Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Oklahoma State softball shuts out Arizona in Game 1 of NCAA Tournament super regional
STILLWATER — An offensive explosion and another dominant outing for Oklahoma State pitcher Lexi Kilfoyl led to a short night for Cowgirl softball.
Fifth-seeded OSU scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth, then closed out the 8-0 run-rule victory over unseeded Arizona in Game 1 of the best-of-three Stillwater Super Regional on Friday night at Cowgirl Stadium.
Powered by home runs off the bats of Karli Godwin, Claire Timm and Micaela Wark, OSU got out to an early lead, then put the game away.
OSU can clinch its fifth straight trip to the Women’s College World Series with a win in Game 2, set for 6 p.m. Saturday.
Here are three takeaways from the Cowgirl victory:
More: How Oklahoma State softball’s Jilyen Poullard overcame her ‘mental warfare’ to ignite team
Tallen Edwards looking like herself
OSU sophomore Tallen Edwards had four hits over her final 36 at-bats of the regular season, but she has quietly turned it around in the postseason.
Though she wasn’t so quiet on Friday.
After Jilyen Poullard led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk, Edwards laced a double down the right field line, moving Poullard to third.
That set up OSU’s first run of the game when Caroline Wang hit a sacrifice fly to left field.
From her spot at third base, Edwards ended one of Arizona’s few scoring opportunities In the top of the second when she zipped to her left to glove a hard grounder. She smoothly spun and threw perfectly off one foot for the final out of the frame.
More: How Oklahoma State softball’s Micaela Wark saw season turn since father’s home run catch
The Timm Reaper ignites big inning
OSU felt like it could use some insurance runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, so when Timm launched her ninth home run of the season to right-center field, the cushion felt a bit more comfortable.
Then Wark followed immediately with a homer to left.
From there, OSU added three more runs with RBIs from Megan Bloodworth, Godwin and Rosie Davis to extend the lead to 8-0.
More: NCAA Tournament super regional bracket: Full TV schedule, scores, results for Road to WCWS
Kilfoyl on cruise control
OSU ace Lexi Kilfoyl turned in her fourth straight impressive postseason performance, allowing three hits while striking out three.
She was dominant in pitching 19 of 21 possible innings during the Stillwater Regional last weekend, and nothing seemed to change Friday.
Kilfoyl walked one batter, her first free pass of the postseason.
OSU coach Kenny Gajewski will have a decision facing him Saturday. He can go back to his ace once again, or try to give the Wildcats a different look with someone from his bullpen, either Ivy Rosenberry or Kyra Aycock.
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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