Parker One of Three Up for Top Freshman

NORMAN – After helping pitch No. 11 seed Oklahoma to the Super Regionals, Sooners pitcher Paige Parker has been named a top three finalist for the NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year award, the NFCA announced Wednesday.

Joining Parker as finalists for the award were Oregon's Jenna Lilley and Alabama's Alexis Osorio, the latter of whom the Sooners will face this weekend in the Super Regionals.

Parker has been phenomenal in her first season in Norman. In 39 appearances in the circle this year, including 28 starts, Parker has gone 27-5 with a 1.49 earned run average. She has struck out 211 batters and walked only 49 in 197.0 innings of work and has held batters to a .169 batting average. Parker has nine solo shutouts this year, combined on six others and has also made three saves in relief.

Compared to her fellow finalists, Parker compares favorably, especially considering she's the only one of the three that both hits and pitches.

Player	G	AB	R	H	RBI	XBH	HR	TB	BB	K	AVG/OBP/SLG
Parker	55	133	27	54	42	14	9	86	27	22	.406/.515/.647
Lilley	55	152	57	67	44	24	6	105	36	13	.441/.550/.691

Player	G	W-L	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	AVG	ERA
Parker	39	27-5	197.0	116	47	42	49	211	18	.169	1.49
Osorio	31	19-7	158.2	96	47	36	54	194	8	.169	1.59

This season, Parker has thrown four perfect games to join Louisiana-Lafayette's Kyla Hall (1994) and Boston U's Audrey West (1994) as the only pitchers in NCAA Division I history to throw four perfect games in a season. No player has thrown five in one season. In addition, Parker is the 16th player in NCAA history to have at least four perfect games in a career.

Named first-team All-Region, Parker became the fourth player ever to win Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and Big 12 Freshman of the Year in the same season. She finished the regular season leading the conference in ERA, wins, shutouts and opponents' average. Currently, Parker is 11th in the country in hits per seven innings (4.12), 13th in shutouts, 15th in ERA and 17th in wins.

Seven times this season Parker was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week to set an OU record for most Pitcher of the Week honors in one season, passing the six earned by Keilani Ricketts in 2012. In addition, Parker tied Texas' Cat Osterman (2002) for the most ever by a Big 12 freshman. Parker also tied with Osterman and Texas A&M's Megan Gibson (2008) for the second most in a season in Big 12 history, trailing only the nine Big 12 Pitcher of the Week accolades won by Osterman as a senior in 2006.

On April 14, Parker was named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Week and the NFCA National Pitcher of the Week for her dominant weekend in Austin as she helped OU sweep Texas by going 2-0 with a save and striking out 21 batters without giving up a run. She allowed just four walks and six hits in 16.1 innings of work.

As she has in the circle, Parker has also delivered at the plate. She's batting .406 on the year with five doubles, nine home runs and 42 runs batted in. Her slugging percentage is .647, while her on-base percentage stands at .515.

In its second year, the NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year trophy will be presented during a live ceremony on May 26 prior to the opening of the annual Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.