OU Softball: Sooners Sweep Big 12 Awards

The Oklahoma softball team became the first in Big 12 Conference history to capture each of the four major end-of-season awards, the league announced Wednesday.

The Sooners took home the 2015 Player, Pitcher, Coach and Freshman of the Year honors.

Senior Shelby Pendley was named Big 12 Player of the Year for the second time in her career, joining former Sooner Amber Flores as the only players to win the award more than once.

Freshman Paige Parker is the fourth player ever to win Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and Big 12 Freshman of the Year in the same season, joining the illustrious names of Texas' Cat Osterman (2002) and Blaire Luna (2010) and Baylor's Whitney Canion (2009). Parker shared the Freshman of the Year honor this year with Kansas' Daniella Chavez.

Coach Patty Gasso earned the eighth Big 12 Coach of the Year honor of her career as she guided the Sooners to an unprecedented fourth straight conference crown with a 14-2 record. She has won the award in each of the last four seasons.

Parker and Pendley were each named to the All-Big 12 first team, along with senior Lauren Chamberlain and junior Erin Miller. Making the second team were senior Georgia Casey and juniors Whitney Ellis and Kady Self. OU led the Big 12 with seven total all-conference honorees, including a league-high four on the first team.

In addition to being Pitcher and Freshman of the Year, Parker was named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team along with Nicole Pendley and Kelsey Arnold. The three selections for OU were the most of any team on the All-Freshman squad.

Ellis and Arnold also represented Oklahoma on the All-Big 12 Defensive Team.