Sooners Dominate Big 12 Awards

NORMAN — Oklahoma softball collected or earned a share of all five end-of-the-year Big 12 awards and placed seven across the All-Big 12 First and Second Teams, including a league-best six on the first team. The conference announced the honors Wednesday.

Redshirt senior Jocelyn Alo was named Big 12 Player of the Year for the second straight season in unanimous fashion, while senior Grace Lyons earned Defensive Player of the Year accolades for the second consecutive year. Garnering Freshman of the Year honors was pitcher Jordy Bahl. Bahl was also named the league's Co-Pitcher of the Year, sharing the honor with OSU's Kelly Maxwell. OU head coach Patty Gasso was the unanimous choice for Coach of the Year, her 10th straight Big 12 Coach of the Year honor.

Alo collects OU's 15th Big 12 Player of the Year award and sixth in the last seven seasons. She was chosen unanimously as the conference player of the year and is the first repeat winner since OU alum Amber Flores (2009-10) went back-to-back. She joins Flores and Shelby Pendley (2013, '15) as the only Sooners to claim two Big 12 Player of the Year awards.

The reigning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and top-10 finalist for the award again in 2022, Alo is batting .476 with 24 home runs, 11 doubles and 61 RBIs, including a pair of grand slams. The Hauula, Hawaii, native hit the NCAA record-breaking career home run No. 96 in her home state in March and has run her career total to 112 entering the postseason. In Big 12 play, Alo has nine home runs and 20 RBIs.

OU's defensive anchor, Lyons, wins her second consecutive Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award and OU's fourth in the last five years. Lyons joins Heather Scaglione (2004-05) and Kelsey Arnold (2016, '18) as repeat winners in program history.

The Peoria, Ariz., product and Top-10 Finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year has been a force at shortstop for the Sooners, turning 11 double plays on the year with 48 putouts, 57 assists and six errors for a .946 fielding percentage. Lyons has also had a career year at the plate with 18 home runs, five doubles, three triples and 53 RBIs. In conference play, Lyons holds a .980 fielding clip and has turned seven double plays to go with five homers, two doubles and 17 RBIs.

The freshman phenom and finalist for NFCA National Freshman of the Year and USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, Bahl, collects her first career conference awards in Big 12 Co-Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year. Her pitcher of the year honor is OU's eighth in school annals, while her unanimous freshman of the year accolade is OU's seventh consecutive.

Bahl has paced the Sooner pitching staff with a 21-1 record and 199 strikeouts in 132.1 innings pitched with just 29 walks. The first-year righty has allowed just 16 extra-base hits on the year, with only three being home runs, and an opponent batting average of .137. She's allowed 18 earned runs (23 total) and has seven individual shutouts on the year for an ERA of 0.95. The ace has also thrown one individual perfect game and no-hitter, and has combined on one perfect contest and two no-hit performances. She holds six double-digit strikeout games on the season. In Big 12 play, Bahl is 7-1 with a 1.30 ERA and 71 strikeouts to 13 walks.

The NFCA Hall of Fame head coach, Gasso, wins an unprecedented 10th consecutive Big 12 Coach of the Year award and 14th overall in her 28 seasons at the helm in Norman.

Gasso, the unanimous choice by league coaches, has guided the top-ranked Sooners to a program-best 48-1 regular season record in 2022 and 10th consecutive Big 12 regular season title. The Sooners set the NCAA Division I record for best start to a season, going 38-0 to begin the year, while the team has outscored opponents 455-41 and allowed just 30 earned runs while hitting 123 home runs.

Of the 12 student-athletes that made up the All-Big 12 First Team, six of the selections are Sooners: Jocelyn Alo, Jordy Bahl, Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Grace Lyons and Hope Trautwein. OU's league-best six selections tie a program-best and outpaces the next-highest school by three.

Alo collects her fourth career First Team honor, while Coleman, Jennings and Lyons all earn their second and Bahl and Trautwein were named First Team honorees for the first time of their Big 12 careers. Alo, Bahl, Jennings and Lyons were all unanimous choices. Bahl was also named to the All-Freshman Team.

Sophomore Alyssa Brito brings OU's All-Big 12 Team total to seven Sooners as the outfielder was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team, her first career Big 12 all-conference team accolade.

The top-seeded Sooners open the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship on Friday in Oklahoma City at 1 p.m. CT on ESPNU versus the winner of Thursday's Baylor vs. Iowa State game. The conference title game is slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen on ESPN2.

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