Gracie RawlingsThe Oklahoman
It was already past midnight and silhouettes could still be seen sitting in Kenny Gajewski’s office.
Washington pitcher Ruby Meylan sat across from the Oklahoma State head coach and replayed in her mind the whirlwind events of the previous 24 hours.
They had been there since late in the afternoon. As the hours ticked away, groups of people turned into an occasional streak passing by the door frame, and conversations that were once about softball automatically amounted to questions about the future.
She had entered the transfer portal, received a call from Gajewski, booked an airline ticket and was soon in Stillwater — more than 1,900 miles from Seattle.
Now, Ruby Meylan had a decision to make.
Come to Oklahoma State or keep looking.
“I believe every story is already written,” Meylan said. “Including my own.”
For the All-American softball player, the cyclone of events did not feel like an uprooting. Instead, it left an opportunity for change to occur naturally in its wake.
When Meylan put her name in the transfer portal, Gajewski called shortly after. Within an hour of picking up the phone, flight arrangements had been made and details were set for Meylan to attend the first game of OSU’s super regional against Arizona.
“I figured he would be calling,” Meylan said while talking about Gajewski. “But this was crazy. He was the first call that I got. I was super excited to talk to him, so I answered on the first ring.”
Just four days before, Meylan was on her coach sulking over the heartbreaking end to Washington’s season against Missouri in regionals. Even amid the pain of the postseason exit, she had no intentions of leaving Seattle. But as she flipped through channels on her TV, she stopped when she saw OSU and Michigan.
“Man those freshmen and sophom*ores are good,” Meylan thought of the Cowgirls.
Meylan had experienced her fair share of success as an underclassman, leading Washington to the Women’s College World Series and being named an All-American during her freshman season. Meylan’s sophom*ore year was also decorated with individual success, but overall team struggles shadowed it.
She watched as OSU beat Michigan 4-1, yearned for the thrill of the postseason and turned off the television.
“At this time, I was not even thinking about transferring,” Meylan said. “But the very next day we have an exit meeting as a team and everything goes down. I mean, we had four seniors graduating and eventually, eight players who would enter the portal. So, here I am, and I think about it for a while, and eventually, I am like, ‘Yeah I got to go in.”
“That was when my first thought was Oklahoma State.”
Now, as Meylan sat with her parents in Gajewski’s office, that idea had turned into a reality, and she realized there was a reason for stumbling upon a game on TV and purpose amid the challenges of changing plans.
“I believe this is a blessing in disguise,” Meylan said. “I am getting to have a new opportunity. Washington was my dream school, but I am slowly finding out that Oklahoma State is the dream school for the next season of my life.”
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‘She called it’
In a small town outside of Omaha, Nebraska, Ruby Meylan stood, towering over the other girls on her rec team.
There, the coach asked if anyone wanted to stay after practice and learn to pitch, and 10-year-old Meylan raised her hand. As she took that step forward, the young player could not have imagined the life she would live within the confines of the base path, and how it would mold the person she is outside of it.
However, Meylan did not start out as a softball savant. Instead, it was patience and sacrifice that led her there. For the pitcher, learning the game was not always easy, and her father, Wayne, never thought it would be the sport she stayed with anyway.
“I had always envisioned her being a volleyball player,” Wayne said. “At that age softball was kind of hard to watch, especially if you were the pitcher’s parent, and watching them at that early age where they can’t throw a strike, and they walk everybody, and it’s just difficult.
“But she called it.”
After a conversation with Ruby’s mentor, former Nebraska All-American outfielder Kiki Stokes-O’Conner, she eventually found a pitching coach in Omaha, stopped playing basketball and volleyball and started traveling with Nebraska Gold when she turned 14.
There her game was elevated and for the first time. Competition and development were the lifelines of the team as they traveled and played tournaments across the United States. However, just as Meylan started to get exposure to colleges during her junior year, Jordy Bahl arrived.
“What the hell,” Meylan said at the time.
Meylan was determined to not surrender her spot to Bahl, a phenom pitcher. However, for the young player, growth came after resistance.
“Being the No. 2 behind her was the best thing to happen to me because it forced me to kind of mimic what she was doing and make myself better,” Meylan said. “Also just being able to see someone older and more talented than me, and watching what she did, and then throwing the next game the same way.”
Meylan’s confidence soared and her game improved, and she was prepared when her name was called the following season.
Through a restricted recruitment period due to COVID-19, Meylan knew that Washington was where she wanted to be.
“I would say that I wasn’t super highly recruited,” Meylan said. “At that time, Washington was a softball powerhouse, and so when I got that offer, I was like this is it. I knew that it was a perfect opportunity for me, with an open spot in the circle. It was a really successful team that would put me in a good spot for my career.”
Meylan became Washington’s ace her freshman year and finished her two seasons with the Huskies pitching 303 ⅔ innings with a 2.31 ERA. With the Huskies struggling on the field and a good portion of the team departing, Meylan made the jump to the transfer portal.
“It broke my heart,” Meylan said. “What happened this year was really, really tough. To see what we were and then to also see how we didn’t necessarily fulfill all of our goals and dreams for this season, it was like one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through. I mean, physically and mentally, all of it was really tough.
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‘Oklahoma State is getting my all’
Tears rolled down Ruby Meylan’s face as she earned the final out to send Washington to the Women’s College World Series during her freshman season.
In that moment, the emotion transcended beyond wins and losses and instead encapsulated a love for the game.
A love that translates anywhere.
“That moment was special,” Wayne said. “Even watching it today, it makes me tear up. For me, that moment represented pure joy, but it also was a reward for all the sacrifices and time put in.”
As Meylan canceled a visit to Oklahoma and turned down interest from Texas and other Division I programs, she knew she wanted to take that passion for the sport to a place where she could not only grow, but could envision herself winning a national championship.
After a couple of calls from Gajewski, Meylan decided to commit, leaving behind what she had built at Washington and embracing what is next.
“It was a major commitment, not only for Ruby but for our whole family, when she made the decision to go to UW,” Wayne said. “We said we are going to back you up and support you, and we did, for two seasons. To have to make this decision after two years was not easy for her. But she had to ask the question, ‘Where is the best place to finish my career? And Oklahoma State was at the top of the list.”
Now as Ruby thinks back to the day when tears fell down her cheeks, she understands that it represents the young girl on a rec field in Nebraska and the freshman pitching her way into the WCWS. But it is also a picture of the woman who would sit in Gajewski’s office and make the decision to come to OSU as she walked out of it.
Now, as she goes from Seattle to Stillwater, she is ready for what’s next.
“I am a very all-in type of person,” Meylan said. “Oklahoma State is getting my all.”
