Sooners Dominate Big 12 Awards
NORMAN — Oklahoma Softball collected four of the five individual awards from the Big 12 conference and placed all eight nominees on all-conference teams with an additional three named to the freshman team. The league announced the honors Wednesday.
Jocelyn Alo was named Big 12 Player of the Year, Grace Lyons earned Defensive Player of the Year, Tiare Jennings garnered Freshman of the Year and head coach Patty Gasso was voted Coach of the Year. The honorees were selected by a vote of the conference head coaches.
Alo collects OU's 14th Big 12 Player of the Year award and fifth in the last six seasons. The top-10 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year has paced the Sooners and NCAA at the plate in 2021. She leads the country in home runs (26) and slugging percentage (1.147) and ranks second in RBIs (71) and seventh in batting average (.481). In league play, Alo is batting .500 with seven home runs, 22 RBIs and a 1.042 slugging clip.
Lyons, the anchor of OU's nation-leading defense, wins OU's fourth Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award of the last five seasons. The junior has started all 44 games of the season and all 131 games of her career at shortstop dating back to her freshman season. In 2021, she has registered 45 putouts and 50 assists to just three errors for a .969 fielding percentage. Additionally, the Peoria, Ariz., native has turned six double plays on the year. Lyons has been equally impressive at the plate with a .447 batting average, 12 home runs and 42 RBIs.
One of two freshmen in the country named as a top-10 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Jennings wins OU's sixth consecutive Big 12 Freshman of the Year award and ninth overall. She was the unanimous choice for the award by the league's head coaches. The San Pedro, Calif., product has been exceptional at the plate and in the field in 2021. She's blasted 23 home runs, good for third in the country, batted in a nation-leading 72 runs and ranks 10th with a .468 batting average. In the Big 12, Jennings ranks first in RBIs, runs scored (60) and shares the lead with 14 doubles. She's second in the country and conference to teammate Alo with a 1.057 slugging percentage. In the field, Jennings has started every game of her rookie campaign at second or third base and registered 44 putouts and 35 assists to two errors for a .975 fielding percentage.
NFCA Hall of Fame head coach Patty Gasso collects her ninth consecutive Big 12 Coach of the Year honor and 13th overall in her 27 seasons at Oklahoma. Gasso has led the Sooners to a 42-2 overall record and their ninth straight Big 12 regular season title, along with an 11-week hold on the No. 1 national ranking in both major polls. No other Big 12 coach has won more than three Big 12 Coach of the Year awards.
OU collected a league-best 11 spots across the three all-conference teams. The Sooners placed five on the All-Big 12 First Team with freshman Jayda Coleman and redshirt senior Shannon Saile joining Alo, Lyons and Jennings. Alo and Saile were unanimous selections.
Sophomore Mackenzie Donihoo, senior Lynnsie Elam and redshirt senior Giselle Juarez were placed on the All-Big 12 Second Team while Coleman, Jennings and Nicole May garnered unanimous All-Big 12 Freshman Team honors.
Alo's first team accolade marks her third All-Big 12 First Team selection while Coleman, Lyons, Jennings and Saile collect their first selection. Saile was a second-teamer in 2019. Donihoo and Elam are awarded their first conference honor while Juarez wins her third after being named Pitcher of the Year and All-Big 12 First Team in 2019.
OU's five first-team selection ties for second most in program history behind the six selections the 2000 and 2019 teams garnered.
No. 1 OU returns to the field this weekend for the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City. The top-seeded Sooners open pool play Friday with fourth-seeded Baylor at 2 p.m. CT before a 7:30 p.m. matchup with six seed Texas Tech. The championship game will be played Saturday at 3 p.m.
OU's first two games of the weekend will be shown on Big 12 NOW on ESPN+ while the championship game will air on ESPN2. All the action can be heard on The Franchise 2 (103.3 FM, 1560 AM) in Oklahoma and nationwide on the TuneIn app.
https://soonersports.com/news/2021/5/12/softball-sooners-dominate-big-12-awards.aspx
