Eberle Showing More than Telling She is Comfortable in Stillwater

Former Virginia Tech and ACC Pitcher of the Year Carrie Eberle is kind of a tough person to get to know, but fans are going to enjoy watching her pitch.

STILLWATER -- There’s a certain mystique about Cowgirls pitcher Carrie Eberle. The transfer from Virginia Tech, where she played three seasons for the Hokies and was made the All-Freshman team in the ACC and then in her final season in Blacksburg, Eberle tore it up. She was the ACC Pitcher of the Year with a 25-8 record, a 1.84 ERA, and opposing hitters struggled against her. In 201.1 innings, she walked only 55 hitters allowed 185 hits, and struck out 164 hitters. Then she left and Oklahoma State fans have to be happy with her destination. 

Already holding a diploma, Eberle was able to transfer and enroll at Oklahoma State in graduate school and pitch for Kenny Gajewski and the Cowgirls. She joined a program that has four other major transfers on the squad and made a nice home for super transfer Samantha Show last season. While Show wears her emotions all over herself, still serving as a graduate assistant and coaching first base for OSU, Eberle is reserved. She is just a little hard to read as even her recent no-hitter over UAB, the first of her career, leading to her being named Co-Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for the second time hasn’t leave her bubbling over with excitement.

“It felt good,” Eberle said of the accomplishment kind of matter of fact. “I waited a long time for that, and it was kind of a sigh of relief. Everyone wants to get one and so it was good to get that.”

She is off to her best start ever at 5-1 with a dominating 0.50 ERA and opponents are hitting just .136 against her drop ball. Oklahoma State head coach Kenny Gajewski calls it the best drop ball in college softball. As crazy as her dropball breaks, Gajewski admits he had just as much trouble reading his new pitcher when she arrived.

“Carrie is a really interesting cat. I’ve had trouble getting to know her in the first half of our fall (season),” admitted the head coach, who said on these road trips that he’s learned Eberle is not a morning person. “I’ve really gotten to know her more and more and gain some trust. She is a competitor and that one of those thing you really don’t know until you start the games and you get in those competitive situations and you see her on the road, on the bus, in the dugout when she doesn’t pitch. I’m overly impressed with her and her professionalism and you don’t know how people are going to compete until they play on your team, with her teammates, and in stressful situations where she is in it all.”

Talking to her teammates, she seems very comfortable with them and they with her. Players will overlook a few quirks or a teammate being more reserved when the results when they are in the circle are so positive.

“Honestly, I was talking to Carrie the other day and when I was a sophomore (at Georgia) we had a pitcher, you don’t know here, Brittany Gray,” started first baseman Alyson Febrey, another new transfer in from a very successful career at Georgia playing in the outfield. Febrey has had to adjust to first base, but Eberle has made it easier with her pitching prowess. “She was amazing and then she got hurt halfway through (the season). I was telling Carrie that the same feeling I had playing behind Brittany is the feeling that I have playing behind Carrie. The other pitchers are doing good too, but the confidence she exudes is just really cool to see.”

“When it’s a game that were going after then she gets the ball,” Gajewski said of Eberle and her role on the team. “So, our team realizes that she is the ace and she has shown that. I think the relationship that she and John (Bargfeldt) have created and the work they have done is showing and she is an All-American-type kid.”

Eberle will now get to pitch for the first time in Stillwater as the Cowgirls prepare to host the OSU/Tulsa Invitational and they will play University of Illinois-Chicago and Louisville on Friday and then come back on Saturday with Louisville and No. 10 Oregon on Saturday. Eberle still is a little hesitant and doesn’t quite seem as comfortable as she says, but this may be a case of where her actions, her pitching is speaking louder and more clear than words.

“I think it is different, being around different people and different personalities,” she said. “It’s still kind of new situation but I’ve found my role and a level of comfort here, so that’s always good and it has helped my performance out on the field. I’m feeling great, feeling confident, just trying to do my best for the team. I’m feeling good. No complaints.”

No complaints for sure.