Oklahoma Sweeps Big 12 Softball Awards

Freshman Jordy Bahl and senior Jana Johns were named Big 12 pitcher and player of the week after No. 1-ranked OU stayed undefeated at the Mary Nutter Classic.

John E. Hoover | Mar 1, 2022

Oklahoma Sweeps Big 12 Softball Awards /

Hard to be better than perfect.

Oklahoma pitcher Jordy Bahl was accorded Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors this week after her perfect game Friday against Cal State Fullerton.

Senior third baseman Jana Johns was named Big 12 Player of the Week as No. 1-ranked OU swept this week’s Big 12 awards after improving to 15-0 with a 5-0 showing at the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs, CA.

Bahl, a freshman from Papillion, NE, earned her second conference pitcher of the week award after becoming the first Sooner freshman since 2015 to pitch a perfect game. She struck out 11 Titans, then went a season-high 8 1/3 innings against No. 17-ranked Tennessee and struck out a career-high 16 as she started and closed against the Vols, with a brief relief appearance by Nicole May in between. Bahl even finished the weekend with a three-inning relief appearance against Utah in which she allowed no walks and no hits in a 2-1 extra-inning victory.

While the softball world was hoping to see Jocelyn Alo set the new NCAA record for career home runs, it was Johns who led the Sooners offensively. Johns hit four home runs in five games and delivered nine RBIs with two out. The senior from Calhoun, GA, a 2020 transfer from South Carolina, hit two bombs a 9-8 victory over the Vols and finished the weekend with a .556 on-base percentage an a 1.357 slugging percentage.

In the Big 12’s first three weeks of play, OU has now won three player of the week awards and three pitcher of the week awards.

Published Mar 1, 2022

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.