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Oklahoma Infielder Earns Softball America’s Defensive Player of the Year Award

Another Sooner softball standout picked up a national award on Wednesday, and ESPN handed OU two ESPY nominations.

Randall Sweet

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Oklahoma senior Grace Lyons was named Softball America’s Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday morning.

The award comes a little over two weeks after the culmination of the Sooners’ remarkable 2023 season, which saw OU finish 61-1 while winning its third consecutive national title. 

Earlier in the month, Oklahoma center fielder Jayda Coleman was named D1Sotball’s Defensive Player of the Year after her heroic outing in the WCWS.

In 2023, Lyons was awarded the Big 12’s Defensive Player of the Year award for the third time in addition to a slew of other regional awards. This year, Lyon’s was recognized as the nation’s best defender after recording a .978 fielding percentage and notching 75 assists, second on the team to Alyssa Brito.

Lyon’s also helped turn 12 double-plays in 2023, again coming in second on the team only to fellow infielder Tiare Jennings. In 134 chances, Lyons only committed three errors all season.

In their release, Softball America praised Lyons’ outstanding collegiate career.

“Oklahoma’s captain, who was a five-year starter at shortstop for the Sooners, won the Rawlings Gold Glove award at her position this spring,” Softball America wrote. “She is Oklahoma’s first Gold Glove recipient in the two-year history of the award.”

Lyons is engaged to former Sooners and current Dolphins' punter Michael Turk. 

Later in the day, OU was nominated for the "Best Team" category at this summer's ESPY Awards. Former Oklahoma pitcher Jordy Bahl was nominated for the "Best College Athlete, Women's Sports" category. Jocelyn Alo won that award last year.

With every award received by the Sooners, the legend of the 2023 OU softball team grows. Between multiple Defensive Player of the Year recipients, the national Pitcher of the Year, the WCWS Most Outstanding Player and the continued success of the program, this year’s Oklahoma team is one that will not be forgotten for years to come.

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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. 

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