Oklahoma softball: Three Sooners named to 2020 Player of the Year watch list

Three Oklahoma softball players have been named to the 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year watch list.

Senior pitcher Gisselle Juarez and utility players Jocelyn Alo and Grace Green are among 50 collegiate players from around the country who are on the preseason watch list for the Player of the Year award. Alo is a junior, and this will be Green’s sophomore season with the Sooners.

All three are returners from the 2019 national championship runner-up Sooner squad that finished second to UCLA in last season’s Women’s College World Series. All three also were All-America selections a year ago — Juarez a National Fastpitch Coaches Association first-team honoree, Alo a second-team selection and Green named to the NFCA third team.

The Sooner trio are arguably the best players on Patty Gasso’s 2020 edition of Oklahoma softball.

Juarez, who goes by the initial “G,” spent two seasons at Arizona State before transferring to Oklahoma. She finished her junior season with the second-best opponent batting average (.151) and strikeout per seven innings pitched (10.11) in Sooner softball history. She won 21 regular-season games a year ago without a single defeat.

Alo tied for the team lead in runs batted in, and was second in hits and on-base percentage. Her freshman season, two years ago, she led the nation with 30 home runs, which tied an Oklahoma team record.

Green, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year last season, tied for second on the Sooner squad with 17 home runs and tied for third with 54 RBI.

The Player of the Year award watch list will be pared down to 25 on April 22.

Former Oklahoma pitcher Keilani Ricketts was named USA Softball Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons (2012 and ’13).