Cowgirls Softball Will Return Mostly Intact, including Febrey and Eberle

Oklahoma State Cowgirls softball head coach Kenny Gajewski admits he had a team that could have won it all. He believes that team will be mostly back for next season.

STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State softball head coach Kenny Gajewski told me in a radio interview today that he has plenty to keep him busy. The coach in his fifth-year of building Cowgirl softball back into the annual national contender that it once was has the program there and maybe beyond is building a house. That alone is good news for Oklahoma State fans. 

"This is home and I really don't ever want to leave," Gajewski said. 

There is proof to that as schools like Texas and Oregon have inquired about his interest and he has turned the overtures down. Gajewski is also serving as school principal for his children and their home on-line school work. He is also going through the usual post season evaluations with his players. That part of it just makes him want to be back on campus.

"Yes, I'd really love to be coaching and out there with my team," he said.

Just about any coach would like to be out there with Gajewski's team. They were 19-5 when the bell rang to end all of the spring sports in the NCAA. His team was hitting .302 as a team with 150 runs scored, an average of 6.25 runs per game. Opponents were only hitting .172 against a three woman pitching staff that had an ERA of 1.20.

This team had been on a steady incline since opening the season 2-2 at LSU against a really good Tigers team and losing two games in the last inning, one in walk-off fashion. The Cowgirls had won 12-in-a-row and looked like a team that could win the national championship.

"Yeah, I'm not going to disagree," Gajewski said. "I can't disagree. This was one of the best teams in the country. The parity in our game has really changed and I think there were about 10 teams that were good enough to win it all. This team was one of those. It is not a two-team race. I think there were 8-10 teams and I think we were definitely in that mix.

"You can't look back and we're going to get 95 percent of this team back," continued Gajewski. "We're going to get four new freshmen that have already signed. You know me, I'm a transfer fan."

He sure is and two of his top players, a case could be made the top hitter and pitcher in the country were in Stillwater courtsey of the transfer portal and as graduate transfers.

Former Georgia Bulldog Alysen Febrey was hitting .382 with five doubles, 11 home runs, 32 RBI, and a slugging percentage of .941 when the season stopped. 

Pitcher Carrie Eberle had come in from Virginia Tech, where she had been the ACC Pitcher of the Year last season and she threw her first career no-hitter and was sporting a 10-1 record with 10 complete games in 11 starts and a 0.46 ERA striking out 68 hitters and walking just 30. Opponents were hitting a paltry .143 against Eberle. 

Gajewski had good news with both.

"I'm not comfortable with giving names just yet, but I can tell you this, we're going to get Carrie (Eberle) back and Alyson (Febrey), both Carrie Eberly and Alyson Febrey are coming back," Gajewski announced the good news. "I'm still talking to my other seniors, but I know a lot of people want to know about them (Eberle and Febrey).  

In his postseason analysis Gajewski believes this team set the table for the return of most all of them for next season. Gajewski doesn't know the future. He wishes he did, but he does think there will be football next school year and he is hoping a fall season for softball with the eight or so games they play in the fall. 

He feels good, really good about his team. Like always, he is working to make it better and while he hasn't given details, he is thinking.

"We have one glaring need and we'll get that. We'll find that," Gajewski said.

If he does then the rest of college softball has better look out.