Three Oklahoma Softball Players Make Top 10 Finalist List for National Player of the Year

Jocelyn Alo, last year's winner, is joined by shortstop Grace Lyons and pitcher Jordy Bahl.

John E. Hoover | May 4, 2022

Three Oklahoma Softball Players Make Top 10 Finalist List for National Player of the Year /

Three Oklahoma softball players are among 10 finalists for the 2022 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.

Senior slugger Jocelyn Alo, senior shortstop Grace Lyons, and freshman pitcher Jordy Bahl are all up for the top award in college softball.

USA Softball announced the finalists on Wednesday.

No other college program has more than one finalist.

Alo is already =he reigning USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year from 2021. Alo broke the NCAA career home run record when she hit No. 96 at Hawaii on March 12.

The Hauula, HI, product now has 111 career home runs, including 23 this season along with 55 RBIs and 11 doubles. She ranks No. 3 nationally with .479 batting average, No. 1 with a 1.162 slugging percentage and a .629 on-base clip, including 42 walks.

Bahl has thrown 123.2 innings pitched and posted a 0.96 ERA with 191 strikeouts and just 27 walks. Her earned run average ranks eighth in the nation as she’s given up just 17 earned runs on the season with an opponents batting average of .137.

Bahl has given up 16 extra-base hits, including only three home runs. The Papillion, NE, product has one individual perfect game and one solo no-hitter on the year to go with one combined perfect game and two combined no-hitters. Bahl has six double-digit strikeout games, including a career-high 16 against Tennessee on Feb. 26 and 15 at Texas on April 14.

Lyons is both the anchor for the Sooner defense and has had a career year at the plate. She has hit 17 home runs, which ranks No. 7 nationally and is a single-season career high.

The Peoria, AZ, native has hit multi-home runs twice this season, including one game with three homers, and she has 44 RBIs with a .425 batting average, 1.0000 slugging percentage and .500 on-base percentage. Lyons is also second on the team with six stolen bases (on six attempts) and has a .923 fielding percentage with 33 putouts and 39 assists.

It’s Alo's third time as a Top-10 finalist and the first for Bahl and Lyons. Bahl is also a top-25 finalist for the NFCA/Schutt Sports National Freshman of the Year.

The list will be narrowed to three finalists on May 18 and the winner will be announced prior to the NCAA Women's College World Series June 2-10 in Oklahoma City.

Published May 4, 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.