Clifton, Juarez Earn Big 12 Weekly Accolades

NORMAN — Oklahoma senior infielder Caleigh Clifton and junior pitcher Giselle Juarez earned Big 12 weekly awards after standout performances at the LMU/CSUN Tournament, the conference office announced Tuesday.

Clifton was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career while Juarez was tabbed Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Week, her second honor this season. Juarez also owns four Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honors from her sophomore campaign at Arizona State.

Juarez shared this week's honor with Texas' Shealyn O'Leary. Overall, Sooners have claimed seven of the conference's 13 weekly awards in 2019.

Clifton was one of four Sooners to bat .500 last weekend, finishing 7-for-14 at the plate. She led Oklahoma with a .632 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage, ranking second and fifth in the league, respectively.

The senior captain was first in the Big 12 in runs scored this week, crossing home nine times. She matched a career high against CSUN with three runs. Additionally, Clifton recorded seven RBIs at the tournament, ranking fourth in the league.

A native of Wayne, Okla., Clifton drilled two home runs and a double over the weekend to finish with 14 total bases. She also drew four walks and was hit by one pitch while stealing two bases on two attempts. Clifton had a hit in every game to match her career-long hitting streak of seven.

Behind Clifton's performance, Oklahoma led the Big 12 in batting average (.431), on-base percentage (.516), slugging percentage (.699), runs (58), hits (66), doubles (13), home runs (7), RBIs (57) and walks (21) last week.

Juarez registered the first perfect game of her career over the weekend, retiring all 15 batters she faced at Loyola Marymount on Thursday. It was the first perfect game by a Big 12 pitcher since Paige Parker recorded four in 2015 and marked the 33rd in conference history (13th by a Sooner).

A product of Glendale, Ariz., Juarez went 2-0 overall on the weekend with a pair of complete-game performances. She struck out a dozen batters against Illinois on Saturday, marking her fourth game this season with at least 10 strikeouts. Her 18 total strikeouts last week were second-most in the league.

Juarez scattered three hits over 11.0 innings of work at the tournament, recording an opponent batting average of .083 that ranked second in the conference. She allowed just one run to finish fifth with a 0.64 ERA.

The junior's work in the circle helped the OU pitching staff pace the Big 12 last week in ERA (0.23), opponent batting average (.101), strikeouts per seven innings (11.20) and walks per seven innings (0.93).

Up next, the Sooners return home on Wednesday for a midweek tilt against North Texas. Tickets for the game are sold out, and the contest is scheduled to be aired on Fox Sports Oklahoma Plus.