Taylor Lynch, Madi Montgomery and Mariah Denson have been playing softball with or against each other since they were 8 years old.

They have been the nucleus of Texas Glory’s squad in recent years and all three have signed to play at Oklahoma State, which recently hired Kenny Gajewski is it’s new head coach. Gajewski has served the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Florida, which won its second-consecutive Women’s College World Series earlier this month.

“Yes, it’s very exciting,” said Montgomery, a middle infielder and outfielder. “We liked the coaches that were there, but it’s exciting to see who’s coming in. Adjusting to that is something we are going to take on together, but I think we can do it.”

Gajewski’s championship experience is a big plus with the Texas Glory girls.

“It’s an exciting feeling going in,” said Lynch, a middle infielder and outfielder. “It’s comforting. We had somebody that we all liked. We knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing and that was comforting, but we have someone coming in that also knows what he is doing and has two championships under his belt, so that’s even more comforting and exciting. I think we’re all excited about the situation.”

Both of Denson’s parens went to Oklahoma State, so she was going to be a Cowgirl no matter what, but Montgomery and Lynch had no doubts about their committments after Gajewski was hired.

“Oklahoma State is just such a good school,” Lynch said. “There was no doubt in my mind that I ever wanted to go anywhere else. It was always there and I just love it.I would never even consider going anywhere else.”

Said Montgomery: “We’re just excited. We’ll just have to build that relationship. When he called us, we were just very excited, so we knd of just clicked like that. He’s really nice and it just worked out.”

Texas Glory got its summer started a couple of weeks ago at the So Cal A’s Invitational, which featured the top eight finishers from last year’s PGF Nationals.

“I think it’s awesome,” Lynch said. “I think our team needs it. We need to see the best of the best, which is obviously here. We don’t get to see that all the time in Texas. I think as a team we’re all excited. We get to face girls tht are going to be big-time at Oregon, big-time at Florida, big-time at big schools. I think it’s really humbling to come here and face pitchers like these and hitters that can hit a ball that’s two balls off the plate and will get a base hit. We get to know where we stand.”

It’s all about the Boulder Independence Day Tournament this week. Texas Glory had a lot of success at Boulder last year, winning the Fireworks Super 64 title, but then they fell flat with an 0-2 finish at the PGF Nationals.

“We now make sure that everyone is working every single day,” Montgomery said. “On and off the field, we hold each other accountable for that.”

“We actually have practices mid-week that are run by us to make sure that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing,” Lynch said. “We’ll text each other, ‘Hey, did you work out today? Let us know what you did.’ And I think it’s motivating us. Winning Colorado and then going to PGF and not having the outcome that we wanted, obviously, did motivate us. I think it made all of us better players mentally. We weren’t really used to that kind of outcome. I think it made us more … we gotta get back on track. We need to keep working hard on and off the field. I don’t want to say we needed it, but it made us mentally stronger.”

Lynch, Montgomery, Louisiana Tech-bound Morgan Turkoly and McNeese State-bound Aubree Turbeville have been on Texas Glory for the past four years and they are the ones keeping their teammates in line and getting them ready for the grind leading up to PGF Nationals.

“All of our teammates work hard,” Lynch said. “We trust them to do what they need to do. They trust us that we’ll do what we need to do.”

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