Parker, Romero Earn Final Big 12 Weekly Awards

NORMAN — Oklahoma senior pitcher Paige Parker and junior infielder Sydney Romero clinched the final Big 12 weekly awards of the 2018 season, the conference announced Monday.

Parker was tabbed Big 12 Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season. Romero was named Co-Player of the Week, sharing the honor with Texas Tech's Jessica Hartwell, for Romero's second weekly accolade this year.

Parker will finish her Sooner career with 19 weekly honors, which is the most in OU history and ranks second 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, four times as a junior and now three times as a senior.

The Independence, Mo., native improved to 24-2 this season with a pair of wins in two starts against Oklahoma State last week. She did not give up a run, earned or unearned, over 10.1 innings pitched in the series.

In game one on Wednesday, Parker registered her first no-hitter of the season. After the lead-off batter drew a walk, Parker retired the next 15 opponents in order in a five-inning run-rule win. She now has six complete-game no hitters in her career, and she has also combined on one.

Overall, Parker only allowed two hits all weekend, holding opponents to a .065 batting average. She struck out 13 batters for an 8.81 strikeouts per seven innings average.

She was also the only Big 12 pitcher to register a shutout last week. Parker finished 2018 conference play with a 0.51 ERA in Big 12 games, coming in as the only pitcher with an ERA below 1.00.

Romero's Player of the Week honor is the fourth of her career as she has earned a weekly Big 12 nod once as a freshman and a sophomore and twice as a junior.

The San Diego, Calif., product matched the highest batting average in the conference this week at .667 (6-for-9). In the Oklahoma State series, Romero led the team in total bases (10), slugging (1.111), on-base percentage (.750), RBIs (4), hits (6) and runs (4).

Romero was perfect at the plate in game one, finishing 3-for-3 while scoring a pair of runs. In game three, she registered her 13th multi-RBI game of the season with three while matching a a single-game career high with two walks.

The Sooners begin postseason play this week at The Phillips 66 Big 12 Softball Championship on May 11-12 at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. The Sooners will be the No. 1 seed and will face No. 4 Texas (2 p.m. CT) and No. 6 Iowa State (7:30 p.m. CT) during Friday's pool play.