Norrelle Dickson Named Big 12 POY

NORMAN, Okla. The honors keep rolling in for Oklahoma senior Norrelle Dickson, who was named the Big 12 Player of the Year Thursday night. Dickson becomes the first Sooner to earn the honor since Kelli Braitsch in 2001 and the fifth Sooner in the 12-year history of the Big 12 Conference.

Junior pitcher Lauren Eckermann also highlighted the individual awards as the juco-transfer was named Co-Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, sharing the honor with Texas A&M's Amanda Scarborough. Eckermann becomes the first Sooner to ever win Big 12 Pitcher of the Year honors since the award began in 2002.

Dickson has had quite a week as she joined teammate Samantha Ricketts as two of 11 players to make the USA Softball Player of the Year cut on Wednesday. Academically, she picked up Academic All-District honors as well as Academic All-Big 12 recognition. She was also named All-Big 12 First Team for the third straight time in her career Thursday.

Tournament Central

The two-time All-American has set record marks this season as the third baseman is the OU career leader in hits, runs, stolen bases, batting average and on-base percentage. Additionally, she became only the 11th player in NCAA history, and the first in the Big 12, to record at least 300 hits, 200 runs and 100 stolen bases in her career.

The lefty slapper is leading the conference in batting for the second straight year with a .479 batting average, including an even better .484 average in Big 12 action. She led all Big 12 players in hits, runs and batting average in both overall games and conference only action. She also set the Big 12 single season record for runs scored with 68 scored so far this season.

Eckermann has been a key component to the squad's success this season as the juco-transfer is third in the country with a 31-3 record while she also led the league in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, appearances and complete games in Big 12 action. She also led the conference in overall games with 10 shutouts.

The Brenham, Texas, native set a school record with three no-hitters thrown this season. She was also the only Big 12 pitcher to take home pitcher of the week honors three times this season.

Kirsten Shortridge (Baylor) earned Freshman of the Year, and Megan Willis (Texas) is the Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. First-year head coach Ehren Earleywine (Missouri) claimed Coach of the Year honors.

The No. 2 Sooners, who have not played a game in close to two weeks, will begin postseason action Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Oklahoma, the second seed, will play the winner of Iowa State/Kansas, who play at 1 p.m. on Friday. OU's game on Friday will also be shown live on Fox Sports Southwest (Cox 37 in OKC).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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