Six Sooners Earn All-Big 12 Honors

May 17, 2011

NORMAN, Okla. - Six University of Oklahoma softball student-athletes have earned All-Big 12 honors as voted on by the league's coaches the conference office announced today. Senior Chana'e Jones, sophomore Keilani Ricketts and freshman Destinee Martinez were named to the first team, while seniors Dani Dobbs and Haley Nix and sophomore Jessica Shults earned second team honors.

Ricketts earned first team honors for a second straight year, while Shults and Jones earned their second career All-Big 12 selection.

Ricketts set the Oklahoma single season strikeout record earlier this year (389), breaking a 15-year old record set by Jill Most (356) in 1996. She leads the Big 12 in several statistical categories and led the Sooners in home runs and RBIs during conference play. Entering postseason play, Ricketts is 25-12 with a 1.45 earned run average. Her 11.51 strikeouts per seven innings ranks as third best in the nation and her 389 total are fourth best. In league play, she struck 181 batters, the fourth most in a single season in Big 12 history.

Jones has had an offensive breakout year with a team-best .364 batting average in conference play. Jones went 20-for-55 with a .509 slugging percentage and .417 on-base percentage. Martinez led the Sooners with an overall .365 batting average and led the conference with 72 hits on the year. She was second on the team with a .338 batting average in conference play.

Dobbs has also had an impressive year offensively. Her .328 batting average is third-best in conference play and she led OU with 11 runs scored in Big 12 games. On April 6 she became the fifth player in OU history to record five hits in a game. She was named Big 12 Player of the Week on March 22.

Nix hit .313 during conference play, tallying three home runs for a .453 slugging percentage. She also scored five runs and recorded five hits. Shults finished the Big 12 season strong, ending the year with a .308 batting average with 16 hits and seven runs scored. She had three home runs and drew 13 walks in 18 games.

Oklahoma opens NCAA Regional play Friday at home against Iona at 7:30 p.m. CT.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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