Sooners Sweep Weekly Big 12 Awards Again

NORMAN – For the second straight week, the University of Oklahoma softball team has swept the Big 12's weekly awards, claiming both Big 12 Player and Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors, the conference announced Wednesday.

Last week it was Lauren Chamberlain and Paige Parker claiming the respective awards. This week, Parker won Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for the second week in a row and third time in her career, while senior Shelby Pendley claimed the Big 12 Player of the Week honors for the first time this season and fifth time in her career.

Pendley, who was named the NFCA National Player of the Week on Monday, was nearly unstoppable in five games for No. 6 Oklahoma against Iowa and East Carolina last weekend. The senior infielder/pitcher reached safely in 17 of 20 plate appearances for a .850 on-base percentage by going 12-15 (.800) at the plate with five walks. Of her 12 hits, eight of them were home runs and two were doubles for a ridiculous 2.533 slugging percentage.

Pendley homered in all five games over the weekend to set a school record for consecutive games with a home run, breaking a mark she shared with Chamberlain. Pendley is the ninth player in Division I history to homer in at least five games in a row.

The weekend started with a 23-3 win over Iowa in which Pendley went 3-4 with a solo homer and three runs scored. Later in the day in an 11-0 win over East Carolina, Pendley tied a school record and became just the second player in school history to hit three home runs in one game. Pendley was 3-3 with three home runs and five runs batted in. She hit a solo homer in the first, and three-run shot in the second and another solo homer in the fourth.

The next day in a 23-1 win over ECU, Pendley had two of the Sooners' record-setting eight home runs Sunday as she finished 3-5 with a double, three runs scored and six runs batted in. Both homers came in the third inning as she hit a grand slam and a two-run blast. It was her fourth career grand slam and her 13th career multi-homer game.

With a home run in an 8-2 win over Iowa Sunday, Pendley became the 14th player in Division I history to reach the 70-homer mark in a career. She then set the consecutive homer record Monday with a two-run homer over Iowa.

Parker became the 22^nd player in NCAA DI history, and the first Sooner, to throw three perfect games in a career after an 11-0, five-inning win over East Carolina. In addition, she is the 11^th player in NCAA DI history to throw three perfect games in one season. Only Louisiana-Lafayette's Kyla Hall and Boston's Audrey West had more when they each threw four in the 1994 season.

Among the 11 to throw at least three perfect games in a season, only Cat Osterman (2002) also did it as a freshman like Parker.

Parker, who threw perfect games at Hawaii on Feb. 7 and against Missouri State on March 7, struck out seven and faced the minimum 15 batters. She had one strikeout in every inning, including two each in the first and second frames. No ball even left the infield as she got four popouts, three groundouts and a lineout in addition to her strikeouts.

In an 8-2 win over Iowa, she struck out six and allowed four hits and two runs in a complete-game effort to improve to 9-2 on the season.

This season, OU has had four student-athletes win eight Big 12 weekly awards. The only other school with multiple awards this year is Kansas, which has two.