By Blake Colston
Sports Editor
Logan Simunek made the most of her final moment on the big stage.
The Piedmont native pitched four innings of outstanding relief in Oklahoma State’s 4-2 loss to Florida State in an elimination game in the Women’s College World Series.
“She seems to pitch her best in the biggest games,” OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said of Simunek. “The moment is never too big. She just — when I gave her the ball, I just said, ‘Hey, I just need you to keep us here.’ And she just had the same look that she always has, just calm. She just executed pitch after pitch.
“She was just dead-on and pitched very, very well. I don’t know how many baserunners they had on her. It wasn’t a lot. She calmed the whole game down, calmed the team down, and gave our offense a chance. We just weren’t clean and didn’t play our best.”
In a game that finished after 2 a.m. local time, Simunek came on in the third inning and pitched into the seventh, allowing just one hit, a walk and one unearned run in four innings. She struck three batters and allowed OSU, which trailed 3-1 when she entered the game, a chance to rally.
The senior lowered her season ERA to 2.83. In 23 appearances – seven starts – she pitched 59.1 innings with 63 hits and 24 earned runs. She totaled 29 strikeouts, walked 22 batters and had a 4-3 record.
Oklahoma State finished the season with a 48-12 record.
“It’s hard to reflect just quite yet,” Gajewski told The Oklahoman after the loss. “I don’t know that I want to go there. It’s another great run. Another top five. But, hurts. We’re going to lose some great kids. The team will look different next year. I don’t know how much I want to think about that yet.
“Right now, it hurts.”
