Sooners Sweep Big 12 Softball Awards

Lauren Chamberlain's four-homer weekend and Paige Parker's perfect game helped the Oklahoma softball duo win the Big 12 Player and Pitcher of the Week awards, respectively.

Thursday, March 12th 2015, 12:01 pm

By: News 9


Lauren Chamberlain's four-homer weekend and Paige Parker's perfect game helped the Oklahoma softball duo win the Big 12 Player of the Week and Big 12 Pitcher of the Week awards, respectively, the conference announced Thursday.

With her win, Chamberlain now has eight Big 12 Player of the Week accolades in her career, including three this season. The eight career awards are the most of any player in league history, breaking a tie at seven she had with former Sooner Heather Scaglione (2002-05).

Chamberlain dominated the Courtyard Marriott Tournament as Oklahoma went 4-0 to improve their season record to 18-3. The senior went 7-10 (.700) with six runs scored, 11 RBI and three walks. Of her seven hits, five went for extra-bases including four home runs.

Chamberlain's homer barrage increased her season total to 11 and her career total to 83, moving her even closer to the all-time record of 90. She is currently tied for fifth all-time and sits just seven away from tying the all-time record.

Chamberlain set the tone for the weekend in the opener against Missouri State, going 2-3 with six runs batted in. She hit a three-run double in the third and added a walk-off, three-run homer in the fifth. In the next game Saturday against Samford, Chamberlain went the opposite way for a solo homer.

Facing Samford again Sunday, Chamberlain hit a two-run homer in the third and added a solo shot in the fourth to bring her career total to 83. It was Chamberlain's 16th career multi-homer game and her second of the season. In addition to scoring three runs and driving in three runs, Chamberlain also walked twice to move into second place in OU history and third in Big 12 annals with 164 career walks.

For Parker, it was the second honor of her career as she became the first player in Oklahoma history to throw two perfect games in one season as the Sooners defeated Missouri State, 10-0, in five innings in their home opener.

Parker, who threw a perfect game at Hawaii on Feb. 7, struck out three as she faced the minimum 15 batters as OU coasted to its fourth consecutive shutout. She joins Jennifer Stewart as the only Sooners to throw multiple perfect games in a career, though Parker is the first to do it in one season. Stewart threw her first in 1999 and her second in 2002.

In throwing the 10th perfect game and 42nd no-hitter in OU history, Parker got seven groundouts, three pop ups, two swinging strikeouts, two flyouts and two strikeouts looking. She needed only 64 pitches to improve to 6-2 on the season.

In a 14-0 win over Samford Sunday, Parker struck out a career-high 10 batters while allowing three hits. Her personal scoreless streak stands at 18 scoreless innings.

This season, OU has had three student-athletes win six Big 12 weekly awards, as junior Kelsey Stevens was named Pitcher of the Week on March 3. The only other school with multiple awards this year is Kansas, which has two.

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