Kelly Maxwell’s rather unexpected stay in the transfer portal all but officially came to a close on Thursday afternoon, and she won’t have to move her belongings far.
After five years with the Oklahoma State softball program and nearly a month on the market, Maxwell indicated via social media she’d spend her final season at Oklahoma, the back-to-back-to-back national champs who double as the Cowgirls’ biggest rival.
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“Oklahoma Softball #28,” her Instagram bio now reads.
A two-time All-American and 2022 Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Year, Maxwell becomes the latest Bedlam flip in a recent series of them. But a player of her caliber heading to an arch nemesis, at least around this neck of the woods, is unprecedented.
Buzz around the move started when Maxwell initially shared she was entering the transfer portal on July 7. After all, there weren’t too many places she could’ve gone to accomplish more than what she did at OSU.
“From the moment I stepped on campus, you welcomed me with open arms. The support you have given me throughout the past 5 years has been a dream come true,” Maxwell wrote via Instagram. “This was not an easy decision but one that I felt was best, for my own personal happiness. Thank you for being there and supporting me as I made some of the best memories of my life.”
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Cowgirls coach Kenny Gajewski didn’t hold any animosity, though. Not then, anyway.
“While it would be easy to be upset with her, our program wishes nothing but the best for Kelly,” Gajewski shared via Twitter on July 7. “She has fulfilled her commitment to OSU even though she had one year left to compete.
“Our program has benefitted in great ways from the transfer portal so we have to take the good with the bad.”
The lefty compiled a laundry list of accolades during her four seasons with the Cowgirls, including the past two as the ace in Stillwater. Maxwell redshirted in 2019, her first year at OSU.
Then she asserted herself as one of the nation’s best arms. Quickly.
Maxwell appeared in 11 games with eight starts in a 2020 season that came to an unexpected halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She bounced back in 2021 with a record of 15-5 en route to being named first team All-Big 12, the start of three consecutive season in which the native of Friendswood, Texas, was among the league’s best.
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In 2022, her first year as the Cowgirls’ ace, she led OSU to a third-straight Women’s College World Series appearance with a record of 21-5, 313 strikeouts, 20 complete games and 12 shutouts in 189 2/3 innings of action.
That became a fourth consecutive trip to the sport’s biggest stage this spring, which effectively served as Maxwell’s farewell tour in a program she helped thrust back into the national spotlight. She finished the Cowgirls’ 2023 campaign with 16-7 record, 1.91 ERA and 229 strikeouts through 142 2/3 innings.
Then came the departure of John Bargfeldt, OSU’s pitching coach of the past four years, who retired in early June. And there’s no denying the impact he had on Maxwell.
“He always thinks that he could be replaced, but I don’t know if John can be replaceable,” Maxwell said less than a week before entering the transfer portal. “I care for him so much – and his family. I know what he did was right, and I hope that we can bring someone in that is gonna carry on the legacy that John had here and what he was able to do within that short window.”
Gajewski dipped into familiar waters to fill the void Bargfeldt left behind, announcing the hiring of former Cowgirls ace Carrie Eberle, Maxwell’s predecessor and teammate of two years, as the program’s next pitching coach on July 19.
Eberle won’t have an empty tool box. Lexi Kilfoyl, who went 16-5 in her OSU debut this spring after three years at Alabama, said in the aftermath of the Cowgirls’ season-ending loss to Tennessee in the WCWS that she’d be back for 2024. They’ll also return Kyra Aycock, who showed flashes as a true freshman in 2023, and add incoming freshman Katie Kutz, Virginia’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
Six months ago, that group was figured to include Maxwell, who said in February that she was planning on finishing out her career at OSU. Now, after a storied stay in Stillwater, she’s a Sooner.
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