Sooners rack up the awards
The Oklahoma softball team picked up four of five individual honors in the All-Big 12 awards including Big 12 Freshman Of The Year, Pitcher Of The Year and Player Of The Year.
OU Coach Patty Gasso won her 10th Coach Of The Year award and her sixth consecutive.
NORMAN — Less than a week after winning a sixth consecutive Big 12 regular season title, the Oklahoma softball team picked up four of five individual honors in the All-Big 12 awards for the third season in a row.
Pitcher Paige Parker, who went 8-0 in conference play, was named Pitcher of the Year for the third consecutive season while sophomore Shay Knighten picked Player of the Year honors. Knighten is just the fourth sophomore in conference history to earn the award, and she picked it up thanks to eight home runs, 27 RBI and 54 total bases. Entering the Big 12 softball championship weekend, Knighten is slugging .885 with a .443 batting average.
Nicole Mendes was honored as the Big 12’s Freshman of the Year, becoming the sixth Sooner to pick up the award.
Coach Patty Gasso earned her 10th Big 12 Coach of the Year nod, making it six consecutive seasons that the OU head coach has won the award.
Knighten, Mendes and Parker were named to the AllBig 12 First Team along with junior Paige Lowary. Junior Nicole Pendley and sophomores Fale Aviu, Caleigh Clifton and Sydney Romero were all named to the second team. Pitcher Mariah Lopez was named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team along with Mendes.
OU begins its tournament championship hunt at 2 p.m. on Friday when it faces Texas followed by a 7:30 game against Texas Tech.
OSU LANDS FOUR ON ALL-BIG 12 LIST
Oklahoma State softball tallied four players who received individual All-Big 12 honors, it was announced Wednesday. It marks the highest number of league accolades for the Cowgirls since 2010.
Senior right-hander Brandi Needhman and junior right fielder Vanessa Shippy were named to the first team. Needham finished the regular season 18-8 from the circle. Shippy, the 2016 Co-Big 12 Player of the Year, batted .410 with 66 hits and 44 RBI.
Junior third baseman Rylee Bayless and sophomore second baseman Madi Sue Montgomery were selected to the second team. Bayless, a first-year transfer from NEO, leads the nation with 62 walks. Montgomery batted .289 with 27 RBI.
QUOTABLE
Gasso on the strength of the Big 12: “Any time we can get teams in the top 30 or 40 RPI, it helps our conference, but it helps each one of us when we play each other. It doesn’t help us when you go and sweep a team three games and you move back in the RPI. That’s not what we want to have happen. It’s a tough conference right now if you’re trying to stay up with the SEC in the power numbers. You’ve got to come out early in the season and win a lot of big games against
heavy-hitters.”
EIGHT FOR OKC
With the end of the regular season wrapping up last week for most NCAA DivisionI softball teams, the top eight teams in the RPI had a bit of a shakeup. Florida retained its top spot, but a big series sweep of Florida State by Oregon caused major shuffling in the rest of the projected field. Without further ado, here’s the top eight teams currently projected by RPI — updated Monday — to reach the College Softball World Series.
1. Florida
Conference: SEC Record: 50-5 (20-3 SEC)The Gators enter Thursday’s SEC Tournament as the SEC regular season champions. After dropping games to Tennessee and Florida State last week, Florida finished out the regular season with four consecutive wins against North Texas and Florida A&M. 2. Oregon Conference: Pac-12 Record: 44-6 (14-6 Pac-12)The Ducks seriously improved their RPI with a three-game sweep of Florida State, a team currently projected to make the College Softball World Series field. Oregon will end its regular season with a series at Stanford. 3. Auburn Conference: SEC Record: 45-9 (17-7 SEC)Auburn bolstered its standing in the RPI with a series win against Alabama, but the Tigers dropped the final game of the series 3-2 in Tuscaloosa. Pitcher Kaylee Carlson and catcher Carlee Wallace were named First Team All-SEC.
4. UCLA
Conference: Pac-12 Record: 39-13 (13-8 Pac-12) After losing Sunday’s game to Arizona, the Bruins will close the regular season with a series at Arizona State. Senior Delaney Spaulding had a special senior night, scoring both of UCLA’s runs in the Bruins’ 7-2 loss to the Pac-12 champion Wildcats. 5. Arizona Conference: Pac-12 Record: 48-7 (18-6 Pac-12)Arizona clinched its 11th Pac-12 title with a win against UCLA last weekend. The Wildcats hadn’t won a conference title since 2007 — the same year they went on to win the national championship. 6. Washington Conference: Pac-12 Record: 40-11 (13-8 Pac-12) The Huskies slid from second in RPI down to sixth thanks in part to Stanford’s 6-0 shutout of the Huskies on Saturday. Washington will finish the regular season at Utah. 7. Florida State Conference: ACC Record: 48-6-1 (24-0 ACC)The Seminoles dropped a spot after getting swept by Florida State, but they still enter their conference tournament with an unscathed record in league play. 8. Texas A&M Conference: SEC Record: 42-9 (16-7 SEC)The Aggies have dropped four of their last five games and limp into the SEC Tournament in need of a strong showing to maintain a spot in the top-eight. Texas A&M ended the regular season with two losses to Tennessee.