All Sooners

OU Softball: Oklahoma's Tiare Jennings Among 10 Finalists for Player of the Year

The Sooners' senior shortstop recently became the fourth OU player in program history to record 300 career hits.

Bryce McKinnis

BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

By OU Media Relations

NORMAN — University of Oklahoma senior shortstop Tiare Jennings has been named one of 10 finalists for the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, the organization announced Wednesday.

The Top 25 Finalists will be narrowed down to three athletes on May 20, followed by the announcement of the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year prior to the NCAA Women’s College World Series.

Jennings leads OU with 19 home runs, 57 RBIs and 13 doubles entering the NCAA Regionals and is the lone Sooner to have started all 55 games this season.

She slashes .368/.462/.798 for a 1.260 OPS, drawing walks at a 15.6 percent clip while scoring 46 runs. In the field, Jennings has played 323.0 of the Sooners’ 338.0 innings at shortstop, converting 157 of her 159 chances for a .987 fielding percentage with just two errors.

Over the course of the 2024 season, the All-Big 12 First Team selection established OU’s new career doubles record (62) while recording both her 300th hit and 300th RBI. She is three home runs away from third on the NCAA all-time list and needs three RBIs to move into the NCAA top-five for her career.

The most recent Sooners player to win USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year was Jocelyn Alo in 2022. Alo also claimed the award in 2021.

 

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Bryce McKinnis

BRYCE MCKINNIS

Bryce is a contributor for AllSooners and has been featured in several publications, including the Associated Press, the Tulsa World and the Norman Transcript. A Tishomingo native, Bryce’s sports writing career began at 17 years old when he filed his first story for the Daily Ardmoreite. As a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, he worked on several award-winning projects, including The Vista’s coverage of the 2021 UCO cheer hazing scandal. After graduating in 2021, Bryce took his first job covering University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University sports for the Tulsa World before accepting a role as managing editor of VYPE Magazine in 2022. - UCO Mass Communications/Sports Feature (2019) - UCO Mass Communications/Investigative Reporting (2021) - UCO College of Liberal Arts/Academic presentation, presidential politics and ideology (2021) - OBEA/Multimedia reporting (2021) - Beat Writer, The Tulsa World (2021-2022) - Managing Editor, VYPE Magazine (2022-2023)