Oklahoma Softball's Keilani Ricketts Named 2012-13 Big 12 Female Athlete Of The Year

After helping to lead her Oklahoma team to a national championship and collecting her second straight national player of the year award, the now former OU Softball superstar Keilani Ricketts has was also named the Big 12 Female Athlete of the Year on Thursday.

The full release from the Big 12 Conference:

Ricketts garnered the 2013 Honda Cup as the nation's top female collegiate student-athlete after leading Oklahoma to the Women's College World Series title. She received the Honda Award for softball and was named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. During the WCWS, Ricketts went 4-0 in the circle with 39 strikeouts in 31 innings while hitting .412 to earn Most Outstanding Player honors. She hit two home runs and accumulated six RBI from the plate, including driving in all four runs in the Championship Series finale.

The winningest pitcher in OU history, Ricketts was the 2013 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and recognized on the All-Big 12 First Team and Defensive Team. She was a NFCA All-America first team selection and named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week on five occasions as a senior. The dual threat started all 61 of the Sooners' games, 40 at pitcher and 21 as the designated player. Ricketts ranked second in the country in shutouts (16), third in wins (35), fifth in hits allowed per game (3.61), sixth in strikeouts (350) and eighth in ERA (1.23) and strikeouts per seven innings (10.3).

Ricketts graduated in four years with a degree in communication. She was a four-time Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll and Sooner Scholar honoree. The San Jose, Calif., native assisted the Sooner softball team's efforts with tornado disaster relief efforts in the midst of OU's postseason drive in 2013. She took a special interest in a local youth team who had lost a teammate in the deadly storms - a young pitcher who had looked up to Ricketts.

Ricketts' primary competition for this year's award was Baylor's Brittney Griner who took home the honor last year.

Congratulations to Keilani for the well deserved honor!