All Sooners

Seven Oklahoma Softball Players Named to Preseason All-Big 12 Team

Coming off of their third consecutive national championship, the Sooners' had a whopping seven players earn Preseason All-Big 12 honors.
Randall Sweet|
Seven Oklahoma Softball Players Named to Preseason All-Big 12 Team
Seven Oklahoma Softball Players Named to Preseason All-Big 12 Team

In this story:

Oklahoma SoonersOklahoma Sooners

On Thursday afternoon, the Big 12 announced its preseason all-conference softball team, with seven Oklahoma players making the list.

Senior pitchers Nicole May and Kelly Maxwell, senior outfielders Rylie Boone and Jayda Coleman, senior infielders Tiare Jennings and Alyssa Brito as well as senior catcher Kinzie Hansen were all named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team. 

The Sooners were one of only two teams to have multiple All-Conference selections, with five Texas players also earning a spot on the list. 

May finished the 2023 season with a 0.91 ERA in over 107 innings, going 18-0 on the year while tallying 130 strikeouts. With opponents scoring just 14 earned runs against May as a junior, the Pleasanton, CA, product notched more wins last season than runs allowed. 

Maxwell, who transferred to OU from Oklahoma State over the offseason, pitched over 142 innings for the Cowgirls in 2023, recording 229 strikeouts while allowing just 39 runs all season. Maxwell went 23-10 as a starter for OSU last year.

Boone, a local product, hit .392 last season and finished the Sooners' third consecutive title campaign with a .493 on-base percentage. In the field, Boone made a handful of incredible defensive plays, finishing 2023 with a .974 fielding percentage.

Coleman, who recently announced her engagement to OU football standout Billy Bowman, recorded a remarkable 1.000 fielding percentage last year. The star center fielder also notched a .408 batting average in 2023 and recorded a team-high 16 steals on 17 attempts. 

The Dallas-area product also was tied for the team-high in home runs last season with 17. Additionally, Coleman finished 2023 with the second highest slugging percentage on Oklahoma's team at .788.

Jennings and Brito had the highest batting averages on the Sooners' roster last season with Brito hitting .415 and Jennings hitting .412 in more than 170 plate appearances each.

Both Jennings and Brito tied Coleman with 17 home runs while Brito also led the team in slugging with a .824 slugging percentage. 

Hansen, Patty Gasso's veteran ace behind the plate, is coming off of an impressive season that saw the talented catcher record a .993 fielding percentage and lead the team with 268 putouts, 50 more than the next highest total.

The Norco, CA, native also had a good year in the batters box, hitting .409 in 137 at-bats. Hansen also smashed 13 home runs and tallied 57 RBIs. 

Coming off such impressive seasons, it is no surprise that the Sooners' are well represented on the Preseason All-Big 12 list. 

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

Share on XFollow RandallSweet5
Home/Softball