The Daily O’Collegian

As the season has gone on, a pair of freshman pitchers has made a huge impact for the Cowgirls.

Amanda Crabtree and Sarah Odom have helped propel the Cowgirls to victories with their pitching. Coach Rich Wieligman set the bar high for Crabtree and Odom at the beginning of the season, even though they are only freshmen.

“It’s tough to pitch at this level as freshmen,” Wieligman said. “Some of the expectations we’ve put on them are pretty tough, but they’ve answered it.”

Coming into the season, Odom and Crabtree both expected a higher level of competition than what they faced in high school.

“I was expecting to be introduced to a completely different level of softball, and I knew that would be hard because this is the highest level of softball,” Odom said.

Crabtree came in knowing the competition would be more difficult, but was surprised at how much greater the competition really is in college.

“I think my expectations were a lot different than what’s actually happened,” Crabtree said. “I think it’s harder than I expected. I expected it to be hard.

“It’s definitely a big adjustment and a big change to deal with all the added stress.”

Even with the competition of playing at the college level and the inexperience of being freshmen, Crabtree and Odom have shown that they can be productive.

Crabtree has a 7-7 record in 16 games and 13 starts. She has pitched eight complete games, has a 3.39 ERA and has struck out 89 batters.

Odom has started six games for the Cowgirls and has come in for relief in another seven games. She has a 5-2 record with a 2.57 ERA. She has also recorded 30 strikeouts in 46.1 innings of work.

Senior catcher Meghan Wagner has been impressed with the play of the freshman pitchers so far this season.

“As freshmen in our pitching staff, they have really stepped up,” Wagner said. “Together, they’re an awesome team.”

As a catcher, Wagner knows exactly what style each pitcher brings. “Sarah, being a lefty, she has a lot to offer,” Wagner said. “Sarah locates the ball well and she’s shown that you can put any team in front of her and she’ll beat them.”

Odom is able to locate the ball well with a strong changeup pitch. “My changeup is just keeping batters off balance and making my other stuff more effective,” Odom said.

While Odom is more of a directional pitcher, Crabtree brings a more powerful pitching style to the game.

“Amanda Crabtree throws the ball hard and spins the ball,” Wagner said. “She has shown that she can dominate hitters.”

Coming in as freshmen, both pitchers have had to practice hard to acclimate themselves to the increased level of competition in college softball as well as to get better as players.

Assistant Coach Clarisa Crowell specializes in coaching the pitchers, and has been helping the duo improve their game.

“Coach Crowell’s bullpen is very tough in practice,” Wieligman said. “They work hard doing what they’re asked to do. They’re learning and getting better.”

Wagner, who is one of only two seniors, said she has also been impressed with the pitchers’ work ethic.

“Sarah is a work horse,” Wagner said. “She will work and work and work.”

Odom said she believes that her changeup has been strong, but feels that she could be stronger pitching to the inside of the plate.

“I think I need to work on establishing a pitch on the inside of the plate more to jam hitters,” Odom said.

Crabtree said she does not feel she needs to practice her fundamentals as much as she needs to prepare herself mentally.

“I definitely need to continue working on the mental part of the game,” Crabtree said. “Just to keep on having that attitude that I am better than everyone else and that I can beat anyone, even though I am only a freshman.”

Wagner has noticed that Crabtree is active in questioning where she needs to improve her game.

“She is very inquisitive,” Wagner said. “She asks tons of questions. She wants to know what the worst part of her pitch is so she can fix it.”

Wieligman has been impressed so far with the pitchers’ ability to control the game and to handle the pressures of playing at the college level.

“They do a great job of keeping us in games and shouldering that,” Wieligman said.

The Cowgirls are coming off of a successful weekend in which they were able to win the Mizuno Classic, a tournament they hosted at Cowgirl Stadium. The Cowgirls went 3-1 on the weekend to give them an overall record of 13-11.

Both pitchers played effectively over the weekend. Odom started against Centenary on Sunday. She pitched four innings, struck out four and gave up only one run.

Crabtree got two starts over the weekend. In 12 innings, she gave up seven hits, including only one to Texas Wesleyan on Saturday en route to a 9-0 shutout. For the weekend, she gave up one run and tallied 19 strikeouts.

The Cowgirls are hoping to carry some momentum from the weekend tournament victory into today’s home game against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. The game will be played at Cowgirl Stadium at 7 p.m.

The Golden Hurricane (11-11) come into today’s game having won three of their last four match ups, including a victory over Oklahoma.

“They just beat Oklahoma so obviously they’ve got the capability of being pretty good,” Wieligman said. “It’s an in-state rivalry. It’ll be a good game and it’ll be fun.”

To get the win, the Cowgirls will be relying on solid pitching, as well as continuing their offensive dominance.

“I think we need to continue hacking away at the plate and go after them like they are the number one team in America and just play our best and expect the best,” Odom said.

Down the stretch of the season, the Cowgirls will be relying on the freshman duo of Crabtree and Odom to continue to pitch effectively in order to help the team continue winning.

Crabtree and Odom have a combined 12 of the team’s 13 wins credited to them.

“We brought them here to give us a chance to win every game, and for the most part, they’ve done a good job,” Wieligman said.