 8 a.m. Saturday; vs. Loyola Chicago, 10:30 a.m. Saturday)

More: How Oklahoma State softball found comfort in new hitting coach Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher

Claire Timm swinging hot bat

While some newcomers like Caroline Wang, Rosie Davis and Karli Godwin have made strong early impressions at the plate, one of last year’s freshmen is taking advantage of her new regular role.

Claire Timm has become the primary right fielder, often slotting into the No. 2 spot in the batting order, and she has proven worthy of it.

She had two hits in each of the first three games over the weekend and is batting .429 for the season with two doubles, a triple and a home run among her 11 hits. She has driven in four runs and scored seven times.

Another pleasant surprise has been shortstop Megan Bloodworth, who has already matched her home run total from last year at two, also adding a triple and six RBIs.

Last year, Bloodworth batted .192, but suffered some bad luck, considering how frequently she put the ball in play. She struck out just 12 times in 130 at-bats.

More: Liberty transfer Caroline Wang shows off power in her Oklahoma State softball debut

Missed opportunities

While the Florida win was a strong closer to the weekend, the Clearwater Invitational will be remembered for missed opportunities.

The Cowgirls had a 4-0 lead on Georgia before a couple of big innings boosted the Bulldogs to victory. And OSU led LSU 6-5 with one out in the bottom of the seventh, when the Tigers pulled out the walk-off win.

Still, this young and somewhat unknown Cowgirl squad has already proven it can hang with some of the country’s best teams.

The pitching staff struggled at times. Kilfoyl, who is clearly the team’s ace, was responsible for the blown save against LSU, but rebounded with the complete-game shutout at Florida.

While Kilfoyl has taken both losses for the Cowgirls, she has maintained her status as the team’s top pitcher. She has a 1.81 earned-run average, having allowed just five earned runs over 19 ⅓ innings.

And the early emergence of Ivy Rosenberry has been notable as well. The second-year Cowgirl, who transferred from Virginia Tech, has given up just one run and nine hits over her first 13 innings of the season. That includes two shutout innings against Wisconsin and four shutout innings against LSU.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball: Claire Timm, Megan Bloodworth helping offense