Parker, Romero Sweep Big 12 Weekly Awards

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. — Oklahoma senior Paige Parker and junior Sydney Romero swept the Big 12 weekly awards, the conference announced Monday. Parker, named Pitcher of the Week, and Romero, tabbed Player of the Week, were both honored for the first time this season.

With 17 career honors, Parker has passed former Sooner Keilani Rickets for the most in OU history and now sits at second most in league annals. Only Texas' Cat Osterman (25) has more than Parker, who won Big 12 Pitcher of the Week seven times as a freshman, five times as a sophomore and four times as a junior.

Parker improved to 13-1 on the season with a trio of wins in three starts at the Easton Tournament last weekend. She did not give up a run, either earned or unearned, over 14.2 innings pitched.

Her 23 strikeouts over the weekend led the Big 12, as did her average of 10.98 strikeouts per seven innings pitched. Parker held her opponents to a .120 batting average over 50 at-bats, combining on two shutouts.

Overall, Parker only allowed six hits all weekend, two in each appearance, while not walking any batters.

Romero's Player of the Week honor is the third of her career as she has now earned a weekly conference nod once in each of her three seasons.

Romero was stellar at the plate in the Easton Tournament, finishing the weekend 10-for-16 (.625) to improve her season batting average to .532 through 26 games.

She had seven extra-base hits with three doubles and four home runs. Against Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, Romero had two three-run home runs for the first game in her career with multiple homers.

Her six RBIs against the Titans were a single-game career high. Overall, Romero drove in 13 runs at the tournament, leading the Big 12 and recording four more than the second-best athlete with an average of 2.60 RBI per game.

Romero also led the conference in hits per game (2.0), runs (10), runs per game (2.0) and total bases per game (5) this week. Her total bases (25), slugging percentage (1.563) and on-base percentage (.700) at the tournament were all team highs.

Additionally, Romero was impressive in the field, recording three putouts and nine assists with no errors for a perfect fielding percentage.

The Sooners conclude their trip to the West Coast on Monday afternoon as they take on Cal State Northridge at 2 p.m. CT.