Ricketts and Shults Receive All-America Honors

News9.com

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- University of Oklahoma softball players Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults have been named to the 2011 Louisville Slugger National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America team.

This is the second year in a row both players have earned All-America Honors, and this year Ricketts was named to the first team and Schults was named to the second team.

The duo was also named to the NFCA All-Central Regional First Team.

Ricketts, a native of San Jose Calif. helped the Sooners reach this year's Women's College World Series with her impressive play inside the circle. She struck out an average of 11.4 batters per game, the third highest in the nation, to help OU amass 29 wins entering the WCWS.

The right hander is tied for fifth in winning percentage at .726, seventh in complete games with 60, eighth in innings pitched with 532.0, games started at 78, victories with 61 and shutouts with 23 while also coming in ninth in appearances with 96.

Ricketts needs just 16 strikeouts to tie Jill Most for the career record with 805. She became the Oklahoma single season leader in strikeouts on April 30, breaking a 15-year old record.

Meanwhile, Shults, who was selected to this year's second team, is currently ranked in the top 20 in the nation in three separate categories. She had the 18th most RBIs per game at 1.09, the 10th most total home runs at 19 and the eighth most home runs per game at 0.36.

Shults has missed the 2011 postseason thus far with an illness and is listed as day-to-day.

Shults' 19 home runs are a single-season best for the sophomore.

Oklahoma opens play at the 2011 Women's College World Series on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT against top-seeded Arizona State.