Sooners And Cowgirls Receive Big 12 Yearly Accolades

The Big 12 softball regular season is in the books and now the yearly accolades roll in for players in Oklahoma.

The OU softball team received a handful of yearly Big 12 awards taking home three of the five presented Tuesday while a handful of players from both OU and OSU were named to the All-Conference squads.

OU head coach Patty Gasso was named the Coach of the Year for the fifth time while junior Keilani Ricketts received the Player of the Year designation and Lauren Chamberlain garnered the Freshman of the Year accolade.

Both Ricketts and Chamberlain were unanimous picks and Coach Gasso's award was her first honor since 2009.

Ricketts led the Sooners in the circle with 29 wins and also tallied a team-best .400 batting average. In addition the junior from San Jose, California finished second on the team in slugging percentage at .823 while she led the league in on-base percentage with .561. She is the seventh Sooner to earn the Player of the Year award.

Chamberlain wasted no time getting into the record books at OU in her first season as she broke the Big 12 single-season record for home runs with 25. In Big 12 games, Chamberlain led all schools in slugging percentage (.949), hits (27) and total bases (74). She was second in batting average (.385), RBI (25) and runs scored (23).

Coach Gasso's accolade gives her the most by any Big 12 coach. She led the team to its ninth overall Big 12 title this season, notching her 1,000the career coaching victory in the process.

Three OSU softball players also received All-Big 12 honors from the league office on Tuesday.

Shortstop Chelsea Garcia, outfielder Tamara Brown and outfielder Shelby Davis were all named to the All-Big 12 second team.

Garcia, a senior from Moore, received the honor for her third straight season. She is just the sixth Cowgirl to be named All-Big 12 since the conference formed in 1996.

She led the team with 23 RBIs on the season.

Brown, from Sentinel, hit .303 on the season, and had seven doubles on the year. She led the Cowgirls with her .409 on-base percentage and .366 slugging percentage.

Davis is the 11th OSU freshman to be named to an All-Big 12 team. Her .310 batting average led the team and she was tied with Brown for the team lead with 44 hits on the year.

OSU had at least three players named to the All-Big 12 team in each of the last four years and 21 of the last 25.

OU's Georgia Casey, Lauren Chamberlain, Keilani Ricketts and Jessica Shults all received Big 12 First team honors while outfielder Destinee Martinez was named to the second team.

Missouri tallied the remaining postseason awards as Chelsea Thomas was named Pitcher of the Year for the second-straight season and Corrin Genovese grabbed Defensive Player of the Year honors.

All-Big 12 First Team

Holly Holl, Baylor, So. INF
Maggie Hull, Kansas, Jr., OF
Erica Miller, Iowa State, Jr., INF
Ashley Fleming, Missouri, Sr., OF
Mackenzie Sykes, Missouri, So., UT
Chelsea Thomas, Missouri, Jr., P
Georgia Casey, Oklahoma, Fr., INF
Lauren Chamberlain, Oklahoma, Fr., INF
Keilani Ricketts, Oklahoma, Jr., P/DP
Jessica Shults, Oklahoma, Jr., C
Lexy Bennett, Texas, Sr., INF
Courtney Craig, Texas, Sr., OF
Taylor Hoagland, Texas, Jr., OF/INF
Torie Schmidt, Texas, Jr., OF
Nadia Taylor, Texas, Sr., INF
Mel Dumezich, Texas A&M, Jr., P/UT
Nicole Morgan, Texas A&M, So., INF
Cassie Tysarczyk, Texas A&M, So., OF
Mikey Kenney, Texas Tech, Jr., OF

All-Big 12 Second Team

Kathy Shelton, Baylor, Jr., UT
Kayce Walker, Baylor, Sr. OF
Chanin Naudin, Kansas, Fr., INF
Maddie Stein, Kansas, Fr., INF/UT
Nicole Hudson, Missouri, Jr., INF/OF
Jenna Marston, Missouri, Jr., C/OF
Kelsea Roth, Missouri, Fr., INF
Destinee Martinez, Oklahoma, So., OF
Tamara Brown, Oklahoma State, Jr, OF
Shelby Davis, Oklahoma State, Fr, OF
Chelsea Garcia, Oklahoma State, Sr, INF
Blaire Luna, Texas, Jr., P
Emily Albus, Texas A&M, So., OF
Meagan May, Texas A&M, Jr., C
Natalie Villarreal, Texas A&M, Sr., INF
Brittany Walker, Texas A&M, Jr., INF
Emily Bledsoe, Texas Tech, Sr., INF
Sandy James, Texas Tech, Jr., INF
Adriana Perez, Texas Tech, Jr., UT