Oklahoma softball: Sooners named Big 12 Player, Pitcher of Week
By Chip Rouse
It was a winning weekend all the way around for Oklahoma softball.
The Sooners finished off the final weekend of the regular season with a series sweep over Oklahoma State to go a perfect 18-0 in the Big 12 and win its seventh consecutive conference championship.
An after product of OU’s strong weekend performance was the awarding on Monday of Big 12 Player and Pitcher of the Week honors to a pair of Sooners. Senior Paige Parker is the Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, and her teammate, junior Sydney Romero is the Co-Player of the Week in the conference.
Texas Tech junior first baseman Jessica Hartwell shared the Big 12 Player of the Week honor with Romero.
More from OU softball
- Oklahoma softball: Sooners add a fourth top-ranked 2025 commitment
- Oklahoma softball: Sooners pick up three elite 2025 commitments this month
- Oklahoma softball: Sooner star Grace Lyons is Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year
- Oklahoma softball: Sooners add Oklahoma State ace pitcher via transfer
- Oklahoma softball: Sooners add veteran starting pitcher via transfer
For Parker, who has won 24 games this season and lost just twice, this her third Big 12 weekly honor this season and 19th in her four years at Oklahoma. This is Romero’s second Player of the Week award in the conference in 2018 and the fourth in her career.
Parker was credited with the win in two of the Sooners three wins over Oklahoma State, including a no-hitter on Wednesday. The right-handed starter pitched 10.1 innings in two games, yielding no runs and just two hits with 13 total strikeouts. Oklahoma State hitters batted .065 against Parker in the two games.
Romero, the Sooner third baseman, was six for nine at the plate in the Oklahoma State series. Her three-game production included four runs and four RBI, two walks, 10 total bases, an on-base percentage of .750 and a slugging percentage of 1.111. Three of her four runs batted in came in the series finale on Sunday. That was her 13th multi-RBI game of the season.
Only one other Big 12 player, former Texas pitcher Cat Osterman, has won more Big 12 Pitcher of the Week awards than OU’s Parker. Osterman earned weekly honors 25 times in her career.
The Big 12 Softball Championship will be played Friday and Saturday this week at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is the No. 1 seed.